Choosing
Lottery Software

Lottery software comes in many shapes and forms - from software to analyse interesting historical patterns to syndicate manager software. Prices range from free to outrageously expensive. Here's what to look for when choosing your lottery software:

Types of Lottery Software

Syndicate Management Software - software to make managing your own syndicate as pain free as possible. Basic features include the ablity to enter all your syndicate members and their chosen numbers into the database. Plus the ability to input winnings and have the software work out who is due what share of the pot. But also look out for the ability to manage what money members have paid, and what is due. This is, after all, the painful part of running a syndicate. If the software can automatically generate payment requests - paper or even better emails - then so much the better. Adding new members and closing off members that leave should be simple. Ideally you want a tool that will print your syndicates numbers directly onto playslips for minimal admin effort. But even an easily readable report of all numbers to play is better than nothing. Obvious perhaps, but do make sure the software covers the lottery for the country you want to play.

Entry Management Software - similar to syndicate management software, but for the lone player who takes their lottery entries seriously, and wants to manage their own entries only. Syndicate software would probably do the trick but may be a little over the top in some area. Look for strong reporting features so you can easily analyse how you have been doing - charts and graphs are nice here to give a quick visual guide, but make sure you can also get hard figures if that's what you need. You also want ease of managing your entries - inputting your chosen lines, amending them, and outputting them for purchase of tickets.

Lottery Analysis Software - kind of the red herring in the lottery software world. Analysis software can be addictive and fascinating. But it gives you nothing more than interesting facts and figures. If that's what you need, great. But don't use past results to attempt to predict future draws - it's waste of time! No matter how expensive it is, it won't make any difference to your chances. If it really worked, why would the publisher bother selling it instead of just using it!

Lottery Wheeling Software - software to easily generate wheels of lottery numbers. That is, you tell it what numbers you want to cover, and it gives you every possible combination of those numbers. More complicated software will provide 'abbreviated wheels' and 'win guarantees'. People get the impression wheeling works, but only because it usually means playing more lines than that person ever played before in a single draw! And of course, that's the only way to improve chances of winning. Wheeling is interesting but it does nothing to improve your chances of winning over playing the same number of random entries. It simply can't. Makes checking your results easier though.

Having said that, do take a look at WinLottoSystems though - it's the most honest and sensible wheeling system I've ever come across.

Number Generation Software - random number generation is a science! It really isn't as easy it it sounds. You want to be reassured that the software you are using is genuinely random. Poor programming and some programming languages can lead to number generation with a distinct bias - and that means everyone who uses it will have at least some tendency towards ending up with similar numbers. Test a trial version if possible and analyse a very large set of results, if this is of particular concern.