El Gordo is back, and this time it’s worth €2.3 billion

Lottery fever grips Spain every year, and this year’s prize pool is a massive €2.3 billion.

The biggest lottery prize in the world returns today in the form of Spain’s El Gordo (The Fat One), and this year’s prize pool is a massive €2.3 billion.

As is tradition, most of Spain will have purchased lottery tickets in the hope of winning a share of the biggest prize, with the draw due to take place on December 22 – just in time to make many lucky Spaniards very happy, and very rich, before Christmas…

Last year an estimated 74 per cent of Spaniards bought a ticket for El Gordo, despite the odds of winning the top prize of €4 million being a rather meagre 0.001%. Still, somebody has to win, and with 14,000 smaller cash prizes on offer, it is something of a no-brainer to purchase at least one ticket.

Indeed, when one factors in these additional smaller prizes, the odds of winning a sizeable cash amount tumble to around one in 100,000 – which is some one thousand times easier than striking lucky on the EuroMillions.

And with growing international interest in Spain’s Christmas lottery, lottery providers in other nations have begun to jump on the bandwagon. In the U.K., lottoland.co.uk is offering to match the prize fund by allowing British-based players to buy “shares” in a five-digit number ranging between 00001 and 99,999 – just like in the real thing – and then, should the winning number drawn live in Madrid match a player’s number, they win.

Families, friends and even whole communities and villages can club together to purchase the same number, and if that happens – as was the case in the village of Sodeto, which scooped more than €650 million in 2011 – then the prize pot grows exponentially depending on how many tickets were bought.

“El Gordo is truly a phenomenal lottery,” said Lottoland CEO Nigel Birrell. “The vast majority of the money generated through sales goes back to the players themselves, creating incredible prize dividends. The overall prize pot is a staggering €2.3 billion, with hundreds of €3.1 million jackpots up for grabs.

“We don’t think it’s fair that the Spanish have this all to themselves, and that’s why we’re bringing the El Gordo excitement and fun to Britain this Christmas.”

The draw will take place in Madrid on the morning of Thursday, 22 December, and usually takes around three hours.