How Can Lottery Longshots Improve Your Play?

Around the world, serious lottery players are always looking for lottery number patterns or trends that will give them an advantage; that will give them that winning edge. But, there is one lottery number pattern that exists in all lotteries that many players aren't even aware of and it cost them dearly. These lottery number patterns are called Longshots.

For those that don't know what Longshots are in lottery parlance, we'll start with some history and a definition. A few years back there was a lottery strategy that became popular that, for lack of a better name, we'll call the Hot Number Strategy. With it came the usual marketing hype that you would expect. The pitch went something like this:

More than 80% of all winning lottery numbers have Hit in the last 10 drawings. Therefore, to improve your chances of winning the lottery create your play list from all the winning numbers in the last 10 drawings.

If you accept the hypothesis then the conclusion seems plausible. But, let's look a little deeper. Implicit in this strategy is the opposite side of the coin. Any lottery numbers that haven't Hit in the last 10 drawings are considered a rather dubious pick and should be avoided. Hence, these lottery numbers were dubbed 'Longshots'. The term persists to this day and I even use it. However, I do not use the word Longshot disparagingly; I use it with reverence. They are an absolute necessity for any viable lottery strategy.

For all of those lottery players who got caught up in the Hot Number Strategy hype, this was, no doubt, a very expensive lesson. They spent a lot of money on lottery tickets and ended up without much to show for their investment.

The reason the Hot Number Strategy was such a disaster was because it excluded Longshots. Including Longshots is vital to any successful lottery strategy because, on the average, 25% to 40% of the winning numbers are Longshots! You heard me right; 25% to 40%.

I know this is true because I've analyzed every lottery in the US and Canada over the last 20+ years and this is as true today as it was when I started. The percentage varies from lottery to lottery as the size of the lotteries change. For example, the percentage is higher for a 6/54 lottery than it is for a 6/39 lottery. But, this lottery number pattern is as solid as Mount Rushmore.

How can you verify this? Simple. Well, maybe not so simple if you don't have some excellent lottery software. But, either way, this is the approach. For each lottery drawing, list all of the lottery numbers that have Hit in the last 10 drawings. Any lottery number not in the list must be a Longshot. Count how many winning numbers in the next drawing were Longshots. Do this for the entire lottery history. If you average the number of Longshots that were winners, you will find the answer lies somewhere between 25 to 40 percent.

Let's take this to the next logical step. Assuming that the answer you got was 30%, then, on the average, 30% of the winning numbers in the next drawing would be Longshots. If you were playing a 6/48 lottery, this means that you should expect 1.8 winning numbers to be Longshots. (30% x 6 = 1.8) Of course, this doesn't happen every drawing but it is unwaveringly 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.

Perhaps now you see why the Hot Number Strategy aficianados lost so much money. On the average, they consistently came up 1.8 numbers short in their play lists. It must have been (and still is) very frustrating for those using this weak lottery strategy.

Some of you are, no doubt, asking how you can take advantage of Longshot when you play. Continuing with the example above, it is very simple. Let's say you decide to pare down the 48 lottery numbers to a 37 number play list by using lottery analysis software. This is a good strategy since you have eliminated 9,946,728 wagers from play! Since you confidently expect 30% of the winning lottery numbers to be Longshots, you make sure that 11 of those 37 lottery numbers in your play list are Longshots. (30%x37=11.1)

This is how using Longshots can improve your overall play. It is a lottery strategy used by serious lottery players everywhere. Lottery strategies like this fall under the category: playing the odds. In fact, that's what all successful gamblers do; play the odds.

Professor Dolph is a world-famous Lottery expert, lecturer and columnist who developed the breakthrough lottery software known as LONA. For a new and refreshing look the lottery, visit Winning the Lottery.