Everything You Need to Know About the Spanish Christmas Lottery

WHAT IS EL GORDO DE NAVIDAD?

El Gordo de Navidad is the Spanish Christmas lottery. Its official name is Sorteo Extraordinaro de Navidad, which directly translates to “Extraordinary Christmas Draw”. However, this lottery is best known as El Gordo de Navidad (The Fat One of Christmas). The lottery is often also referred to El Gordo, although that is technically the name of the top payout.

El Gordo de Navidad is the largest lottery in the world, and it has found popularity well beyond its Spanish borders thanks to its huge payout fund of €2.59 billion*. Not only is El Gordo the biggest lottery in the world, it is also one of the easiest to win!

We are guessing that grabbed your attention! We have put together a short guide for you, giving you everything you need to know about the famous Spanish Christmas lottery. If you are interested in betting on the one of the easiest and biggest lotteries in the world, you can bet on El Gordo with Lottoland!

THE HISTORY OF EL GORDO

As has often been the case with lotteries throughout history, the Spanish National lottery was conceived as a way to raise funds for the government. In 1811 Ciriaco González Carvajal, the Minister of the Council and Chamber of the Indies, set up the lottery in order to “increase the revenue of the public treasury without loss to the taxpayer”. At this time Spain was almost wholly occupied by Napoleon’s France, and the funds were desperately needed to fund the cost of its War of Independence.

On 4 March 1812, the first Spanish national lottery was drawn. Just seven months later, on 18 December 1812, the first Christmas lottery was drawn. Little did they know back then, but the Spanish government had just launched a Christmas tradition that would continue to be enjoyed centuries later!

By 1892, the lottery was officially given the name Sorteo de Navidad, a name that has stuck to this day, more than 130 years later! Today, the draw is fixed on the calendar for many of those living in Spain. Over 75% of the country’s population enter their Christmas Lottery, and by the time 22 December rolls around they eagerly await the draw that has become such an ingrained part of the festive season. Thanks to Lottoland, you too can also bet on the spectacular Spanish Christmas lottery!

HOW DOES THE EL GORDO LOTTERY DRAW WORK?

Christmas is a time of tradition, of giving and sharing. It is a time to enjoy sharing time with friends and family, in the spirit of generosity and togetherness. If you haven’t noticed already, that is also exactly what El Gordo embodies!

The El Gordo draw itself is a spectacle, unparalleled in the lottery world. To start, the event takes place in the renowned Teatro Real in Madrid. That in itself may not seem like anything out of ordinary, but the audience ensure that it is a sight to behold. This is because many of the attendees choose to wear lottery-themed fancy dress!

For the draw itself, two huge spherical cages are used to hold two sets of balls. The larger cage holds 100,000 wooden balls, each labelled with one number from 0000 to 99999. The smaller sphere contains 1,807 balls. Each of these balls is labelled with a number that represents the euro amount of the payout to be awarded.

One ball from each cage is released at the same time, so that a bet number is matched with a corresponding payout amount. The entire process takes around three hours, but it is steeped in tradition to add to the entertainment. One of these cherished traditions is who draw the balls. Since 1871 the student of a former orphanage, the San Ildefonso School, have drawn every ball, jovially singing the number for the country to enjoy.

Winning bets will be converted from Euro to ZAR using the currency exchange rate that day.

EL GORDO PAYOUT BREAKDOWN

What makes El Gordo special when compared to other lotteries is the way in which the payouts are distributed. First, over 70% of the total revenue generated by sales is paid back to public through prizes – significantly more than other lotteries.

Secondly, the format ensure that a huge number of payouts are distributed. This is because the lottery has just 100,000 tickets, meaning each unique number from 00000 to 99999 has a 100,000-1 chance of winning.

However, the price of one entire bet share is quite high, meaning that most Spaniards choose to buy décimos. Each décimo represents a one-tenth share of the ticket, meaning it would win 10% of any payout it is awarded. This structure means that the joy of a win may be shared by many different people.

Here is the breakdown of the top six payout tiers*. You see the full payout breakdown on our El Gordo Results page.

El Gordo Payout Breakdown
Payout tier	Number of Winning Combinations	Payout
El Gordo (Top Payout)	1	€4,000,000
2nd Payout	1	€1,250,000
3rd Payout	1	€500,000
4th Payout	2	€250,000
5th Payout	8	€60,000
La Pedrea (6th Payout)	1,794	€100

Due to the unique nature of betting on shares of a number, El Gordo has developed the happy habit of transforming entire communities, This is because many shares of the same number are delivered to the same retail outlet. So, when many people in a small village visit the same store to get their bet, they may end up sharing the same number.

In 2011 the community of Sodeto, a small village in Eastern Spain, was an extreme example of this. The members of the town had entered with the same number, with almost everyone buying at least one share. When their number hit the top payout, every residents came to realise that they had won a huge payout – every resident except one. The other residents had forgotten to invite one of their neighbours to take part, meaning he missed out on a share of €720 million!

THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING – THE EL GORDO TV ADS

Every year we all have that one thing that lets us know that Christmas is coming. Maybe it’s seeing the Christmas chocolates at the supermarket, maybe its hearing that Mariah Carey song on the radio, or maybe it’s that annoying neighbour who has their house looking like Santa’s Grotto on November 1!

In Spain, the way to know that the Christmas season has arrived is when the El Gordo TV commercial starts to hit the screens. These adverts are not your normal TV spot! They are elaborately produced, cinematic presentations that are geared towards tugging on your heart strings. Don’t believe us? Check out the 2023 edition below!

EL GORDO - LOTTOLAND SOUTH AFRICA’S WINNERS

A lot of us have probably imagined what we would do if we hit a big out on the lotto. More of us, however, have also had that cruel, invasive thought that “it will never happen to me”. Well, we are here to tell you that it could happen to you, it could happen with Lottoland, and it could happen in South Africa. 

Our most recent winner occured on the El Gordo draw 2023! The male winner from the KwaZulu-Natal province scored R802,828.40! He won with a 1/100 ticket share (1%) of the main prize number 88008.

Another lucky winner was Mr G.M. who bet on the 2021 El Gordo draw with Lottoland in South Africa. He paid just R80 for a 1/100 share of a ticket, and on 22 December 2021 he watched in disbelief as his number matched to a Tier 1 payout.

On winning the biggest lottery in the world, Mr G.M. told us: “"It was a fantastic experience! When my ticket won, I was notified by email immediately after the draw took place in Madrid. Everyone at Lottoland South Africa was very friendly and helpful, and the process was so easy that it was almost too good to be true! After submitting a couple of documents to verify my identity and bank details, the winnings were paid directly into my South African bank account. That’s when my wife and I realized that it was 100% true and became really excited!"

BET ON EL GORDO FROM SOUTH AFRICA

If we have whetted your appetite of taking a slice of the El Gordo payout pie this Christmas, remember that you don’t need to travel to Spain to make that happen! All you need to do it place your bet on Lottoland and check out the El Gordo results page after the draw on December 22.

Good luck, Merry Christmas, and ¡Feliz Navidad!

*Winning bets will be converted from Euro to ZAR using the currency exchange rate that day.

Article last updated 29 December 2023