The scratchcards where you’re MOST likely to win the jackpot revealed – and the duds to avoid
SCRATCHCARDS can offer up the opportunity to win some big prizes – but you’ll want to pick the right one to hit the jackpot.
A budding tech consultant launched a website which analyses scratchcard data and offers you odds on the ones to pick to win big, the Daily Mail reported.
Will Love, from Clapham, London, set up smartscratchcard.co.uk in July 2022.
The website trawls through data on the National Lottery website and estimates your true odds of winning.
It does this by analysing scratchcards costing between £1 and £5 and offering prizes up to £2million.
It also compares the remaining prizes and existing odds.
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The idea came to Will, 26, after he discovered scratch cards are still available to buy in shops, even after the top prizes have been claimed.
The Sun previously revealed which scratch cards are the best value and the five games where you have the best chance of winning.
But smartscratchcard.co.uk uses an algorithm to give a rating out of 100 on the scratchcards – it takes into account factors such as the price of the card and whether the top prize is still available to be won.
Anyone can go on to the website and search through different scratch cards.
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It can help you sniff out the ones where the top prizes are still available.
As well as giving you the odds on getting the top prize, the site tells you how many prizes are left, and the chance of scoring one of the smaller prizes too.
You can also search by price, depending on whether you fancy splashing some cash or buying a more budget option.
The best and worst scratchcards
When we checked the “Gold Fever” National Lottery scratchcard has the best overall rating on the site at 91/100.
Your odds of winning at least some money back are 1 in 3.43 – though this could be a small prize.
There is only one top prize left out of three though, and your estimated odds of winning the top prize are a slim 1 in 2,551,189.
Meanwhile, a higher algorithm rating doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re more likely to win the top jackpot – it just means it’s the best score based on all the factors considered.
For example, the “Prize Ball” scratchcard algorithm rating is just 7/100 – but it has the second highest odds for winning the top prize – £500.
A spokesman for Camelot, which operates the National Lottery, said top-prize scratchcard information is also available on the National Lottery website as well as on in-store digital screens, at the point of purchase.
He said: “So even when there are no top prizes or only one top prize remaining, there are still lots of others available to be won from the remaining prize pool.”
“We adhere to a strict code of practice as approved by our regulator, the Gambling Commission, which sets out, among other things, the process we follow when the last top prize on a Scratchcard game has been claimed.”
We’ve previously looked at the Lotto numbers that are most likely to come up, and the 10 areas in the UK with the most winners.
For more information on gambling, you can visit:
- Gamcare – www.gamcare.org.uk
- Gamble Aware – www.begambleaware.org
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk