Your bonus ball game
The sheet
Random deals use your browser's secure random generator. Every number has the same 1 in 59 chance of being the bonus ball, so it doesn't matter who gets which.
Independent site. CasinoCalcs is not affiliated with or endorsed by any lottery operator, including the National Lottery, Allwyn and Ireland’s National Lottery. Game names are used only to describe the rules the maths is based on.
- Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
- Tested by Diana Westfield
A bonus ball sheet is the pub and office version of the lottery: 59 numbers, £1 each, and whoever holds Saturday’s Lotto bonus ball takes the prize. Nobody needs a ticket, and the organiser doesn’t run a draw at all because the national draw does it for them. This free sheet deals out the numbers for you, at random or in order, prints the grid for the wall, and once the bonus ball is drawn, shows who’s won and how much.
How a bonus ball game works
Sell all 59 numbers at £1 on the CasinoCalcs sheet and you have £59 a week. A typical split pays half to the winner, £29.50, and keeps the rest for the darts team’s kit or the charity tin. Each number has a 1 in 59 chance on any Saturday, so someone with one number waits 59 weeks on average between wins, a little over a year. That’s a long time, which is why people buy two or three.
Not every number sells. With 40 numbers taken, there’s a 19 in 59 chance, about one week in three, that the bonus ball is a number nobody holds. Decide what happens then before you start: a rollover makes next week’s prize bigger and sells more numbers, while giving the unclaimed money to the cause is simpler.
Using the sheet
Write one player per line. If Gill wants four numbers, write “Gill x4”. Random dealing is fairest when people don’t mind which numbers they get; dealing in order suits groups where everyone picks their own and you just need the grid. Press the button again for a fresh deal. When Saturday’s bonus ball is out, type it in and the sheet highlights the winner.
The bonus ball is drawn after the six main Lotto balls. If you’d rather base your game on the main draw, a football card or a raffle may suit you better. For a work group playing the real Lotto together, the lottery syndicate agreement puts the rules in writing.