Name
Type
Located
Licence
Website
Lotteries offered
Languages offered
Lottorating
thelotter
Ticket courier service
UK, Cyprus and 20+ country offices
Belize
thelotter.com
50
15
4/5
Introduction
Overview
Thelotter is perhaps the largest and best known lottery courier service (these are also known as lottery agents, ticket messenger or concierge services) and has been operating since 2002. Our thelotter review below covers all aspects of their business so that players can see how they operate.
Type of company
With a lottery agent, when you buy a line on one of their lottos, they buy a real ticket with the same numbers on your behalf. This is usually done physically in the country where the lotto is offered. They charge a commission on top of the ticket price for this service.
What lotteries they offer
They have one of the widest range of lotto products around, offering a total of 51 lotteries (well 45 or so, if you discount a few euromillions duplicates - but still lots..): Megamillions, Powerball, Superenalotto, Superenalotto Superstar, La Primitiva, Eurojackpot, Viking Lotto, Euromillions, New Zealand Powerball, Ozlotto,Superlotto Plus, El Gordo, New Jersey Pick 6 Xtra, New York Cash4life, Canada 649, Massachusetts Megabucks, New York Lotto, Australia Powerball, Romania Lotto 6/49, Ireland Lotto, Poland Lotto, South Africa Powerball, Australia Saturday Lotto, Brazil Mega Sena, UK Lotto, Finland Lotto, Italy Sivincetutto, France Loto, Florida Lotto, Switzerland Lotto, Ontario 49, Florida Lucky Money, Russia Gosloto 6/45, Australia Monday Lotto, Australia Wednesday Lotto, Greece Joker, UK Thunderball, Spain BonoLotto, Brazil Quina, Brazil Dupla Sena, Ukraine Megalot, Greece Lotto, Hungary Otoslotto, Ukraine Super Loto, South Africa Lotto, Austria Lotto, Columbia Baloto, Germany Lotto, Hungary Hatoslotto.
Customer Restrictions
Players from the US may not join.
Other products
Thelotter focusses exclusively on lottery ticket sales.
How it Works
Ticket/bet types
A wide variety of lottery ticket syndicates and multi draw combinations are offered. Their 'bundles' are a combination of syndicate and personal ticket purchases. They also offer subscriptions too. Players are able to use quickpick and 'systematic' functionality on the site. Systematic is basically a combination purchase where you cover all possible combinations of a set of numbers.
Restrictions
Since they physically buy tickets on behalf of customers and the administration of this process is quite manual, they often put restrictions on the minimum numbers of tickets you need to buy, e.g. minimum 3 tickets. It is also the reason why they push both their ticket bundles and also their syndicates too. On syndicates, one ticket purchase for thelotter can be recorded against multiple customers.
Price, Tickets & Bonuses
Ticket Prices
Thelotter charge a commission on top of the cost of the ticket to cover the administration of buying the tickets for lotteries (you otherwise wouldn't have access to). Some sample prices:
10 lines on the UK euromillions for £53.30 (normal price £20)
10 lines on megamillions for £19 (normal price $10)
Commission, Margin & Value
The commission they charge for purchasing tickets on your behalf is all inclusive, i.e., they do not charge you any additional commission on your winnings. Tickets are expensive although, as lottery agents go, their commission rates are about average. The average mark up on the ticket examples above, for example, is about 150%, i.e. a $1.00 ticket locally would cost you approx $2.50 approx. Note that price and margin is before bonusing and discounts (i.e. the cost would be a little lower).
Bonuses on Sign up
The bonuses for signing up with thelotter aren't amazing. They offer a free line or two: value <$5.
Ongoing bonuses and promotions
Thelotter have regular offers for existing (and new) customers especially for subscription purchases (around 10-15%) and discounts on bundles of tickets (around 10% too). They also do special promotions with discounted tickets for certain lottos. They also have a refer a friend program with (albeit a small) $10 bonus for recommending new players. Their VIP club offers further discounts of up to 20%.
Product & Site
Product features
- Tickets offered for 51 lotteries.
- Auto-notification of winners, full results pages and jackpot alert emails.
- Personal entry for one ticket (choose own numbers) when purchasing a larger bundle of syndicate tickets.
- Ability to subscribe to 'The Big', which means that you enter tickets twice a week for the two biggest jackpots in the world that week!
- And the ability to subscribe to 'the Smart' which means that you enter tickets twice a week for the two lotteries that week offering the best cost-benefit ratio. This is similar to RTP as explained in our lottery pages.
- Optional donation structure from winnings.
Software and access methods
This company is in the lottery business for the long term. They have invested in their own software, have several local 'agent' offices and have also built their own apps.
Site Design
Nice looking, well constructed site... Quickpick and multidraw work well. Also like the 'save my lucky numbers' option.
Trust
Licence and locations
Their licence to operate is issued in Belize in Central America.
Reputation Table
Alexa Ranking
Similarweb ranking
Google Pagerank
Webutation
Trustpilot
Company stats
Forum feedback
Facebook shares
Facebook likes
Ticket scans/Jackpot Insurance
Auto-notify winners
Other evidence of paying out
KYC & Responsible Gaming
Customer Support
Overall Lottorate Trustfactor
27,290
37,407
4/10
60/100
5.9/10 (24 reviews)
$50m paid out to 2m players (unverified)
Generally positive
494
58
Tickets are scanned to my account
Winners notified automatically
Yes - see NBC link below
Gamblers Anon, Gamcare
Toll-free lines, livechat & email
7/10
Payout confidence level
This is one of few lottery 'agents' or concierge services that we rate above average. Despite the Belize licence which has limited credibility, this company appears to be legitimate. This is a function of their size, history and also recent evidence of a jackpot winner, who successfully claimed a jackpot prize in the US bought through thelotter. Two other thelotter $1m winners are also publicized on their site.
Payments
Payment methods
25 deposit methods and 8 withdrawal methods are offered.
Taxes
Taxes are payable on lotto winnings where local taxes are applicable. If you win a US lotto jackpot for example, you are likely to have around 30% tax deducted at source. In this context, I'm not quite sure why in the case of Euromillions, thelotter purchase their tickets in Spain (where prizes > €2,500 are subject to local 20% tax) rather than in most other European countries where there are no taxes applicable. Similarly, it is odd too that thelotter choose to have local agents in three states in the US including New York, where local taxes are some of the highest! Note that you may also be liable to tax on winnings in the country in which you are resident - best to take advice locally if you win a large prize.
Other payment issues
For payments up to $2,500 winnings are transferred directly from thelotter into the winner's account. For jackpot and some second tier prizes customers may need to travel to the country where the lotto ticket was purchased to receive their winnings. In some cases this will also require local tax forms to be filled in.
Summary
Pros
Large, well established lottery agent. Very wide range of lottos offered. Good trustfactor for a ticket courier service, especially when you read news of their jackpot winners who successfully claimed their multimillion dollar/euro prizes abroad. Tickets scanned and shown in your account. 'Big' and 'smart' subscription options are good, auto-notification too (you'd think this last one were obvious but you'd be surprised...).
Cons
Minimum ticket numbers a bit limiting and bonusing not too generous. Markups on ticket prices are a bit pricey too, especially when compared to lotto betting companies - but understandable given the manual overheads. Ticket purchases in high tax jurisdictions where other options exist is a bit odd. Legalities of buying tickets via agents is covered on their site and, to a large extent, tried and tested through recent jackpot winners. Belize licence not as strong as a European one but trustfactor still good.
Verdict
This is one of few lottery agents or concierge companies that make it into my top 10 sites of where to play the lottery. Would be good to have an independent legal opinion on their site and maybe also the names of big legal companies that verify the procedure by which 'tickets are locked in a safe'. But otherwise, they do look trustworthy. Prices a bit high and you lose a lot of RTP when commissions are added but they do offer a tremendous choice of real lottery tickets.
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