Lotto Hero to Begin Hosting Hourly, €1 Million Drawings 24/7/365
The big state-run lotteries of the world should be paying close attention to a new online lottery game that will soon be coming to town. It’s called Lotto Hero and it’s shaping up to do everything traditional traditional otteries already do, except better. Hourly drawings, more features and a higher return to players could very well make Lotto Hero an attractive alternative to traditional lottery drawings.
Within the next couple of weeks, Lotto Hero will begin hosting drawings every hour, 24/7, 365 days a year. Every drawing will be for at least €1 million and if no one wins, the jackpot will roll over to the next drawing. According to the Lotto Hero website, jackpots have the potential to exceed €10 million on rollovers.
The frequency of drawings is of particular note when we consider there will be jackpot rollovers whenever a jackpot is not won. Implementing rollovers on a once-every-hour drawing signifies extreme confidence on Lotto Hero’s part in their ability to attract a steady stream of players. However, we’re still short on details and will have to take a closer look at these drawings after the first Lotto Hero gambling sites go live.
Where Lotto Hero really puts the heat on traditional lotteries is by offering an overall return-to-player of 90% thanks to 1 out of 2.6 entries winning a prize of some size. This means that for every €1 paid in entry fees, Lotto Hero will be paying out €0.90 in prizes. For comparison’s sake, the typical land-based lottery returns anywhere from 40% to 60% to players. A return-to-player of 70% is considered exceptional by land-based lottery standards.
Where to Play Lotto Hero Online
The Lotto Hero website will not itself be a place for players to sign up and play. Lotto Hero says it will be working with “leading online casino partners” and making its services available through those websites. They haven’t yet explained which online casinos will be offering Lotto Hero drawings, but we expect to find out shortly.
A recent press release explains Lotto Hero will go live after the ICE Totally Gaming exhibition, which is happening this week. CEO Richard Mifsud had this to say about the imminent launch of Lotto Hero:
“We’re very excited to be returning to ICE on the verge of announcing that a number of big name operators will go live with Lotto Hero in the first quarter of 2018.
“We have listened to feedback from those operators in order to make sure the user experience is as good as it can be, and that the performance of the game has been optimised.
“We’re very confident that the game will really capture the zeitgeist and offer our partners a genuinely competitive edge, as well as giving their players the chance of going from ordinary to extraordinary.”
How Lotto Hero Drawings Will Work
Once Lotto Hero goes live, we’ll also be able to provide more details regarding how every drawing will work, what types of prizes will be offered besides the jackpot and more. What we do know about the game are just a few basic rules:
- Players guess 7 numbers from 1-35
- Choose 1 card suit from 4 (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs)
- Main draw tickets will cost €2
Lotto Hero will also allow players to choose one of three ticket options:
- Quickbets: Selects numbers at random for players
- Hero Bets: produces a set of numbers based on your lucky numbers, most frequently drawn or “most overdue” numbers
- Pick My Own: Choose your own numbers
We know there will be secondary prizes in addition to the main lottery jackpot and that players will be able to enter tickets into second chance drawings for an extra chance to win yet another jackpot of €1 million. Other secondary payouts have not yet been announced, but we’ll be seeing those soon as well.
Lotto Hero has also announced the company will be donated 1% of profits to charitable organizations. Players will be allowed to choose a charity (or charities) to donate a portion of their winnings to as well.
