BBC Two commemorated the 40th anniversary of Live Aid in a week beginning on 6 July 2025 with a two-part series, Live Aid at 40: When Rock ’n’ Roll Took on the World, culminating in Live Aid at 40: The Concert: Parts 1 and 2, featuring extended highlights and backstage footage. Live Aid was…
With a small budget, would you do better with a perm rather than Lucky Dips in Lotto? In this article, we shall compare the performance of the simplest full-cover perm (i.e. 6 from 7) with 7 Lucky Dips to draw conclusions. Both cost the same to play – £7 initially, then £14 from 5…
Playing the lottery using the Liverpool Hope method guaranteed to win at least two Match 3 prizes, but what might have been achieved by buying Lucky Dips instead? With the same stake, what would be the likely outcome of buying 290 Lucky Dips? How effective are Lucky Dips compared to the Liverpool Hope method?…
Early in the National Lottery’s rich history, I was keen to discover schemes that guaranteed prizes for players without necessarily making a profit. Within five years of the National Lottery’s birth, the Daily Telegraph published an article on Friday, 26 March 1999, about the method devised by three academics at Liverpool Hope University. The…
In 1999, three mathematicians from Liverpool Hope University devised a system for winning the National Lottery online game. Their ingenious solution used 290 combinations of the 13,983,816 possible. It guarantees that players will win at least two Match 3 prizes, no matter which six main balls are drawn from 49. However, making a profit…
From 2013 to 2018, Camelot tried to turn around declining sales by adding a raffle to Lotto, thereby increasing the revenue of Good Causes. A raffle is a type of lottery. i.e. a game of chance, not skill, in which buyers of tickets receive prizes chosen by lot. In the way it draws lots,…
The National Lottery has come a long way since it began as a single Online Game on 19 November 1994. Over time, Camelot has introduced initiatives to add more varied games, broaden the base of players, grow sales and increase the revenue of Good Causes. The second part of this article describes the steps…
The National Lottery has come a long way since it began as a single Online Game on 19 November 1994. Over time, Camelot has introduced initiatives to add more varied games, broaden the base of players, grow sales and increase the revenue of Good Causes. The first part of this article focuses on the…
Let’s face it. You are lucky to win any prize in Lotto. We can only do our best by maximising coverage. You must match the six main balls drawn to win an exclusive jackpot of at least £2 million. Even so, it might be shared if there are other winners. Those are the rules….
Two mathematicians from Manchester University have shown how you can always win a prize in Lotto, no matter which balls are drawn. Their claim and ingenious and elegant solution appeared in the Daily Mail on 1 August 2023. With more than 45 million combinations of 6 from 59 balls, how is it possible to…