Many of us know devoted Lotto players who stick to a set of numbers, such as family birth dates, they hold to be personal and unique. But what if hundreds of other players are making exactly the same choices?

We analysed a Lotto New Zealand dataset spanning 400 million played numbers across 70 million lines – groups of six numbers chosen together or “six-tuples”, as we call them.

We were interested to know just how players pick their numbers and whether, in the end, those choices really matter. The answers surprised us.

How NZ players pick their numbers

We think most players understand that every six-tuple has the same chance of being drawn. However, that doesn’t stop players being attracted toward particular choices.

The most favoured six-tuples include straight lines, diagonals and other geometric patterns on the Lotto playslip. Another popular choice is skip-counting sequences starting at low to middling numbers and based on steps of between one and nine.

Players also love to pick winning numbers from TV shows such as The Simpsons and Lost, famous mathematical patterns such as the Fibonacci sequence, and previous winning six-tuples.

As well, players have a mild tendency to avoid the edges of the payslip and to cluster numbers on the payslip within each six-tuple, just as they might position ships in the boardgame Battleships.

Do some tickets win more........

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