Online Lottery Site Reviews

Gone are the days when you had to go to a nearby supermarket to purchase lottery tickets for the national or local lottery. Thanks to advancements in technology and widespread internet accessibility, you can now play the lottery for real money on the World Wide Web.

What you will find here are detailed reviews of top lottery sites by simply clicking on one of the lottery agents’ reviews from our full list of lottery sites below.

Since millions of people now play the lottery online, there are tons of online lottery websites that have been rapidly developed and launched in the recent past to meet market demands. Some of these online services are excellent while some, not so much. If you are looking to play the lottery online from South Africa and don’t know which lottery website to choose, you’ve landed at the perfect place.

There are many inherent advantages to playing online. For example, you can pick your numbers and buy your lottery ticket without ever having to leave the comfort of your home. However, there is one benefit of playing online which has revolutionized the global lottery industry for good. This is the fact that players can, for the very first time, play lottery games from all over the world.

We are experts in online lottery site reviews, specifically for South African players. Here, you will find a wealth of information regarding South African-friendly online lottery websites at your fingertips. Read on to understand how our online lottery site reviews work.

We do not publish online lottery site reviews without rhyme or reason. Every lottery review published on this website has been carefully considered and only the best lottery sites have been hand-picked. To ensure all lottery sites are reviewed in an unbiased way, we use the same review methodology for each time.

The review process has been standardized so as to assess all lottery websites with the same measuring scales. Below are some of the most important factors we consider when reviewing a lottery website.

Safety/reputation: The safety, security, fairness and reputation of an online lottery site are the most important factors to consider. Before we even look at other factors of an online lottery website, we first ensure the website is legitimate and safe.

We test the lottery platform with real money and ensure it is not a scam website before we recommend it to any of our readers. We also dig into the history of the website, the track record they have maintained and monitor any consumer complaints about them to better understand the platform’s legitimacy and trustworthiness.

When you play the lottery at an online lottery site we have recommended, you can rest assured that you are in safe hands.

Game selection: As we’ve mentioned, one of the main perks of playing lottery online is that you have access to lottery games from anywhere in the world. When we review an online lottery website, we definitely pay attention to how many lottery games they offer on their platform.

Our top recommended lottery websites will support a vast game collection that includes some of the biggest and most popular lotteries across the globe, such as the US Powerball, Mega Millions, LottoLand, EuroMillions, EuroJackpot, Italian SuperEnalotto and South African national lottery games as well. Apart from lottery, some sites also offer raffles, scratch cards and even slot machines.

Features: Online lottery websites come with plenty of useful and handy features that can make playing the lottery a little easier and more fun. Some of the basic features we expect online lottery websites to provide include:-

• quick pick (where the lottery numbers are picked at random)
• SMS and email notifications for winners to alert them when they win
• scanned copies of the actual lottery ticket purchased as confirmation
• a dashboard showing the results of the latest draws,
• the ability to play bundles and syndicates, and more

These features aren’t going to ensure that you win the lottery, but they certainly can streamline the process and even increase your odds of winning in some cases.

Cost: The way in which traditional online lottery sites work is something like this – a player logs into the website, chooses a lottery game, picks their lucky numbers and makes an online payment in order to enter their ticket for the next lucky draw.

Once the ticket is successfully paid for, an employee or agent of the lottery service will physically purchase the lottery ticket and send the player a scanned copy of the ticket as confirmation of their participation.

The lottery website makes money by charging a convenience fee or commission over and above the base price of the ticket itself. This fee is completely reasonable considering you can play any lottery anywhere from your PC or even mobile. However, we check to ensure that the fee amount is within competitive limits and not unreasonably high.

User interface: When you play the lottery online, your experience from the moment you visit the lottery website till the moment you purchase a lottery ticket or claim your win depends on the site’s design and user-friendliness.

We score lottery websites on their user-friendliness. The best lottery websites have simple and intuitive layouts where even players who are not particularly tech-savvy can navigate the website with relative ease. If we find an online lottery website to be cumbersome and overly cluttered and complex, we tend to avoid recommending this to lottery players.

Mobile compatibility: Mobile compatibility is a deal-breaker for some players, but irrelevant for others. If you are often on the move and want to have the ability to enter the next draw for your favourite lottery, then mobile compatibility is an important factor when deciding which online lottery website to choose.

When we do our online lottery site reviews, we put casinos through their paces on a variety of mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. We test the platform on iOS mobile devices like various iPhones and iPads, Android devices such as Samsung, OnePlus, etc. and Windows mobile devices like the Nokia Lumia series, etc. When an online lottery website claims to be mobile-friendly, we don’t just take its word for it.

Banking Options: You are going to be playing the lottery, so there’s going to be money involved. In order to pay for your lottery tickets, you will need to make online payments at the lottery website. While some lottery websites provide a wide range of payment options for both deposits and withdrawals, others are rather restricted.

When choosing an online lottery website, you need to determine whether the site offers convenient payment methods that you are comfortable with. Our South African-friendly lottery websites support online payments such as credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, bank transfers, etc. In fact, some of our recommended lottery sites also support South African Rands, so players don’t have to deal in Dollars or Euros and lose out due to conversion rates and fees.

Customer support: Online lottery players may need help for a variety of reasons. It could be a simple question about how a certain lottery game works, a technical issue or even a payment-related issue, etc. It is good if the lottery website has a resource center that addresses FAQs, but it is very important that customer support is available 24/7 and can be reached easily through live chat, phone or email without having to wait endlessly to connect with someone.

Special offers: Players love bonuses and offers, and many online lottery websites offer such promotions in order to attract new players and get them to sign up. We are experts when it comes to evaluating a bonus for what it’s really worth and not what it is marketed as being worth. When we review an online lottery site and look into their bonuses, we look at the fine print and ensure that the terms and conditions are reasonable so that the bonus is actually benefit’s the player.

Types of Online Lottery Sites

There are three fundamental types of online lottery websites. Here is a brief description of each one for your comprehension.

Lottery agents: This is the most popular type of online lottery website you will come across. Essentially, these websites act as third-party lottery ticket purchasing services. When you pick your numbers and buy a lottery ticket, an agent representing the lottery website will personally go to a retailer, buy the ticket on your behalf and send you a scanned copy of the ticket as confirmation of your entry.

Lottery betting sites: A few online lottery websites work in a totally different way. Instead of actually participating in the lottery, players will simply bet on the outcome of the lottery and the lottery website will play the role of the bookmaker. Essentially, you will make a bet about which numbers will be the winning numbers and the website will give you odds that are comparable to the actual lottery jackpot, should you win. These betting websites are able to pay out such huge winning bets because all bets are insured in this model.

Online lottery syndicates: Lottery syndicates are a very interesting way to play the lottery. When you play a lottery syndicate, you can actually significantly increase your odds of winning the lottery. A few lottery websites provide syndicate services exclusively, but most lottery websites offer both lottery agent and lottery syndicate options together.

Playing a syndicate simply means that you are playing the lottery as a group of players rather than a single individual. Therefore, if any ticket within the group turns out to be the winning ticket, then everyone in the group wins. The jackpot value for winning might come down, but it is still going to be a significant amount of money considering the increased odds.

Buying a lottery ticket online is pretty straightforward. First and foremost, you need to be of legal age within the jurisdiction where you are playing the lottery. In order to buy a lottery ticket, you will have to register with an online lottery website.

Once you’ve successfully signed up with a lottery service, you can proceed to pick one of the lottery games you want to participate in. Depending on which lottery game, you will have to select numbers on your lottery ticket accordingly. After picking all your lottery numbers on the ticket, you can make an online payment for the ticket and the ticket will be purchased on your behalf.

The cost to play the lottery will depend on a number of different factors. In general, lottery games are considered an inexpensive form of gambling, especially when compared to a visit to a casino. Different lotteries have different rates per line entry. Therefore, the cost of the ticket will depend not only on which lottery you are playing, but also on how many lines you are going to enter. Furthermore, the online lottery website service you use will also charge a convenience fee.

Without factoring the convenience fee, the cost per play for some of the world’s most popular international lotteries are as below.

US Powerball: $2 per play

Mega Millions: $2 per play

Euro Millions: €2.50 for a standard ticket entry

Italy SuperEnalotto: €1

All of these lotteries also offer some special entries and features for an additional cost.

The odds of winning the lottery will vary based on the lottery game and what prize you are considering the odds for.

The jackpot prize is usually the highest reward in a lottery game and it has the worst odds. However, most lotteries may offer anywhere from 5-10 lower-tier prizes after the jackpot and the odds of winning one of these prizes are much better.

The odds of winning the jackpot prize for some world-famous lotteries are as below.

US Powerball: 1 in 292,201,338

Mega Millions: 1 in 302.5 million

Euro Millions: 1 in 139,838,160

Italy SuperEnalotto: 1 in 622.6 million

When choosing an online lottery reviews website, we would suggest that you stick to our recommended list since we have done all the groundwork, testing and research for you. Our recommended lottery websites are safe, entertaining and offer the best value for your time and money.

How Can I Choose the Right Lottery Site?

If you would like to assess an online lottery website yourself, we would suggest some general rules of thumb such as:

Company background and reputation: Make sure that the lottery website is reputable and has a good track record. We suggest you read independent reviews of the website to ensure it is a legitimate service and not an online scam.

Promotions: As a new player, you could get treated to a free lottery ticket or other offers at online lottery sites. Check which promotions are offered and choose the site with the most attractive promotion for your needs.

Terms and Conditions: We suggest you read through the terms and conditions of the lottery website before signing up to understand how things work and all the dos and don’ts.