Hot Numbers

Some lottery strategies are based on the evaluation of frequency of number occurrences in a fixed period. Usually the latest "xx" draws are evaluated from this point of view.

Assumptions:
Let's play a lottery drawing 6 numbers from a pool of 49 numbers. In an ideal case each number should be drawn during a period of 9 draws and 5 of them should be drawn two times. However the real situation is different. The numbers are drawn in different periods with different frequencies. It can be affected for example by the wheeling equipment. The longer evaluation interval we chose, the smaller differences should be expected in the frequencies of drawings of each number. Looking at the Number Table in the Statistics page (when playing the Expert Lotto 6/49 lottery) you can see that the numbers frequency percentages range from 14,17% to 10,73% (analyzing larger sets of winning numbers yields smaller difference between the lowest and the highest frequencies).

Lottery Strategy

Assuming that each draw can be statistically analyzed then the frequency of drawn numbers for any period should correspond to the normal distribution with its typical curve.

In this case the curve is shown as a histogram. This graphical presentation was generated using the latest 28 draws. The draw frequency is expressed by the number assigned to the appropriate color of the bar. Hover your mouse over any chart's bar to see the numbers from that bar or switch to the Table page in the Panel Coloring window, which lists the numbers from each bar in a table.

In this case we can see that number 23 was drawn 7 times during the latest 24 draws, numbers 12 and 25 were drawn 6 times during the same period and numbers 19,29 and 33 were drawn 5 times. Numbers 7 and 45 were not drawn so far during the latest 24 draws and numbers 9,10, 17 and 21 were drawn only once. The row for numbers drawn 3 times during the last 24 draws contains the most numbers. You can decide (applying your strategy) that the most frequent numbers (6x and higher frequencies) are so called hot numbers (23,12,25,19,29, 33), the numbers not drawn so far and as well the numbers drawn only once are the cold numbers (7,45,9,10,17,21) and the remaining numbers correspond to the average. You may for example estimate that the next draw will contain two hot numbers, three numbers corresponding to the average and one cold number. Then print the page shown above (button Print) and use the Ticket Generator to insert 1000 random tickets into the package generated from the whole range of 49 numbers. Now switch to the Visual Package page and click all cold numbers in the panel. Because your estimate is that a winning ticket will contain one cold number only, use the Remove Match in function to remove from the package all tickets that do not match this assumption.

Approximately 400 tickets should remain in the package. Now apply the same for the hot numbers and leave in the package only tickets matching the hot numbers in two numbers. The package contains about 40 tickets corresponding to the above assumptions and can be saved to a file for further processing.
This way you can process not just 1000 random tickets but you can use the same procedure for the complete set of all combinations of 49 numbers (almost 14 millions tickets). Naturally the remaining part will be larger. However if your hot number estimations are correct then this remaining set of tickets will contain the jackpot winning ticket.
An additional step could be based on the assumption that the package should not contain any ticket containing three average numbers from each table's row.

Let's continue with the hot and cold numbers strategy and expand the period being examined to 82 draws. In theory each number should be drawn approximately 10 times (the highest frequency shown in the panel coloring) according to the uniform distribution of frequencies.

The figure above shows that a group of numbers does not match the uniform distribution. This can be used for further filtering to reduce the number of tickets being prepared for your bet.

Another step in your strategy can be for example an assumption that only tickets containing numbers with odd/even ratio 3:3, or 4:2 or 2:4 are expected in the next draw. Thus the tickets containing 6 and/or 5 even numbers as well as the tickets containing 6 and/or 5 odd numbers are to be removed. Use the Statistics page to find out the Even/Odd ratio in the period you are interested in. The chart for the Even /Odd ratio for the given period should look like follows:

The chart was calculated for the latest "24" draws. You can see that the highest rate is the ratio 3:3. The ratio 4:2 of Odd/Even numbers slightly differs from the normal distribution (the value is greater than expected). Therefore you may decide to prefer tickets with 2:4 ratio of Odd/Even numbers. To do so open the the Odd/Even filter window, enter "2" into the Odd numbers field and selection option Leave in the Matching Tickets panel. After filtering only several tickets should remain in the package (e.g. 4 tickets only). Thus after application of two filters you managed to reduced the package contents approximately 250 times. If your assumptions are correct then you reduced the cost of your bet 250 times compared to initial 1000 tickets while keeping the same chances to win the jackpot.

Naturally, you can use the filters to process much larger sets of tickets. The following rules apply:

  1. Filters can be applied in any order. However it is recommended to use the fast acting filters first when processing large numbers of tickets (e.g. working with all number combinations - full package). All filters except for Match Winning Numbers, Match Package, Match File and Winning Numbers History are fast acting filters. Filters that must compare two large ticket files can be very time consuming. Therefore it is better to apply such filters as the last step of your lottery strategy because at that time usually smaller files are being processed.
  2. It is not necessary to use all the filters.
  3. Each filter can be applied repeatedly.
  4. The filters are a tool for implementation of your lottery strategy and for fault free processing of large numbers of tickets. Your responsibility is to provide appropriate input parameters for these filters.
  5. The greater the number of filters applied the greater should be the initial package. However the possibility for invalid estimation increases.
  6. After application of each filter the package contents can be saved to a file before using other filters. Should you wish to adjust your estimations, you can return to the previous step and use the same filter again with different input parameters. This way a filter tree is being created where each branch leads to a different result.
  7. Each filter's logical condition is clearly defined and its application always leads to the same reproducible results on the same file. The "Random Selection" filter is an exception, it removes the required number of randomly selected tickets from the package.
  8. Before using the the filters it is essential to identify your strategy and also to clearly understand how filters work. Also pay close attention when selecting the appropriate option in the Matching Tickets panel especially when using filters that offer options like " and/or", "all/at least one" etc.