How the euromillions are organised
How The Euromillions Are Organised
The pan-European Euromillions lottery is naturally a massive exercise in teamwork and organisation. To co-ordinate the prize fund being created from the revenue being generated over 9 countries a huge amount of effort and logistical skill must be required. That’s why in each Euromillions nation the ticket sales and promotions are handled individually by the governing lottery body in that country. These individual organisations put their heads together to ensure a quality game is delivered across the 9 participating nations.
In 2004 when the game was launched for the first time with a draw on Friday 13th February there were only 3 participating nations, France, the UK and Spain. The idea exploded in popularity so rapidly that by October 6 other nations wanted to join and were immediately accepted, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland.The draw is held twice every week at 20:45 Central European time (19:45 GMT) in Paris where the game was originally devised by the FDJ and is seen as the ‘home nation’ of the game. The results for the Euromillions immediately go to the lottery organisers in each participating nation and they are usually integrated into their results show for their national lottery game.The second biggest hurdle is the settling of the prizes. This can be a big challenge especially when the jackpots have reached as high as €185,000,000. The settlement of the prizes is handled from the Euromillions Trust account. This trust account is kept with enough money at any given moment to settle any awards being given out, and is topped up by the revenue generated from each host country. This trust arrangement gives protection to each national lottery body against the possibility of defaulting on a prize amount, ultimately this trust protects the players interests as prizes can always be guaranteed in every country with a trust.
