Why You Should Avoid The Most Popular Lottery Numbers

If you are one of those people who tends to go with a selection of tried and tested numbers, then you may just have been making a classic mistake. Those who opt for the most popular lottery numbers should be very wary, as there is a whole host of pitfalls that come with them.

The Most Popular Lottery Numbers

Everyone who participates in the lottery does so with the aim of winning a vast sum of money, so it goes without saying that if your numbers come up, you won't want to be sharing with too many other people. This is where the biggest problem with selecting the most popular lottery numbers arises. For example, the most common SA Lotto numbers are 16, 30, 2, 8,23 and 48. Many players therefore use them for their ticket, despite no set of number being mathematically more (or indeed less) likely than any other combination to come out the machine.

Of course if that combination should ever tumble out one Wednesday or Saturday evening, unless the top prize is something unusually large, chances are the winning ticket holders will be sharing with hundreds, if not thousands, of other players. When you have just beaten odds of millions to one, you don't want to see that multi million sum to be split in so many ways that you walk off with mere thousands.

Avoid Under Thirties

No, that's not dating advice, rather a sure-fire way to avoid popular numbers. Studies have shown that many lotto players base their numbers on important birthdays. As no month has more than 31 days, numbers 32 and over are frequently disregarded.   

Picking a mix of numbers over and under 31 will therefore lessen your chances of sharing that all-important top prize.

Lucky 7

The origin of seven being a lucky number dates back to numerous ancient civilisations, in countries across the world. It's popularity as a symbol of good fortune remains today, and not surprisinly it remains one of the most popular numbers with lottery players. 

Of course if everyone is picking it does that mean you should pick it too? Well, if half the country is picking the same number maybe it's not that lucky after all!

Unlucky 13

The number 13 is a much maligned number, as it is seen as unlucky in many cultures and players are wary of putting it into their lotto lines in case it jeopardises everything. Despite its negative connotations, statistically the chance of it being drawn is no higher, or lower, than any number. But here's the spooky thing, thanks to a huge lottoland study we can indeed confirm that 13 is the least frequently drawn ball across not 1, but 8 international lotteries!

Still, if your line does include it, and it's picked, you can be sure you're going to be one of very few people who included this seemingly cursed number.

Sequences

The University of Southampton have run several studies on the lottery; in 1998 they revealed that 7 was 25% more likely to be chosen over any other number. More recently they announced that the sequence 1,2,3,4,5,6 is chosen by approximately 10,000 people each week.

So, if you were to play the SA Lotto with these numbers, and they came up, your share of a R5 million top prize would therefore be just R500.

So, What Numbers Do I Pick?

Ultimately, winning the lotto is largely down to luck, but there are a number of things you can do to improve your chances of not only winning, but ensuring you don't compromise your potential winnings. Be creative with your numbers, go off the beaten track for your selections to make sure they're not just personal, but unique.

Alternatively just click the Quick+1 button for fully-random, computer-generated quick picks.

Either way, it's good to mix things up and change your approach. So why not test your new and improved numbers on this week's SA Lotto top prize.