World's Biggest Lottery With £2 Billion Prize Pot Took Place Today

The world’s largest lottery, with a whopping £2 billion prize pot, took place today. 

Spain's annual Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad (Spanish Christmas Lottery) made a number of lucky winners very rich just in time for Christmas. 

The £2bn ( €2.4 billion) cash pot is shared out among multiple winners, with a jackpot prize of £340,000 (€400,000) and plenty of lower prizes on offer.

Alamy

The draw is held at the Teatro Real in Madrid with school children enlisted to read out the winning numbers. 

The tickets, which cost €20 (£16), cause lengthy queues in the run-up to the draw, with punters eager to try and nab themselves a bit of cash - you can also buy tickets online, so it might be worth entering next year.

The lottery has been running for more than 200 years and has earned itself the nickname El Gordo (The Fat One), for obvious reasons. 

Although other lotteries do have higher individual jackpots, it’s thought this one has the largest total prize fund of any lottery in the world. 

A couple of years back, a Spanish TV presenter discovered she’d won the Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad live on air while she was reading out the results. 

Natalia Escudero, a reporter for RTVE, celebrated on the telly surrounded by strangers as she discovered that she had bagged a tenth of the prize money - getting her 5,000 euros (£4,260/$5,540) back in 2019. 

According to El Español, she told the camera: "Hey, I have a tenth, that this is no joke, that I do many events. When I came here I bought one," before adding: "Tomorrow I don't go. Natalia, I don't work tomorrow." Yeah, fair enough - I think I'd treat myself to a day off, too.

She then proceeded to burst into celebrations in the video which later went viral on Twitter.

RTVE

Responding to the clip, one person commented: "Congratulations to the reporter. Joy that is spread, glad to see happy people."

While another wrote: "How much emotion! Very nice this moment, it must be amazing. And I'm glad although I have not touched anything, hopefully and has reached many people who really need it."

Topics: World News

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]