the operator A printed tier is a promise. If fewer lines match than the rule expected, the operator still pays the printed sum, and the shortfall comes out of the fund's other lines - mostly the carried tier, which is why a generous printed tier reduces the rollover.
Draw Desk / The tiers
Draw 05
Three ways a tier gets its number
Two draws can have identical odds and pay wildly different amounts, because odds decide who wins a tier and the rules decide what a tier is worth. Every tier is set in one of three ways - a printed sum, a fund split among its winners, or money carried forward - and the family is what a player can act on.
Draw ticket
- Sheet
- DD-57-06
- Subject
- The tiers
- Amounts set by
- printed / split / carried
- Order of payment
- lower tiers first
3 tiersA printed sum: the rules state the amount, and it pays whoever matched, however many that is
1 tierA split fund: a declared share of the prize fund, divided among the lines that matched it
1 tierCarried forward: an unwon share of the fund moved into a later draw instead of paid
Direct answerA tier's amount is either printed in the rules as a fixed sum, split among however many lines matched that tier from a declared share of the prize fund, or carried forward to a later draw when nobody wins it. In a typical draw the lower tiers are printed and small, a middle tier is split, and the top tier is a share that carries forward when it is not won.
Printed sums are knowableSplit funds depend on the crowdCarried money is old moneyLower tiers are paid first
Printed sums
A printed tier pays the amount the rules state, whatever the draw did. Its virtue is that it is knowable before the ticket is bought and does not change with the size of the jackpot or the number of winners. Its cost is that a printed tier is paid out of the fund like any other, so a draw whose printed tiers are generous has less room above them, and the top tier's share is correspondingly smaller. The lower tiers of most draws - a small fixed sum for matching two or three numbers - are printed for exactly this reason: they are the frequent, cheap, predictable end of the product.
Split funds
A split tier has a declared share of the prize fund and divides it among the lines that matched it. The amount is unknown until the draw closes, and it moves with both the size of the fund and the number of winners. One winner takes the whole share; a thousand winners divide it. This is the tier where how other people chose their numbers becomes a money question rather than a curiosity, because a tier that many lines match pays less to each of them.
Carried money
A carried tier's share is not paid at all when nobody wins it, and is moved into a later draw. This is the rollover. It is the only mechanism in the product that can make one draw's prize larger than its own sales would allow, because a carried top tier is a sum of shares from several draws rather than a share of one. It is also the mechanism most often misread: a large top tier does not mean the draw pays back more of what is staked in it, only that earlier draws' fund shares were not paid out and are waiting.
Worked example - dividing one fund between the tiers (illustrative)
Sample draw: 2,000,000 tickets at 2.00; taken 4,000,000.00; prize fund at 50% = 2,000,000.00
Lower tiers, printed and paid first (expected winners at these odds):
match 2: 194,960 winners x 2.00 = 389,920.00
match 3: 20,798 winners x 25.00 = 519,950.00
match 4: 917 winners x 100.00 = 91,700.00
match 5: 14 winners x 1,000.00 = 14,000.00
sum of the printed tiers = 1,015,570.00
What remains for the top tier, which is split among its winners and carried if unwon:
2,000,000.00 - 1,015,570.00 = 984,430.00
Expected top-tier winners in this draw:
2,000,000 / 45,057,474 = 0.044 of a winner
So in most draws of this size the top tier is not won at all, and its 984,430.00
is carried into a later draw rather than paid - which is the whole mechanism of the
rollover, and the reason the advertised figure and the fund are two different numbers.
Who carries the tier nobody won
printed
split
the winners A split tier carries nothing. Whatever it is worth, it is paid to its winners in this draw, and the crowd decides how thinly it is spread. There is no carry-over and no shortfall: the share is paid in full, to more or fewer hands.
carried
the next draw A carried tier is deferred, not lost. The money is not the operator's and not this draw's winners'. It is payable in a later draw, subject to the cap and the rules on forcing a win, which is the rollover page.
Tiers, in the order they are decided
- The fund is fixed at the close of sales. The percentage of what was taken becomes the fund. Nothing after this point changes its size.
- Printed tiers are paid first. Their amounts are known, so they are subtracted from the fund at once, and they are the tiers most often won.
- Split tiers take their declared share. A middle tier's share of the fund is divided among its winners, so its per-winner amount is set by the crowd rather than by the rules.
- What remains is the top tier's share. If exactly one line won it, that line takes the share; if several did, they divide it; if none did, it is carried forward under the rules.