The Biggest Lottery Syndicate Winners

Want to boost your chances of winning the lottery without spending more money? Consider playing the lottery with others as part of a lottery syndicate. You’ll be able to play more lines and get more chances of winning while splitting the cost of the tickets. Amazingly, some of the world’s biggest lotteries, like US Mega Millions, have been won by syndicate players. The many stories of syndicate success may very well convince you to join a lottery syndicate for an upcoming draw!

What Is a Lottery Syndicate?

A lottery syndicate, also known as a lottery pool, is a group of players who buy lottery tickets together. Syndicate players split the cost of the purchase and as a result, they can afford to buy more lines. The more lines played, the more chances of winning. It's one of the best ways to save on Powerball ticket prices! When one of the syndicate's tickets win, each syndicate player receives a share of the winnings, proportionate to how many shares in the syndicate they purchased.

Syndicates can be made up of friends, family, or even work colleagues. According to the UK National Lottery, two thirds of current syndicates are work based. Playing the lottery online at LottoSmile gives you the advantage that the lottery syndicates are already set up for you. You can choose which one you want to play, purchase your shares, and you’ll be participating in the next draw with additional chances of winning as part of a cost-saving lottery syndicate.

Listed below are some of the biggest lottery syndicate success stories. This is by no means an exhaustive list because syndicates are winning lottery jackpots all the time. Will you find yourself listed here soon?

Michigan Lottery Club Claims US$1.05 Billion Mega Millions Jackpot

Can you imagine starting the weekend a billionaire? On January 22 2021, the Wolverine FLL Club made lottery history when they matched Mega Millions' US$1.05 billion jackpot prize! The 4-member syndicate from Michigan are now the owners of Mega Millions' second-biggest jackpot and the third-largest lottery prize in the world. The winning ticket was purchased in a Novi, Michigan Kroger supermarket after one club member saw a sign for the US$1 billion jackpot and realized that they hadn't bought their tickets yet.

The group chose to take home a one-time lump-sum payment of US$766 million (US$557 million after state and federal withholding taxes). While claiming the prize on the members behalf, the club's representative and attorney Kurt D. Panouses commented “When you play of course you dream of winning, but the reality of it has been incredible. This kind of money will impact the families of our club members for generations to come. We plan to stay humble and pay it forward through charitable giving in southeast Michigan.”

The Power Pack Claims US$731.1 Million Powerball Jackpot

Four months after a huge Powerball draw on 20 January 2021, four anonymous winners of the biggest prize ever awarded by the Maryland Lottery came forward to claim their prize. Nicknaming themselves "The Power Pack", the winners chose the US$546.8 million lump sum cash option, less federal and state taxes. When checking his winning Quick Pick ticket, one of the winners couldn't believe his luck. He told the rest of The Power Pack, “This can’t be right. I’m going to work.”

The Peace of Mind Trust Claims US$516 Million Mega Millions Prize

Five members of a syndicate called the Peace of Mind Trust will share a US$516 million jackpot (just over US$349 million in cash), after their Quick Pick ticket matched the Mega Millions numbers drawn on 21 May 2021. “This is life-changing generational money," stated the syndicate's legal representatives, attorneys Kurt Panouses, of Florida-based Panouses Law Firm, and Christopher Mahoney, of Pennsylvania's Stuckert & Yates. As for the winners' plans, the attorneys said they will try to live their lives as normally as possible, and that they would remain anonymous.

New York Co-Workers Share Mega Millions’ US$437 Million Jackpot

The eighth largest Mega Millions jackpot in history, and the biggest lottery prize ever in New York, was won on 1 January 2019 when a syndicate of 23 Long Island co-workers took home a prize of US$437 million! The co-workers set up the legal entity New Life 2019 LLC so that they could collect their prize anonymously. The winners opted to take a lump-sum payment of US$262,213,914 - US$176,155,308 after state and federal withholding taxes, or around US$7.7 million per person. Representatives of the syndicate said they play the lottery as a group every week. Each member puts a dollar in an envelope that one member takes to purchase the syndicate’s tickets. In this case, that US$23 ticket purchase resulted in a huge lottery prize!

Dublin Family Wins €175.4m EuroMillions Jackpot

A family from Dublin shared a ticket in the EuroMillions Superdraw on 19 February 2019 and as it was the only ticket to match the numbers drawn, the family won the entire jackpot - €175.4 million (£153 million), the largest lottery prize ever won in Ireland. Each of the nine siblings in the family got €19.4m (£16.8m) as their share of the winnings. According to media reports, the EuroMillions syndicate winners are a very large and close family who meet every week and take holidays together every year. After learning they had won the jackpot, the family member who had the winning ticket put it in an Argos catalogue which she kept under her mattress for safe keeping until turning it over to the Irish National Lottery.

20 Tennessee Co-workers Split US$420.9m Powerball Jackpot

Twenty co-workers at North American Stamping Group in Portland, Tennessee, entered an office pool and their winning ticket matched all six Powerball numbers drawn on 26 November 2016. The workers, from the sales and quality control divisions at the auto parts manufacturing plant, elected to take the cash value of the jackpot, worth US$254 million, which equals just over US$12.7 million for each person before taxes.

‘Three Amigos’ Share Record Mega Millions Jackpot

When Mega Millions awarded a US$656 million jackpot in March 2012, it set a record as the largest lottery prize ever, a record that would stand for four years. Three winning tickets matched the numbers drawn and one of them belonged to three colleagues from Maryland’s public education system. The three each put in US$20 and together they bought 60 lottery tickets. Their US$218.6 million American lottery prize (before taxes) was split into three.

Although the three jackpot winners decided to remain anonymous, something allowed in Maryland, they were partially identified as one woman in her twenties, one in her fifties, and a man in his forties. The youngest syndicate member was the person who actually purchased the tickets. She immediately called up her syndicate partners and they all got together to sign, copy, and lock their ticket away in a safe. The co-workers opted for the lump sum cash amount of US$158 million, meaning that they each took home US$35 million after taxes.

‘Oceans 16’ Powerball Syndicate Hits US$448 Million Jackpot

The Powerball syndicate winners in a 7 August 2013 draw were dubbed ‘Ocean’s 16’, as they were sixteen colleagues from New Jersey's Ocean County Department of Vehicle Services. They shared winning the Powerball jackpot with two other winning tickets, so the prize awarded to ‘Ocean’s 16’ was worth US$149 million. The syndicate went with the lump-sum amount of US$86 million, giving each member US$3.8 million after taxes. Six of the lucky syndicate members had been seriously affected by super-storm Sandy, which ravaged the Ocean County shoreline the previous year.

Luck of the Irish Shows Itself Repeatedly with Lottery Syndicate Winners

An amazing number of winners in Ireland have turned out to be members of lotto syndicates. In addition to the Dublin family winners mentioned above, here is a list of some of the biggest EuroMillions prizes captured by Irish lottery syndicate winners in recent years.
• An €86.7 million jackpot was won by a syndicate from Dublin in September 2014.
• A syndicate of friends won over €66 million, splitting the EuroMillions jackpot of €132,376,632, in January 2016.
• 22 colleagues from Dublin Bus won the €23.8 million jackpot in July 2016.
• A Dublin work syndicate claimed the €88.5 million EuroMillions jackpot in January 2017.
• A syndicate from the West of Ireland won a €29 million EuroMillions jackpot in July 2017.
• A small family syndicate from Dublin won €38.9 million in December 2017.

Other Notable Lottery Pool Winners

It takes a village to win a lottery. A 165-member syndicate from the village of Olmen, Belgium, scooped a monstrous EuroMillions Superdraw jackpot worth €143 million in December 2022. Each participant is said to have contributed €15 and is set to take home roughly €900,000.

In a radio interview, Wim Van Broekhoven, the owner of the newsagent that organized the syndicate, said that his customers had trouble believing their good luck. “Most people who have children will help their children in these difficult times, I think,” Van Broekhoven added when asked about the winners’ plans for the money.

38 Players from all over Austria, shared a €72 million EuroMillions jackpot on 1st August 2023 after the jackpot had rolled over four times. There are 63 shares of the prize distributed among all the players. Each share is worth approximately €1.1 million. Four of the winners have five shares each, meaning the prize will multiply and they will collect around €5.7 million individually.

Where does the prize go? Nine shares (seven winners) go to Vienna, twelve (five winners) to Vorarlberg, eleven (seven winners) to Upper Austria, eight (four winners) to win2day, five (five winners ) to Lower Austria, four (two winners) to Salzburg, eight (two winners) to Styria, three (three winners) to Tyrol, two to Burgenland and one to Carinthia.

A group of 295 Irish players from County Cavan won over €250,000 in the EuroMillions draw on 21 January 2020. The winning group, called Little Ray's syndicate, was set up as part of a fundraising project for the GallonRay House community centre. The record-breaking syndicate (for number of winning participants) had one ticket that matched the draw’s five winning numbers plus one Lucky Star to win €256,142 - each member of the syndicate received around €868 for a €100 buy-in to the syndicate.

LottoSmile’s Syndicate Winners

One advantage of playing online at LottoSmile is that you can easily join one of the many syndicates available to the biggest jackpot draws in the world. That saves you the time and trouble of finding other avid lottery fans to play with. Some of our players have enjoyed huge success playing online lottery syndicates.

Winning Powerball syndicate 316 of our players from all over the world won a secondary prize of US$50,000 playing Powerball on 5 July 2023. The syndicate missed the top jackpot prize by just 1 number after matching 5 numbers. Each share won US$158.23.

Winning Powerball syndicate – 55 of our players from around the world won a grand total of US$106,300 in cash prizes in a November 2017 Powerball draw. Each of them purchased a share in a 65-line Powerball syndicate and every single one of the syndicate’s lines won a prize! Each player’s share cost US$11.61 and won nearly US$1,900! Read their story.

Winning Oz Lotto syndicate – 22 of our players from 19 different countries won a secondary prize of AU$24,937.50 playing an Australian Oz Lotto draw in July 2018. The syndicate missed the AU$50 million jackpot by just 1 number! Each player took home AU$1,133.52. Read their story. Prizes like these are certainly attainable when you play Oz Lotto.

Become a Lottery Syndicate Success Story

Setting up and running a syndicate is no easy feat. You need to gather your friends, or family, or co-workers, and as a group decide how much to spend, what numbers to choose, and who will actually go out to purchase the tickets. After the draw someone must check the winning numbers, which in the case of many tickets might be worth multiple prizes. And if the syndicate is lucky, its members will need to collect the prize money and divide up with the winnings. The whole process is not that easy and if it’s not done correctly, it may lead to disagreements between syndicate members.

Playing lottery syndicates online at LottoSmile is far easier. We set up and manage the syndicate and pre-purchase all the participating lines. We even notify you when your syndicate wins and pay your winnings into your online account. All you need to do is choose which lottery to play and which syndicate to join, and then select the number of shares you wish to purchase.

As the many stories of lottery syndicate winners suggest, there are huge advantages to playing the lottery as a member of a group. You too can boost your chances of winning the lottery by joining a syndicate whenever you buy lottery tickets online at LottoSmile!