El Gordo de Verano 2024: Spain’s Summer Lottery!

EL GORDO DE VERANO

• What is El Gordo de Verano?
• How Does El Gordo de Verano Work?
• Odds of Winning
• Prize Distribution
• How Much Does it Cost?
• An Extraordinary Lottery

What is El Gordo de Verano?

El Gordo de Verano is the little sister Spain’s famous Christmas lottery, El Gordo. The Christmas version is one of the biggest lotteries in the world. Literally translated, “El Gordo de Verano” means “The Summer Fat Man”. Usually this would not be a term that you would want to hear while casually strolling along the beach, but in this case, it is definitely a good thing! “El Gordo” is a reference to the massive prize fund that makes the winter lottery so special. In 2022, “El Gordo” had a € 2.2billion (R45 billion) which certainly makes it a heavyweight in the world of lotteries!

When the Spanish summer arrives, El Gordo de Verano makes its appearance with a total prize fund of over €120 million (R2.4 billion). This prize fund is spread across fifteen different categories, giving even more opportunity to win. In fact, in El Gordo de Verano, one out of every three tickets is a winner!

How Does El Gordo de Verano Work?

In truth, El Gordo de Verano has more in common with a traditional raffle than a typical lottery – although it is much more lucrative! For the 2023 instalment, 100,000 tickets will be made available. These tickets which are numbered 00000 to 99999, and each one is produced ten times. For example, there will be ten tickets numbered 00123, 12321, 99888. These sets of ten tickets are referred to as a “series”.

When you decide to bet on El Gordo de Verano, you should also know that you don’t even need to purchase the entire ticket! This is because each ticket is divided in to 100 “shares” worth 1%. This means that there are a jaw dropping 100 million possible bets for you to take!

Now, bear in mind that if you have bought shares in a winning ticket, then you will receive a payout to match. For example, if you have bought a 10% share then you your payout will be 10% of the prize for that category. On the other hand, if you have bought the entire ticket, then you would win 100% of the prize.

Odds of Winning

You can travel far and wide, around the world a hundred times, and you will not find a national lottery where you have a better chance of winning the main prize! There are only 100,000 tickets, so you have a one in hundred thousand chance of winning the big prize. To out this into perspective, your odds of winning the South African Lotto are around 42 million to 1, while a ticket for the EuroMillions will give you a one in 139 million chance.

El Gordo de Verano is designed specifically to give as many people as possible the chance to win. This is why the tickets are divided into the aforementioned series and shares. There are also fifteen categories (ways to win) which means that one out of every three tickets will be win some sort of prize!

Prize Distribution

Now, let’s look at the important thing of all – the size of the payouts! The main prize for holding the winning tickets is a guaranteed minimum of €2 million (R40 million) if you have purchased the entire ticket. If your ticket is drawn second or third, then you would be in line for payouts of €600,000 (R12 million) and €200,000 (R4 million) respectively.

Beyond the top three prizes, there are 12 more prize tiers producing over 36,000 winners! These range in value from €200 (R4,000) to €8,000 (R163,000) so there is great value to be had even further down the prize chain!

How Much Does it Cost?

How much entry costs depends entirely on you! At Lottoland ZA we have several different options for you, from taking a 1% share to buying the entire ticket. The minimum bet is R80, which gives you a share of 1/100, meanwhile buying the entire ticket will cost R4,0000

El Gordo de Verano Price List
TICKET SHARE	COST
1/100	R100
1/50	R180
1/20	R400
1/10	R700
1/5	R1,320
1/2	R3,000
1/1	R5,000

Before buying your ticket, you should think about your strategy. Maybe you want to buy the complete ticket so that you can collect the entire payout for yourself. Alternatively, you could spread your investment across several tickets, increasing your chance to win but reducing your ownership of the prize. Whatever your strategy, the price list below should help you to decide.

An Extraordinary Lottery

Overall, El Gordo de Verano is a different type of lottery to what we are used to. As mentioned previously, it can almost be considered a raffle with extraordinary payouts and results that produce spectacular win rates. While the highest payout may be lower than in the likes of Powerball or EuroMillions, the fact that there will be over 36,000 winners makes it worth a second look!

Last Updated 5 June 2024