Big Wednesday offers players the ultimate lifestyle every week with cash and non-cash First Division prizes.
• As well as at least $2 million cash, on offer is a Lamborghini Gallardo, an Audi Q7, a $50,000 VISA Platinum card, $50,000 cash prize towards luxury travel, a Rayglass 2200 boat and a $675,000 cash prize towards a bach. All of the luxury prizes can be exchanged for cash.
• Big Wednesday was launched in October 2005 as NZ Lotteries' mid week game.
• The biggest Big Wednesday combined prize of $36,890,256 million (made up of $36,193,461 First Division and $696,795 Second Division prizes) was won in June 2009 by a ticket sold at Kuripuni Lotto and Post in Masterton. The winning syndicate was made up of three generations of women from four families.
• The easiest and simplest way to play is to purchase a Big Wednesday Dip. Each line of numbers and Head or Tail selection costs $1.00 and you must play a minimum of 4 lines, which costs a total of $4.00.
• The Big Wednesday balls are drawn from the same ball machine as the one used for Lotto. All 50 balls are purple.
• The Big Wednesday game format is a world first. There is no other lottery game in the world quite the same.
• Big Wednesday has paid out over $396 million in prizes since it began and has created over 19.2 million winners. There have been 51 First Division Big Wednesday winners in that time. *
• Big Wednesday First Division has been struck 53 times but has been shared four times. In July 2006, Big Wednesday First Division was split between two winning tickets sold in Kaikohe and Palmerston North each winning $1.39 million each, in January 2008 two players from Hawera and North Shore City won $1.33 million each, in November 2009, players from Taupo and Christchurch won over $1.8 million each, and in July 2011, a player from Christchurch and an online player in Canterbury won $4.6 million each.*
• When more than one person wins Big Wednesday First Division in the same draw, the luxury prizes are converted to their cash value which is added to the main cash component and the total value is split evenly between the winners.
• Lotto’s first-ever midweek draw was a special bonus New Year’s Eve draw on Wednesday, 31 December 1997.
• In November 2008, a Must Be Won draw was divided by 120 Division Three winners who each won $43,000.
• Two stores have sold more than one Big Wednesday First Division prize – Courts Take Note in Thames sold a $3.49 million prize in April 2007 and a $2.99 million prize in November 2007, and Pakuranga Lotto sold Big Wednesday First Division in July 2006 ($6,287,658) and December 2009 ($2,990,060).*
• Big Wednesday's Trump Up Your Life promo launched in March 2010, offering one winner and three friends a luxury week in New York - Donald Trump style!
- the Big Wednesday format was relaunched in September 2011 with 50 balls (compared to the previous 45). All luxury prizes are now up for grabs from the first jackpotting cycle.
*As of January 2012.
