Lottery Syndicate: All rules about betting in Group and Agreement

What is Lottery Syndicate

A lottery syndicate is a group of players who gather their money to buy a load of lottery tickets. Each player owns a share in the winnings proportionate to how much money he or she contributed to the syndicate. A group may include friends, family, relatives, workmates or online lottery players who jointly buy tickets to increase their chances of winning.

Lottery Syndicate Agreement

If you bet in a group, I recommend you sign an agreement to avoid problems in the future. In case you win the jackpot (or a lower prize) your syndicate manager may change his mind to sacrifice friendship for money. Having no syndicate agreement in your hand it would be tough for you to get your fair share.

Syndicate agreement is available at the Lottery’s official website or you can download a relevant template and customise it based on your needs. Below you can find all elements of each syndicate agreement, as well as some further details to be added to the agreement.

Content

This agreement should contain all the essential information:

• Syndicate Name
• Syndicate manager + contact details
• Start date
• All players: name, signature, date, amount per draw, share of wins
• Name of lottery, number of purchased bets and date of draw

Additional information:

• What to do if any player refuses to pay
• What to do if any player leaves the group
• Additional agreements, rules or information

Addition-To Agreement

With a syndicate agreement, you can avoid taxation in case you win a large amount of money.  The current rules of the National Lottery stipulate that the jackpot can only be paid out to one member of the syndicate group, the syndicate manager. If you didn’t have the syndicate contract, all members of the team would have to pay a portion of the tax.

Why is Lottery Syndicate More Efficient

For much lower costs you get an enormous amount of tickets shared with other people in your group (syndicate).  If you buy one line you bet in fact on one number combination, otherwise, you would have to buy hundreds of lines, which would cost you a lot of money. With a lottery syndicate, this is different: You get hundreds of lines and, on top of that, save money. If you find something unclear take a look at the example:

How To Play or Bet Lottery Syndicate

• Set up a group of people (a syndicate), ideally a family, friends or workmates
• Appoint the manager of your syndicate
• Choose the type of lottery and/or the numbers on all tickets you are going to play
• Draw up an agreement or use the template offered by the lottery operator
• Give the manager the agreed share of money to bet on the lottery
• The manager will bet on the pre-agreed lottery
• After the draw, check your  bet or let the manager do so
• Finally, the manager will collect the potential wins and distribute them proportionally to each syndicate member

I don’t have a group of people to bet with

If you don’t manage to form a group of people you can bet online. You simply choose a particular lottery, your share and pay the adequate sum of money.

Scan All  Purchased Lottery Tickets – Lawyer Tip

According to Jason Kurland, a famous US attorney representing lottery winners, you should scan all purchased lottery tickets and send them to all members of the syndicate by email. In the case you win, this seemingly useless exercise may prevent you from losing friends and share your deserved prize.

What if the manager of your syndicate denies the shares to the rest of the team arguing that he has bought the ticket separately, not as a member of the syndicate? Below you can replay a video in which Jason Kurland talks about this issue on CNN.

Example of Lottery Syndicate Game

Imagine that the current jackpot in a UK lottery called Lotto, is  £100,000. Your group of 10 friends plays a lottery syndicate of 100 lines.

Each member buys 10 lines.  Your share is 10% (100/10).

The result of the draw is that all numbers in one of the tickets match. Fantastic! Your group has won the jackpot (£100,000). With a share of 10%, you will get £10,000.

If you had bought 10 tickets without playing lottery syndicate your chances to win would have been 90% slimmer. A big difference, isn’t it?