South Africa Lotto

Established in 2000 and operated by Ithuba since 2015, South Africa Lotto draws offer huge jackpots twice weekly, on Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets can be purchased online or in person from an authorised retailer, with players either choosing their own numbers or opting for a random selection called a “Quick Pick” ticket.

There are eight prize tiers in South Africa Lotto in total, ranging from a guaranteed R20 for matching two main numbers and the Bonus Ball, to the jackpot, which is worth 73% of the total prize fund and is won by matching all six main numbers.

South Africa Lotto Draws

South Africa Lotto draws are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 8:56pm local time. Tickets can be purchased up until 8:30pm on the day of each draw, however the closing time for tickets purchased via a concierge service may be up to three hours earlier, so be sure to visit the Tickets page for the most up-to-date information.

Draws can be watched from 8:56pm on SABC 2. Alternatively, you can find results for Lotto draws both past and present online.

How to Play and Win South Africa Lotto

Lotto costs R5 per play, with participants choosing six numbers from 1 to 52 and attempting to match as many of them as possible with the numbered balls drawn on the night.

During the draw itself, six main numbers are selected at random, followed by a seventh number, called the Bonus Ball. The more numbers a player matches, the larger their prize, with a plethora of cash amounts on offer depending on the number of balls matched. Visit the Prizes section to learn more about the awards available in Lotto.

If no one matches all six main numbers drawn, then the jackpot rolls over to the next draw. There is no limit to the number of times this can happen, meaning that the jackpot can grow to gigantic amounts.

To date, the largest South Africa Lotto jackpot to be won was on Saturday 27th January 2018, when four ticket holders shared a spectacular R110 million between them. The biggest jackpot won by a single participant, meanwhile, was on 4th November 2017, when a pensioner from the Eastern Cape matched all six numbers to claim the top prize of R50.7million.

Players have more opportunities to win if they also take part in the Lotto Plus 1 and Lotto Plus 2 supplementary draws.