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The Special Spanish Christmas Lottery Explained
Lottoland gives you the chance to bet on some of the biggest lottos from around the world including the Spanish Christmas Lottery “El Gordo”. But what exactly is “El Gordo” and how can you play from the UK?
In this article we will reveal how you can make it a Christmas you’ll never forget. Betting on the lottery is a huge Christmas tradition in Spain – it’s so popular that nearly everyone from Spain buys a ticket. The draw is a major highlight of the Spanish festive season. Everyone comes together to watch it all unfold, looking out for those special numbers that will make it a Christmas you won’t forget! You could be a part of this Christmas buzz plus have the chance to win a massive jackpot even if you are from the UK!
What is ‘El Gordo’?
The Spanish Christmas Lottery, or known as La Loteria de Navidad, is a unique lottery draw run by Spain’s state owned Loterias y Apuestas del Estado. The special Christmas lottery draw takes place every December and it is the biggest and most popular draw of the year. This Christmas draw is most famously known as “El Gordo” which means “The Fat One” and is ranked as the world’s RICHEST lottery draw for the total prize money involved.
El Gordo takes place once on the 22nd of December and remains to be one of the world’s oldest lottery draws, dating back to 1812! It’s considered to be the BIGGEST yearly lottery draw with a whopping €2.4 billion (£2.1 billion) prize fund for 2021.
The magical draw
So, despite the potential of winning “El Gordo”, why is the Spanish Christmas lottery draw so special? Why does it bring together so many communities? Well, the draw takes place in the stunning Teatro Real in Madrid and students from the San Ildefonso School, who were formerly reserved for orphans of civil servants, draw the numbers and corresponding prizes, delivering the results in song to the public.
It is expected that the winners donate a portion of their winnings to the San Ildefonso school. The public attending the event normally are dressed in lottery-related, extravagant clothing and hats. A highly particular event indeed. The state-run Television Espanola and Radio Nacional de España and other media outlets, broadcast the entire draw.
As the drawing occurs, one child sings the winning number, and the other child sings the corresponding prize. A unique and touching experience. Due to the huge number of prizes, this procedure takes many hours. The children therefore take shifts.
How does the Spanish Lottery work?
So now that you know what “El Gordo’ is – how does it exactly work? Let’s explain!
The Spanish Christmas Lottery functions more like a raffle than a lottery. There are no lottery balls involved in this draw, instead, there are two huge drums that contain all the purchased tickets, hence why it is more like a raffle. Each ticket has a number between 00000 and 99999. When the draw takes place, players win a prize if the numbers on their ticket match the numbers drawn on the drum.
The total prize pool is broken down into prize “tiers”, each with a varying number of prizes on offer. For example, there is only one ‘El Gordo’ first prize drawn, but the sixth tier, known as ‘La Pedrea’ has 1794 prize tiers of €1,000!
An actual ticket costs €200, however, to make it more affordable, each of the pre-printed tickets is actually a perforated tear-apart sheet of 10 identical sub-tickets (factions) sold for €20 each. These are called decimos which is a tenth of the value of a ticket. Each decimo is entitled to 10% of any prize that the ticket has won.
It is also possible buy or be given a fraction of a decimo on a private basis through family, friends, workplaces, sports teams, shops or other organizations. This is called a participación, known as a ‘share’ in English.
This allows you to bet on the Spanish lottery without having to spend the full €200 if you’re trying to save up for Christmas.
How can you play from the UK?
Typically, the local shops in Spain sell the same number from different series, which means it’s very common to see an ENTIRE Spanish village celebrating a big win! Many friends and families also pool their funds to buy a full share for the chance to get rich together. Why not do the same and share a ticket with your loved ones even if you are in the UK?
So how do you do that exactly? Very easily! Lottoland offers you the chance to buy a ticket for the Spanish Christmas lottery even if you are in the UK! All you have to do is visit Lottoland’s website and click on the Christmas Lottery tab and then start by choosing your number. This is the five-digit number from 00000-99999.
Next, choose whether you want to buy a full ticket or a ticket share. A full number only costs £249.99, but you can buy a 1/100th ticket share for as little as £4.99. Finally, click ‘Submit’ to be taken through to the cart where you can complete your purchase
The larger the ticket share, the more you save as seen below.
| Prize share | Price | Savings |
| 1/100th | £4.99 | |
| 1/50th | £8.99 | Save 10% |
| 1/20th | £19.99 | Save 20% |
| 1/10th | £34.99 | Save 30% |
| 1/5th | £64.99 | Save 35% |
| 1/2 | £149.99 | Save 40% |
| 1/1 | £249.99 | Save 50% |
If your number is drawn, then your ticket will win the same prize as if you had purchased a ticket for the official draw in Spain.
How does DoubleJackPot work on the Spanish Christmas Lottery?
The DoubleJackPot on the Spanish Christmas Lottery allows you to bet for twice the official amount on the first three prize tiers for double the prize of the bet. For instance, if you won the first prize tier having purchased a full bet share, your bet would cost £499.98 instead of £249.99, and instead of winning a €4 million jackpot, you win €8 million.
It’s worth noting that Lottoland’s DoubleJackPot feature typically applies to the first prize only. Being in with a chance to win DOUBLE the first three prizes of the Spanish Christmas Lottery. This is a fantastic feature you don’t want to miss out on!
What are the odds of winning El Gordo?
So, what are the odds of winning the lottery? The Spanish Christmas Lottery “El Gordo” is the lottery with the best odds (1 in 100,000) of winning a jackpot worth over £1 million. These odds are far lower than any other multimillionaire pound jackpot draw.
The chances of winning are fantastic! Over 1800 numbers are picked to win a prize between €1,000 and €4 million, and even if you don’t win “El Gordo”, there’s still a great 1-in-7 chance of winning another prize in the Spanish lottery!
| Prize tier | Number of prizes | Prize Payout € | Prize Payout € (subject to currency variation) | Odds of Winning |
| 1st Prize (“El Gordo”) | 1 | €4,000,000 | £3,560,000 | 1:100,000 |
| 2nd Prize | 1 | €1,250,000 | £1,112,553 | 1:100,000 |
| 3rd Prize | 1 | €500,000 | £421,000 | 1:100,000 |
| 4th Prize | 2 | €200,000 | £170,000 | 1:50,000 |
| 5th Prize | 8 | €60,000 | £53,402 | 1:12,500 |
| 5 correct numbers (“La Pedrea”) | 1794 | €1,000 | £890 | 1:56 |
| Numbers before and after “El Gordo” | 2 | €20,000 | £17,800 | 1:50,000 |
| Numbers before and after 2nd prize | 2 | €12,500 | £11,125 | 1:50,000 |
| Numbers before and after 3rd prize | 2 | €9,600 | £8,544 | 1:50,000 |
| First 3 digits of “El Gordo” | 99 | €1,000 | £890 | 1:1,010 |
| First 3 digits of 2nd prize | 99 | €1,000 | £890 | 1:1,010 |
| First 3 digits of 3rd prize | 99 | €1,000 | £890 | 1:1,010 |
| First 3 digits of 4th prize | 99 | €1,000 | £890 | 1:505 |
| Last 2 digits of “El Gordo” | 999 | €1,000 | £890 | 1:100 |
| Last 2 digits of 2nd prize | 999 | €1,000 | £890 | 1:100 |
| Last 3 digits of 3rd prize | 999 | €1,000 | £890 | 1:100 |
| Same last digit as “El Gordo” | 9999 | €200 | £178 | 1:10 |
What are the odds of winning the lottery?
As mentioned previously, the lottery with the best odds of winning a jackpot worth over £1 million is the Spanish Christmas Lottery el Gordo with the odds of 1 in 100,000.
However, there are many other lottos you can bet on in the meantime! The lottery with the best odds of winning a jackpot worth over £10 million is the Swedish Lottery with odds of 1 in 6,724,520. Then, the lottery with the best chance of winning a prize is the French Lotto with the odds of 1 in 5.99!
However, the lottery with the worst odds of winning the jackpot is SuperEnaLotto with odds of 1 in 622,614,630 and the lottery with the worst odds of winning any prize is Brazilian Mega Sena with odds of 1 in 2,298.
Of all the lotteries you can bet on through Lottoland on a weekly basis, the Polish Mini Lotto has the best odds but with relatively small, fixed jackpots. The Austrian, Polish and Irish Lotto’s are all good options that balance price, jackpot size and chances of winning.
For bigger jackpots close to £100,000,000 or more, EuroJackpot has better odds but slightly smaller maximum prizes than EuroMillions. And for jackpots that have gone beyond the incredible sum of £1 billion the US Powerball lottery has slightly better odds of winning than Mega Millions.
You can bet on any of these lotteries easily with Lottoland!
Is the payout guaranteed? How do I know?
All your winnings are guaranteed to be paid out at Lottoland!
All bets are placed on your behalf with EU Lotto Limited, licensed by the Government of Gibraltar and regulated by the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner.
Everyday should be Christmas – make this a reality for you!
So now that you know about the amazing odds to win El Gordo and how easy it is to bet on the Spanish Lottery with Lottoland, you might be the next one to win El Gordo and make a trip to Spain for yourself – and with that cash prize, I think you will be able to visit a few more countries too…. Goodluck!
