Buying Eurojackpot Through a Ticket Courier: What to Check First

By Nadia Brennan, FoxyLottery editor. This page is based on the published Eurojackpot rules and on what ticket services state in their own terms. We did not make test purchases for it.

Eurojackpot in brief

• Each line has 5 main numbers from 1 to 50 and 2 Euro numbers from 1 to 12.
• Draws take place on Tuesday and Friday evenings.
• The jackpot starts at €10 million and is capped at €120 million. Once the cap is reached, the extra money goes to the second prize tier (5 + 1).
• There are 12 prize tiers. The chance of the jackpot is 1 in 139,838,160: the 2,118,760 ways to pick 5 of 50 numbers multiplied by the 66 ways to pick 2 of 12.
• The price of a line is set by each national lottery (in Germany it is €2 per line on LOTTO.de, plus any fee of the sales channel).

The 12 prize tiers and their odds

All Eurojackpot prizes, including the jackpot, are pari-mutuel: a fixed share of ticket sales goes to each tier and is divided among that tier’s winners, so the amount per winner changes from draw to draw. The odds below follow directly from the 5-of-50 and 2-of-12 format. Overall, about one line in 32 wins something, and most of those wins are in the lowest tiers.

A courier does not change any of these odds. It only changes what you pay per line and how a prize reaches you.

Do you need a courier at all?

Eurojackpot is sold by the national lotteries of the participating countries, in shops and in many countries online. If you live in one of those countries, buying from your national lottery is the simplest choice: you pay the official price, the ticket is yours, and a prize is claimed directly from that lottery.

A ticket courier only matters to people outside the participating countries. Such a service buys a paper ticket in a participating country on your behalf, keeps it, and shows you a scan. Before using one, check whether this is allowed where you live: several countries permit online lottery sales only from licensed providers, and some ticket services exclude certain countries in their own terms.

How prizes reach you

Smaller prizes are usually credited to your account with the service, under its terms, and then withdrawn by the payment methods it supports. The jackpot and other large prizes are a different matter: they are paid under the rules of the lottery that sold the ticket, which can mean formal claim steps in that country, its tax rules, and a longer wait. If the account currency differs from the euro, a currency conversion happens at least once on the way.

What to check before you pay

Cons

• Higher price per line: every courier line costs more than the official price.
• Not allowed everywhere: some countries do not permit these services, and their own terms exclude others.
• Slow jackpot claims: large prizes follow the selling lottery’s claim rules and can take time.
• You do not hold the ticket: you rely on the service’s records and scan rather than a ticket in your hand.

If you still want to use a courier

Compare the line price with your national lottery first, if you have one. If you do not, check the points above on the service’s own pages before you deposit money.

Bottom line

For anyone living in a participating country, the national lottery is cheaper and simpler than any courier. Outside those countries a courier is a way to take part, at a higher price per line and with a slower path to large prizes. Eurojackpot, like every lottery, returns less than it takes in: set a budget you can afford to lose. Our Eurojackpot system calculator shows how quickly the number of lines, and the cost, grows with system entries.

Disclosure: FoxyLottery may earn a commission if you use a partner link on this page. It does not change what we write; see our affiliate disclosure.