The Spanish Christmas Lottery, commonly known as El Gordo de Navidad, takes place in the run-up to Christmas every year. The 2018 draw will take place in Madrid on the 22nd of December, but ticket sales and betting on the draw start much earlier in the year.
The total prize pool of more than €2.3 billion makes El Gordo one of the world’s largest lottery draws. However, what’s also exceptional about El Gordo is that players stand a far greater chance of winning it. In fact, you’re 1,400 times more likely to win this lottery than you are the EuroMillions jackpot. Furthermore, the chance of winning any prize is an amazing 1 in 7, so you can see why players are so keen to get involved.
Traditionally, this lottery was only available to Spanish residents but, thanks to lottery sites, people around the world now have the opportunity to buy El Gordo tickets online, as well as bet on the winning numbers.
How to play El Gordo lottery
In El Gordo there are 100,000 unique numbers in play. These are printed on tickets, billettes, ranging from #00000 through to #99999. To allow more people to partake, each ticket is printed multiple times, with an additional series number to distinguish each. For instance, one complete individual ticket might have a 5-digit number #45678 and a series number #123. In 2017, 170 series were printed meaning there was a total of 17 million tickets in circulation.
While each individual ticket costs €200 — which is extravagant for most players— it’s possible to buy a percentage of one ticket to win a percentage of the total prize. Players most commonly buy one-tenth, otherwise known as a decimo, for €20 and 10% of the prize, but some lottery sites go as far as offering 1/50 of a ticket, opening up the game to even more potential players.
El Gordo prize payouts
The actual payouts are dependent on the number of billetes printed and sold. Want an idea of the cash prizes you could have the chance of winning? Here are the top five payouts for the 2017 El Gordo draw. Of course, there are plenty more prize levels, which offer much higher chances of winning.
| Prize | No. of Winners | Prize per billete (€) |
| 1st | 1 | 4,000,000 |
| 2nd | 1 | 1,250,000 |
| 3rd | 1 | 500,000 |
| 4th | 2 | 200,000 |
| 5th | 8 | 60,000 |
If you purchased 1/50 of the winning billete, you would win €4,000,000 ÷ 50 = €80,000
When is the El Gordo draw?
El Gordo, the Spanish Christmas lottery, is held once a year in the week before Christmas. This year’s draw will take place on 22nd December in Madrid. People from across the country gather round to watch the draw take place.
Ready to bet on El Gordo?
Whether you want to play El Gordo or bet on the winning numbers, you’re almost ready to grab your slice of the prize pool. Our expert team has selected the top online lottery sites offering the Spanish Christmas lottery. All you need to do is compare the best lottery sites , choose your favourite to sign up and start betting on El Gordo today.
