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Best Practices

Re-use your Numbers

Winning probability is the portion of draws that your numbers will win, out of all the draws a game can have. Since every possible draw is considered, past draws are meaningless as your numbers do not change their portion/likelihood over time. Therefore, if you have a high probability set, it makes sense to use it over and over again. Even if it wins, its likelihood will never change (unless the game rules change).

Don't Share Numbers

Most major lotteries split the larger prizes by the number of winners. Every time you share your numbers, you reduce your potential winnings and the potential winnings of every one you share with. If 10 family members all win big at the same time, they may only receive one tenth of what could have been, had they all won at different times. This is fundamentally the same as winning multiple times on the same set as described in Theory.

Give Everyone Unique Numbers

Although LT generated numbers almost always outperform randomly generated ones, LT's numbers do have a random component, making it extremely unlikely that any two generated tickets (of reasonable length and game size) are ever the same. Therefore, if you want to give better numbers to friends and family, do so by finding out how many rows they play and purchase them their own unique set.

Pool From One Large Set

If the plan is to share any winnings amongst a group, use a single set with the total number of rows that will be played. Then portion out the set's rows amongst the group. This gives a better overall spread than combining separately generated sets. Note however, individual portions of larger LT sets have less spread than separate LT sets for the same portion length - so don't do this unless winnings are shared amongst its members.

Example

The advice above wouldn't have much value if it couldn't be verified in some way. For this example, we will be using the same Pot Luck lottery as described in Theory. The tickets used can be found at the bottom of the page. They were generated using an early version of LotteryTester.com. Below are the results comparing the single 20 row set (20) with two combined, yet separately generated 10 row sets (A and B).

20 Row Results Vs. 2x10
DivisionRaw Cov.20Raw Cov.10A+B% 20% 10A+B
12020~0~0
24,9204,9200.0460.046
3246,000244,3532.2912.276
43,867,7553,726,47836.02134.705
510,497,12210,500,34997.76197.791
Any10,709,95610,692,99699.74399.585

Here the 20 row set outperforms the two independent 10 row sets. The difference is only small because the coverage is high. Examining harder games or looking at division 4 reveals the difference can be significant.

The tables below represent the opposite use case, where the 20 row set is cut into two and all four sets are compared.

Row Set Results Raw Coverage
Division20 1st half20 2nd half10A10B
110101010
22,4602,4602,4602,460
3123,000123,000123,000123,000
42,041,8482,045,3402,071,1642,071,228
58,798,5178,836,2959,130,4049,130,976
Any9,496,9379,570,34610,039,06810,045,027
Row Set Results Percent
Division20 1st half20 2nd half10A10B
1~0~0~0~0
20.0230.0230.0230.023
31.1461.1461.1461.146
419.01619.04819.28919.290
581.94182.29385.03285.038
Any88.44689.13093.49593.550

The tables above clearly show that sets sliced from a larger set perform more poorly than sets generated specifically for each slice length. The difference here appears more significant than the first table because the overall coverage is less. In any case, this example shows that, when prizes will be shared amongst a group, it is best to generate one large set for the entire group, as the overall coverage is higher. Otherwise it's best to generate separate sets for each individual, as each set benefits from a higher coverage.

1st Half 20 Row Set
204535102215
2247541112
3825402287
357422613
404326461014
21118291744
361692842
37441047241
413919353331
51932143429
2nd Half 20 Row Set
2024723276
12363714131
1738634332
15303832832
42718403932
341345432537
19820464430
392124301243
28462447299
161125212341
10 Row Set A
82612174133
1514318722
5372532747
13432331336
4282273544
94024181416
111228371018
153919462129
6381224210
113430452420
10 Row Set B
441792483
43383245277
251226354728
322231254021
2239332921
422336134618
520146404
18332747516
103931161137
192134411530