A staggering £208million – the UK’s largest ever lottery jackpot – is up for grabs this week.
If one ticket holder manages to secure the entire EuroMillions sum, they will outrank both pop sensation Dua Lipa and footballer Harry Kane, who have fortunes of £115 million and £110 million respectively, and even compare with heavyweights on The Sunday Times Rich List 2025. The record-breaking EuroMillions draw is set for tonight.
The jackpot has rolled over yet again last week, presenting Brits with the opportunity to land this colossal amount. A win would shatter the previous record of £195,707,000 won on 19 July 2022.
Such a windfall would immediately elevate the winner to the financial leagues of England skipper Harry Kane, currently earning a lucrative pay packet at FC Bayern Munich in Germany, and three-time Grammy winner Dua Lipa.
EuroMillions has a prize cap of €250m, giving players just five draws to hit the jackpot. Should there be no victor this week, the critical fifth “Must Be Won” draw will be held on Friday, 20 June, reports the Mirror.
Lottery hopefuls are being urged to double-check their tickets, as a smaller portion of the pot might be theirs for the taking. If no one lands the full set of five numbers and two lucky stars by the final draw, winnings can be claimed with just five numbers and one lucky star, potentially resulting in numerous new millionaires.
Just this month, seven lucky Brits matched five numbers and one lucky star, pocketing a slice of the prize fund.
On June 13, five fortunate players hit the jackpot, with each scooping a whopping £3.6 million, while another struck gold with £4.5 million on June 10, and yet another pocketed an impressive £2 million on June 6; demonstrating that even a smaller slice of the prize money can be truly transformative.
Winners who have landed over £10 million typically donate a substantial 24.5% of their windfall, revealing not just a fluke of good fortune but a streak of generosity as well. Moreover, a staggering 91% contribute time or funds to charitable causes, and 10% have the distinction of making someone else a millionaire.
It was a fairytale turned reality for Annie Leith, a yoga instructor hailing from Pill, Somerset, after she won a different lottery last year, which led to her sweeping her family off on their first holiday abroad. She shared her joy with the Mirror, recalling: “We have some wonderful memories, like waking up and hearing the waves crash off the cliffs in Tenerife. It was crazy to see and hear that. My children chasing lizards there was amazing, and the black sand on the beaches there was great. Digging shoes into the black sand was lovely. I remember the kids talking, or trying to talk, in Spanish out there and trying to encourage them.”
She went on to describe the life-altering impact of their win: “We have all got this little spark that something will happen outside the norm one day, and for us that has. This happened to my family to the nth degree so we are lucky… The world isn’t this thing with boundaries, which again is maybe a Covid thing, and it is great to explore. We have been able to experience this now and it has been life-changing.”