UK Winner
The winning numbers were 10, 17, 18, 28 and 47, with Lucky Stars 3 and 7. A UK player has already made a claim for their half of the money, worth £77.7 million, and is now set to become the country’s tenth biggest lottery winner.
A ticket validation appointment will need to take place before the prize can be paid, and the winner can then decide whether they wish to go public with their story or remain anonymous. If they want to keep their identity private, no further information will be released about where the ticket was bought.
Spanish Winner
The Spanish National Lottery takes a different approach and always publishes details of where big winners purchased their entries. The lucky player who won €88.8 million on Friday bought their ticket in Cadiz, at the C.C Carrefour Gran Sur-Torres.
Remarkably, the two lines in Spain which also matched five main numbers and one Lucky Star were also bought at the same shop, leading to speculation that the same player (or syndicate) could have scooped three major prizes by playing a lottery system.
The Spanish winner has 90 days to come forward and claim their prize. They can also decide between publiblicity and anonymity, and if they wish to keep their identity secret then the Spanish National Lottery will not even confirm whether the prize has been claimed or not.
European Raffle
Friday night also marked the return of the special European raffle, with 25 prizes of £1 million / €1 million guaranteed to be given away across the nine participating countries. The game is known as European Millionaire Maker in the UK and by different names elsewhere, such as the EuroMillionaires Raffle Draw in Ireland and Pluies de millionnaires in France.
Not content with splitting the jackpot, Spain and the UK also dominated the raffle, with Spain taking home seven of the 25 prizes and the UK five. France and Belgium had four winners apiece, while there were three in Portugal and one each in Ireland and Switzerland.
Tuesday’s Jackpot
The European raffle is set to return at a later date, while the EuroMillions jackpot will revert to €17 million (£14 million) for the next draw on Tuesday night. Fans of the game can take part by going to authorised retailers in participating countries or choosing numbers online.