Last updated: July 2026. Entertainment only — nothing here is a prediction.
The single biggest lever on your Lucky Numbers payout is not which bookmaker you use. It is which draw you bet. Two draws sitting side by side in the same app can return very different amounts on the same bet type, and the gap is much larger than the gap between operators.
We worked it out rather than repeating a payout table. Below is our own calculation of what a three-number bet returns across seven draws, the arithmetic shown so you can check it, plus what actually differs between the South African operators offering these markets.
First: Fixed Odds, Not a Shared Pool
Lucky Numbers betting is not buying a lottery ticket, and the difference is the reason the product exists.
When you buy an official lottery entry, you join a pool. The prize is divided among everyone holding the winning line, so your payout depends on how many other people picked the same numbers. Pick a popular combination and your share shrinks.
When you place a fixed-odds Lucky Numbers bet with a licensed bookmaker, you are betting on the result of a real published draw at a price agreed before the draw happens. Hollywoodbets puts it plainly on its own site: each option has fixed odds, so your payout is locked in and does not depend on how many others win. YesPlay makes the same point from the other side — with fixed odds there is no cap on how many players can win the top payout on a single draw.
This is a genuine advantage of the format and worth understanding: your price cannot be diluted by a popular number. Birthdays and consecutive runs cost you nothing here.
Our Comparison: What a 3-Ball Bet Actually Returns
Here is the original work. For each draw we took the best three-number price available across South African bookmakers, calculated the true probability of hitting three numbers from that draw's structure, and worked out what R100 of stakes returns on average over many bets.
The method, so you can reproduce it. The chance that all three of your numbers land among the main balls drawn is C(k,3) ÷ C(n,3), where k is how many main balls are drawn and n is the size of the pool. Average return per R100 staked is then probability × (odds + 1) × R100.
| Draw | Structure | Best 3-ball price | True chance | Average return per R100 |
|---|
| Nifty Fifty | 7 from 50 | 460/1 | 1 in 560 | R82.32 |
| UK 49s (all four draws) | 6 from 49 | 751/1 | 1 in 921 | R81.63 |
| Gosloto 4/20 | 4 from 20 | 221/1 | 1 in 285 | R77.89 |
| Gosloto 6/45 | 6 from 45 | 551/1 | 1 in 710 | R77.80 |
| Gosloto 6/36 | 6 from 36 | 276/1 | 1 in 357 | R77.59 |
| SA Daily Lotto | 5 from 36 | 551/1 | 1 in 714 | R77.31 |
| Gosloto 5/50 | 5 from 50 | 1351/1 | 1 in 1,960 | R68.98 |
Odds correct at time of writing and change constantly. T&Cs apply. Prices are the best available across the South African bookmakers surveyed at the date above, not a single operator's board.
What this tells you. The spread runs from about R69 to about R82 per R100 staked — a difference of roughly a fifth of your money, on the same bet type, from nothing more than which draw you clicked. Nifty Fifty and the four UK 49s draws are consistently the strongest-value three-ball markets, and Gosloto 5/50 the weakest. If you play Lucky Numbers for entertainment, that is the most useful single fact on this page, and it costs nothing to act on.
One methodological note in the interests of honesty: the UK 49s figure assumes the three-ball market is settled on the six main balls, excluding the booster. That assumption is what makes the price coherent — settled on all seven balls, the offered 751/1 would exceed the true chance, which no bookmaker would price. The other six draws need no such assumption.
Why the Same Bet Is Priced So Differently
Three structural things drive it, and BetXchange's own explainer sets them out clearly.
How many balls are drawn from how big a pool. Three numbers from a 4-from-20 draw is a far easier hit than three from a 5-from-50, and the prices reflect that. This is the dominant factor.
How many ball sets the draw uses. UK 49s uses a single set — balls drawn from one pool of 49. France Loto uses two: a main set of 49 and a separate ten-ball drum for the bonus. Some draws use a single pool for both the main draw and the bonus ball. Whether the bonus ball counts toward your selection changes the maths completely, which is why "with bonus ball" and "without bonus ball" are usually separate markets at different prices.
Draw frequency. UK 49s runs four times a day, Nifty Fifty runs 35 times a week, and Gosloto 6/36 runs once. Fast draws are the ones where a per-bet cap and a stop-rule matter most, because you can place a great many bets in an afternoon without noticing.
What Differs Between the Operators
Once you have chosen your draw, the operator differences are narrower but real.
Range of draws. Hollywoodbets states on its own site that it offers over 3,000 Lucky Numbers draws from around the world, with different odds and payouts by market — comfortably the widest menu in South Africa. YesPlay runs a large international list too, with dedicated pages per variant and some markets others do not carry, such as high/low betting on the Greece Joker bonus ball.
Payout caps — check these, because almost nobody does. Every operator caps what a single bet can return. YesPlay publishes its limits openly: R2,000,000 maximum on a single Lucky Numbers bet, and the same ceiling on a single combination bet. Buried in the same document is a term worth knowing — where a customer places multiple bets on the same event or outcome, whether singly or in combination, YesPlay reserves the right to apply the maximum payout limit to the aggregate return of all of them, treating them as one wager. If you were planning to spread a large stake across several slips to work around a cap, that clause is the answer.
Bet types. The core selections are the same everywhere — one, two, three or more numbers, with variations on whether the bonus ball counts. Beyond that, operators differ on extras like totals, odd/even and colour markets, and on which draws carry combination betting at all.
Both operators above are licensed South African bookmakers; you can check either against the licence register.
Reading the Price Yourself
A closing point that came out of the research and is worth passing on. While checking figures for this page we found published third-party payout tables for the same UK 49s markets that disagree with each other — different single-number multiples, different two-number multiples, from sites all claiming to describe the same product. We have not reproduced any of them, because we could not reconcile them against a primary source.
The lesson is a simple habit: the only price that binds is the one displayed on your own bet slip before you confirm. Fixed-odds means exactly that — the number shown at the moment you place the bet is what you are paid at. It takes two seconds to read, it is authoritative, and it saves you from every out-of-date table on the internet, including any table that goes stale on this page.
For the mechanics of placing the bet, see how to play Lucky Numbers. For where the tradition came from, our history of fafi is the long version.
FAQ
Which Lucky Numbers draw pays the best?
On our own calculation of three-ball prices, Nifty Fifty (about R82.32 returned per R100 staked) and the UK 49s draws (about R81.63) are the strongest of the seven draws we compared, and Gosloto 5/50 the weakest at about R68.98. The draw you choose matters more than the operator you use.
Are Lucky Numbers payouts fixed or shared?
Fixed. You bet at a price agreed before the draw, and your payout does not change with how many other people picked the same numbers — unlike an official lottery ticket, where the prize pool is shared among winners.
What is the maximum Lucky Numbers payout in South Africa?
It varies by operator and is set out in each one's published limits. YesPlay caps a single Lucky Numbers bet and a single combination bet at R2,000,000 each, and reserves the right to apply that ceiling to the combined return of multiple bets on the same outcome. Check your operator's own limits page before staking large amounts.
Why do two bookmakers offer different odds on the same draw?
Because each sets its own margin, and each decides which markets to carry. The differences between operators on the same market are usually modest; the differences between draws are large, which is why our comparison focuses there.
Does the bonus ball count toward my numbers?
It depends on the market, and this is the most common source of confusion. Draws that use a separate bonus drum, like France Loto, typically price "with bonus ball" and "without bonus ball" as distinct markets at different odds. Read the market name on the bet slip.
Is betting on Lucky Numbers the same as playing the lottery?
No. You are placing a fixed-odds bet with a licensed bookmaker on the published result of a real lottery draw. You are not buying an entry into that lottery and you are not in its prize pool.
Odds and payout limits correct at time of writing and change without notice — always confirm the price on your bet slip. Lucky Numbers is published here for entertainment only; draws are independent and past results do not indicate future ones. Over time these markets return less than they take in, which is how bookmakers operate. 18+ only. Set a budget you can afford to lose and stick to it. If gambling is no longer fun, contact the National Responsible Gambling helpline on 0800 006 008 or SMS HELP to 076 675 0710.
