The Little Christmas Lottery with Big Prizes
Guide To The El Niño Spanish Lottery
The Origins Of El Niño
In Spanish the term El Niño means the child, which is why this lottery is often referred to as the 'little brother' of the famous Christmas Lottery, aka El Gordo.
The date of the draw, set on January 6th, or Little Christmas, is also significant. In Spain it is traditionally on this day, not Christmas Day, when children are given gifts, commemorating the gifts that the Three Wise Men brought to the most important El Niño in Christendom, Baby Jesus.
In fact, in Spain El Niño tickets always contain nativity scenes and it's the same story with El Gordo. Mixing lotteries with traditional religion imagery might seem an odd combination, until you start to realise how traditional these lotteries actually are. (Big brother lottery, El Gordo, dates all the way back to 1812!)
El Niño Jackpot – Overview
In Spain many people like to "reinvest" any small wins they had on the El Gordo draw in the El Niño draw, for one final chance at a big Christmas win.
In terms of format, El Niño is a raffle style draw with numbers ranging from 00000 to 99999, much like the Spanish Christmas Lottery.
Some Spanish lottery enthusiasts have been known to drive for many hundreds of miles to grab a ticket with the right numbers, however at Lottoland we've made things a whole lot simpler!
How To Bet on El Niño from Ireland
Betting on El Niño is easy, simply just follow these simple steps and you could be in with a chance of claiming your share of the $1.07bn NZD jackpot!
- Go to our El Niño lottery page.
- Select your five numbers by using the up and down arrows.
- Use the dropdown menu to choose what size bet share you wish to purchase from one of the seven available options.
- Click the Submit button to continue to the checkout.
- Finalise your bet by clicking the Confirm and proceed button.
Of course, by now you're probably wondering what all this "bet share" business is about, so let's look at that next.
El Niño Shares - Explained
Much like the Spanish Christmas Lottery draw, El Niño tickets are distributed in a raffle style format, with numbers ranging from 00000 to 99999. In addition, numerous series of these tickets are printed, meaning multiple players can end up winning identical jackpot amounts.
Take a look at this screengrab of our El Niño 'ticket'. You'll see that a 1/1 share costs a whopping $349.99 NZD – a fair bit more than your weekly Lotto ticket, yeah?
So let's put it in context.
First off, for $349.99 you get the lions share of any winnings, though traditionally El Niño (and El Gordo) lines are bought in smaller amounts.
What usually happens is that families and friends group together buying ticket shares, which then adds up to the full amount. So they share the price of a full ticket between them, and also end up sharing any wins. At Lottoland we are not selling actual tickets, but you can choose which bet share you want to go for instead.
So you see, comparing lotteries like El Niño and El Gordo to your weekly Lotto or EuroMillions is like comparing apples and pears. El Niño, like El Gordo are specifically designed to spread wealth around, not just make one person super rich. It's a great change from traditional formats, and one of the reasons that they're so popular here at Lottoland.
| El Niño Prize Tiers | |
|---|---|
| Prize Tier | Winnings |
| 1st Prize | $3.4m NZD |
| 2nd Prize | $1.28m NZD |
| 3rd Prize | $425,000 NZD |
El Niño – Start 2020 With A Bang
With the festive frenzy over and waistbands struggling, the New Year can often be a bit flat. El Niño is just the thing to get you through that post-New Year's lull.
With $3.4m NZD to be won you won't want to miss out on placing a bet on the outcome of the amazing El Niño lottery, so pick your numbers today!
Good luck and a very happy New Year to you all!
Lotteries are about much more than random numbers. There are so many fascinating stories about the people who take part in lotteries, and I enjoy being able to share those stories on these pages.
