All over the world, serious lottery players are looking for lottery number patterns that will give them an edge. There is such a lottery strategy that has been proven to give them an edge. It uses lottery number patterns that exist in all lotteries. They are called long shots.
If you don’t know what Longshots are, we’ll start with a bit of history and a definition. A few years ago, there was a lottery strategy that became quite popular and that, for lack of a better name, we will call the hot numbers strategy. Along with this came the typical hype you’d expect. The release went something like this:
Since more than 80% of all lottery winning numbers were matched in the last 10 draws, build your playlist from the winners of the last 10 draws. This will increase your chances of winning the lottery.
At first, it sounds quite plausible. But let’s think about this. Implicit in this strategy is the opposite side of the coin. Any lottery number that has not been drawn in the last 10 draws is considered a rather dubious choice. Therefore, these lottery numbers were called Longshots. The name persists to this day and I even use it. But I don’t despise the use of Longshots. In fact, I applaud them. Including Longshots in a playlist is an absolute must for any viable lottery strategy.
For all those lottery players who got caught up in the hot numbers strategy hype, this was undoubtedly a very expensive lesson. A lot of money was spent with little to show for it.
The exclusion of Longshots resulted in a disaster for the Hot Number strategy. You see, including Longshots is essential to any viable lottery strategy because, on average, 25% to 40% of winning numbers are Longshots! You heard me right; 25% to 40%.
This has been true of all lotteries in the US and Canada for over 20 years. It was then that I began to analyze them. The percentage varies from lottery to lottery as the size of the lotteries changes. For example, the percentage is higher for a 6/52 lottery than for a 6/44 lottery. But rest assured, this lottery number pattern is as solid as a rock.
It is simple for anyone to verify this. Well, maybe without a great lottery software program, it’s not that simple. But, either way, this is the approach. Make a list of all the lottery numbers that have been matched in the last 10 draws for each lottery draw. Any lottery number not listed must be a Longshot. Count the number of winning numbers in the next draw that were Longshots. Do this for all lottery history. If you average the number of Longshots that were winners, you’ll find that the answer lies between 25 and 40 percent.
How can you take advantage of this information? Assuming the answer you got was 30%, then on average 30% of the winning numbers in the next draw would be Longshots. If you were playing a 6/48 lottery, this means you should expect 1.8 winning numbers to be Longshots. (30% x 6 = 1.8) Of course, this doesn’t happen in every drawing, but it is unflinchingly persistent over time. For example, in Lotto Texas, at least 1 of the winning numbers is a longshot 89% of the time! In other words, you can count on it.
This shows why the practitioners of the Hot Number strategy wasted so much money. On average, their playlists were missing 1.8 numbers. This must have been (and still is) very frustrating for players using this weak lottery strategy.
No doubt some of you are wondering how you can take advantage of Longshot when playing the game. Continuing with the previous example, it is very simple. Suppose you decide to reduce a 48-number lottery to a 37-number playlist with the help of lottery analysis software. Not a bad strategy as you have removed 9,946,728 bets from the game! Since you expect 30% of the lottery winning numbers to be Longshots, make sure that 11 of those 37 lottery numbers in your playlist are Longshots. (30%x37=11.1)
It’s hard to imagine a lottery strategy that doesn’t include Longshots. Serious lottery players everywhere use it. This is called playing the odds. In fact, that’s what all successful players do; play the odds.
