EuroMillions launches with the UK, France and Spain, February 2004

Three national lotteries started EuroMillions together on 7 February 2004: Camelot in the UK, Française des Jeux in France and Loterías y Apuestas del Estado in Spain. The first draw took place in Paris on Friday 13 February 2004, so UK players were in from the first night.

In its early months there was one draw a week, on Fridays, and each line cost €2.

Later that year, from the draw on 8 October 2004, six more countries came in: Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland. The game has been played in those nine countries ever since.

The next big change came on 10 May 2011. A Tuesday draw was added alongside Friday's, and the Lucky Star pool went from 9 numbers to 11. Services aux Loteries en Europe, known as SLE, administers the game for the member lotteries.

Sources

• Wikipedia: EuroMillions (en.wikipedia.org)
• Public Gaming Research Institute: the journey of EuroMillions (publicgaming.com)
• EuroMillions.uk: a brief history of EuroMillions rule changes (euromillions.uk)