Every EuroMillions ticket involves seven numbers. Most players spend time thinking carefully about the first five. The last two — the Lucky Stars — tend to get chosen almost at random, as if they were an afterthought.
That’s a mistake worth understanding. Because while the Lucky Stars won’t win you the jackpot on their own, they are woven into almost every prize tier in the game. Knowing how they work changes the way you read your ticket after every draw.
What exactly are the Lucky Stars?
When you enter EuroMillions, you choose:
- 5 main numbers from a pool of 1 to 50
- 2 Lucky Stars from a separate pool of 1 to 12
The Lucky Stars are drawn independently from the main numbers. That means the same number can appear in both pools in the same draw — a 7 could show up as a main number and also as a Lucky Star, and these would be counted separately.
In every draw, two Lucky Stars are selected alongside the five main numbers. Your prize depends on how many of your chosen numbers match the draw across both pools.
Why a separate pool?
The fact that Lucky Stars come from their own smaller pool of 12 numbers (rather than the main pool of 50) has a direct effect on the odds.
There are 66 possible pairs of Lucky Stars. That’s relatively few compared to the over two million possible combinations of five main numbers. This means matching both Lucky Stars is genuinely difficult — but matching one of them is reasonably common.
This structure is what creates the game’s 13 prize tiers. The Lucky Stars act as a multiplier: the same number of matched main numbers will land you in a higher or lower tier depending on whether you’ve also matched one star, both stars, or neither.
How the Lucky Stars affect each prize tier
Here’s how the 13 tiers break down, showing exactly where the Lucky Stars appear:
| Tier | Match | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 5 numbers + 2 Stars | Jackpot |
| 2nd | 5 numbers + 1 Star | Runner-up |
| 3rd | 5 numbers + 0 Stars | Still six figures |
| 4th | 4 numbers + 2 Stars | Higher-middle tier |
| 5th | 4 numbers + 1 Star | — |
| 6th | 3 numbers + 2 Stars | — |
| 7th | 4 numbers + 0 Stars | — |
| 8th | 2 numbers + 2 Stars | — |
| 9th | 3 numbers + 1 Star | — |
| 10th | 3 numbers + 0 Stars | — |
| 11th | 1 number + 2 Stars | — |
| 12th | 2 numbers + 1 Star | — |
| 13th | 2 numbers + 0 Stars | Minimum prize |
A few things stand out when you look at this table:
The Lucky Stars appear in 10 of the 13 tiers. They are not a minor detail — they are a core part of how almost every prize is structured.
Matching both Lucky Stars with fewer main numbers can beat matching more main numbers with no stars. For example, matching 2 numbers and 2 stars (tier 8) places you higher than matching 3 numbers and 0 stars (tier 10). The stars carry real weight.
Matching only the 2 Lucky Stars with no main numbers wins nothing. There is no prize tier for stars alone. The minimum winning combination always requires at least one main number alongside at least one star, or two main numbers on their own.
The one thing that surprises most players
The most common moment of confusion comes when someone matches 3 or 4 main numbers and nothing else, then sees a lower prize than expected — or checks a friend’s ticket that matched fewer main numbers but both stars and finds it paid more.
This is entirely by design. The Lucky Stars actively redistribute prizes across the tier structure. A ticket that matches 4 main numbers and 2 stars is in the 4th tier. A ticket that matches 4 main numbers and 0 stars is in the 7th. Same main number count, very different outcome.
Do the prizes change from draw to draw?
Yes. EuroMillions uses a pari-mutuel system, meaning each prize tier receives a fixed percentage of the total prize fund, and that amount is divided among all winners in that tier.
If a particular draw has an unusually high number of winners matching, say, 3 numbers and 1 star, the prize for that tier will be smaller than usual. If very few people match the same combination, the prize is larger.
The jackpot works slightly differently — it accumulates from draw to draw — but the principle is the same: the final amount always depends on ticket sales and winner count for that specific draw.
How the Lucky Star pool changed over time
The pool of Lucky Stars has not always been 1 to 12. When EuroMillions launched in 2004, stars were drawn from a pool of 1 to 9. This was expanded to 1 to 11 in 2011, and then to the current 1 to 12 in 2016.
Each expansion slightly increased the difficulty of matching both stars, which in turn made the jackpot harder to win and allowed larger prizes to accumulate before being claimed. If you ever look at historical statistics for Lucky Stars, it’s worth remembering that numbers 10, 11, and 12 have less history behind them than the lower numbers — not because they appear less often, but simply because they haven’t been in the draw as long.
The odds, plainly stated
- Odds of matching both Lucky Stars alongside all 5 main numbers (jackpot): 1 in 139,838,160
- Odds of winning any prize in a single draw: approximately 1 in 13
The overall 1-in-13 figure includes all 13 tiers, most of which involve lower-tier matches. The Lucky Stars account for much of why that overall probability is as generous as it is — without them, there would simply be fewer ways to win at all.
What this means in practice
You cannot improve your odds of matching the Lucky Stars. Each draw is completely random, and no number within the pool of 12 is more likely to appear than any other. Historical frequency data can be interesting to look at, but it has no predictive value — every draw starts fresh.
What you can take away from understanding the Lucky Stars is simply a clearer picture of what your ticket actually means after each draw. When you check your numbers, the stars are not a consolation feature. They are half the story.
