While lotto games in many countries seem to be dying a (very) slow death, the lotto in South Africa is thriving, and is played by large numbers of the population, with the draws becoming ‘event TV’. At the very least, they have a lot of people tuning in to see whether they’ve won or not.
In honour of the lotto’s popularity in South Africa, we’ll share a few facts about the lotto — and some may surprise you. Let’s jump right in.
The Surge of Online Lotto
There’s been a big shift in recent years in how South Africans play the lotto, with more people turning to online lotto. While in-store betting has always been popular, betting online just makes life a lot easier — you can do it from home or on the go (pretty much anywhere). With smartphones and the internet so widely available, many now prefer the ease of placing fixed odds lotto bets through websites and mobile apps. This shift has really caught on with younger, tech-savvy folks, helping to keep the game as popular as ever.
Lotto Was the Original, But Powerball is Growing Faster
Lotto was the original lottery in South Africa, and it has been around for decades. However, it is the Powerball draws that now seem to be pulling in the vast majority of new punters. This may be because the game is marketed in a more appealing way, and the odds of winning are slightly better — but we think it is (mostly) down to the fact that the prize pool is a lot higher.
For now, Lotto remains the most popular of the lotteries in South Africa, but we wouldn’t be surprised if this changed over the next decade or so.
14 Is the Most Drawn Number
The lotto draws are completely random. The machines are tested before every draw to make sure nothing untoward is happening. However, that hasn’t stopped statisticians from looking at the frequency of certain numbers turning up in the draws. At the moment, number 14 has turned up in the draws more than any other number. The numbers 48, 46, 1, 11, and 49 are close to it. Why? Well, that is just what happens with random number selections — some numbers appear more frequently than others.
This doesn’t mean much, to be honest. The odds of winning remain the same even if you put the number 14 on your ticket. It is just interesting to know that certain numbers have appeared more frequently — but the difference between the numbers appearing isn’t massive.
82% of South Africans Bet on Lotto
This is one of the stats that surprised us. Although, the last time this was checked was back in 2006. We don’t know if the numbers have fallen since. However, based on the number of people in South Africa who still discuss fixed odds lotto betting, and the number of tickets that get sold every week, if the number has fallen it wouldn’t be by much.
This study suggested that a whopping 82% of people in South Africa who can legally participate in fixed odds lotto betting did so. This same study also found that around 50% of those people did not place bets on anything else. This just demonstrates the broad appeal of fixed odds lotto betting in South Africa.
The Average Spend on Lotto Games is R81 a Month
The average South African places R81 worth of fixed odds lotto bets every month. This is across all the lotto options. Many people place bets on the multiple draws each month.
As with most fixed odds lotto betting around the world, this figure does go up considerably when there is a larger amount of cash on the line. This is because people end up buying a lot more tickets for the event. You may even see people who don’t normally bet on lotto numbers spending a bit of cash in the hope of winning the big prizes.
Older People Prefer Lotto, the Young Prefer Powerball
Younger players don’t just prefer online lotto in South Africa, they prefer to bet on different types of lotto too. Back in 2019, a survey found that 94.3% of people over the age of 36 preferred to bet on the Lotto game. 81% of those younger than that preferred to bet on Powerball numbers.
This was an incredibly limited survey, but it does line up with observed patterns we have seen before when people buy tickets — the Powerball is increasingly popular with younger bettors, perhaps because it seems cooler, or the big prizes draw people in. We do not doubt that in a decade or so, the Powerball will become a far more popular game in South Africa.
