Question: What is a prediction list?

Answer: A prediction list is a list of plays that have improved odds of winning. (A play is a set of 6 numbers that you select and then have them printed on a ticket for a certain lotto draw.)
Twice or three times a week, before each draw we publish the prediction list so anyone can use it when playing for that draw.

Question: For which kinds of lotteries are the prediction lists made?

Answer: Currently we calculate prediction lists for lotteries of the 6 / 49 type that are played across Canada, US, Spain and UK. In the near future we don't plan to start calculating predictions for other types of lotteries, unless a significant collaboration opportunity comes up for that purpose.

Question: How can I use a prediction list?

Answer:
- First, be sure the date of the current prediction list is the same as the date of the lotto draw you want to play for.
  Please do not use past prediction lists!
- Download the .zip file archive of the prediction list onto your computer (its full file name looks like this: 20070318-predictlist.zip).
- Open the .zip file and extract the .txt file to one of your folders of your computer.
That .txt file is the actual prediction list (its full file name looks like this: 20070318-predictlist.txt). Open it with a text editor like Notepad or WordPad. Choose one or a few of the plays from the list. If you choose a few, pick them so they are not so close to each other and they don't share more than 2 numbers.
Good Luck!

Question: How many plays should I choose in order to win the biggest prize?

The mathematical answer is not very encouraging: a totally certain win can happen only when all the 14 million possible combinations are played for one draw.
But in the real world nobody can do that, so we have to play within realistic limits, and that's the reason for trying to improve the odds of winning.
You should always understand the game: it is possible to lose, so think how you can minimize the loss. We can help a bit here by trying to improve the odds of winning on all type of matches (6, 5+Bonus, 5, 4, 3 and 2+Bonus), so it's more likely that you will get some money back if you use our prediction lists. On the other hand, as you see the history of our lists, sometimes our prediction doesn't have much improvement of winning odds. These are good reasons for not playing too many plays for a draw, with or without our lists or any other prediction system. We recommend choosing up to 10 plays per draw if you are an individual player, and up to 100 plays per draw if you play with a group of friends.

All the games that use probabilities require patience and wisdom of playing. If you play too many plays at once it is likely that you will lose a lot of money at once, and next time you won't be able to play at all. That "next time" is likely to be your time as well, so be prepared for it by planning the financial resources for it, without neglecting the rest of your life.   Play smart by knowing your limit!

Question: Why are there so many plays in a prediction list?

Answer: Actually, the number of plays in our prediction lists, around 700 000, is much smaller than the number of all possible plays: almost 14 million. (the exact number is 13 983 816)
After the draw, in case the prediction list has the winning play (6 number set) we simply say we improved the odds by 20 times, because a player could have chosen it from our 700 000 plays, instead of choosing it from all those 14 million possible plays.
The number of plays in a list can be between 600 000 and 990 000, because the criteria and algorithms that we use vary with the trends of the respective lottery draws. That means the odds improvement can be between 15 and 23 times, (that is for the 6-number set that wins the jackpot).

Question: Is there a way to improve the odds to much more than 20 times for the 6 number-set win?

Answer: Well, first of all, don't forget that it is not 20 times all the time. We do not catch the winning 6 number-set in every prediction list, but sometimes we get other winning plays with improved odds: 5 numbers-set+Bonus with up to 12 times improvement, 5 numbers-set and 4 numbers-set with up to 4 times improvement, 3 numbers-set with up to 2 times improvement.
You can also improve your chances if you play more than 1 play. If you play 10 plays of our prediction list is likely to have your odds increased by 10 x 20 = 200 times, and that is for the big prize (when we catch the 6 number set with our prediction). But again, avoid playing more than 10 plays per draw if you play alone, because you might lose too much for an unlucky draw. With a group of friends, 100 plays gives the group a 100 x 20 = 2000 times increase in winning odds.
When playing more than one play, be careful not to overlap too much the plays. We recommend that the plays that you choose not to share more than 2 numbers. For example, these two plays: [ 5, 7, 12, 14, 25, 29 ] and [ 4, 12, 23, 29, 31, 48 ] share 2 numbers: 12 and 29.

Question: What is a check list?

Answer: A checklist indicates how much we improved the odds in its corresponding prediction list. After the draw we verify the prediction list against the numbers of the draw, in order to see which of our predicted plays won and what they won. The result of that verification is the check list. Each line in the check list contains 5 fields:

• LineID : The ID of the line from the corresponding prediction list
• PlayedNumbers : The 6 numbers set of the play from the prediction list
• WinNumbers : The winning numbers subset from the play in the PlayedNumbers field
• MatchesType : It shows how many numbers are in the winning subset: it can be: 6, or 5+Bonus, or 5, or 4, or 3, or 2+Bonus.
• BonusNumber : Indicates the Bonus number if it was caught in a winning subset of the play. If not available, it shows NA.

Question: What is a checklist summary?

Answer: A checklist summary is a small table that shows how many plays of a prediction list proved to have winning number-sets in the end, after the draw. It shows at a glance how good our prediction was, that's why we post a checklist summary along with every past prediction list, in each lottery page and also in its archive pages.

Question: If the lotto company finds the prediction list here in advance, can they change the results so the prediction fails?

Answer: We don't know what a lotto company can do, but we assume they are honest and objective, and that means hopefully they keep the game independent from any kind of influence.

Question: Are you using some kinds of mathematical formulas to calculate the prediction lists? Can you publish them?

Answer: The way we evaluate the probability of every number and every play combination is more experimental than theoretical. As we mentioned above, the mathematical theories specify that any kind of prediction is impossible. We say OK, we can't predict the exact 6 numbers winning play, but sometimes we can narrow down the huge pool of 14 million combinations to a smaller bucket of about 700 000 (as you can notice in the list history, it can be between 600 000 and 990 000). So unfortunately at this moment we don't have any formalized mathematical explanation that can be published properly. However we are open to theoretical discussions on our forum and we allow that our lists be used in academic research.

Question: Can I copy the prediction lists of RationalPlay on my web site?

Answer: No. The lists and the content of this site are the property of RationalPlay. The prediction lists of RationalPlay can be used only for personal non-commercial or academic purposes.

Question: If I win by using your prediction lists, do I owe anything to RationalPlay?

Answer: No, you don't owe us a cent. It would be nice if you let us know about your success, even in an anonymous way on the forum or by email. Also, once you get rich, it would be great if you don't forget about those so many poor people around the world, so be kind and donate a bit of your fortune to a charity or foundation that can help them. Good luck!