There are two approaches to playing the lottery. The first one is to rely on your lucky numbers, quick pick, or inspiration at the given moment. The alternative is to analyze various factors to come up with a suitable lotto strategy. If you like strategizing when assembling tickets, make sure to consider lottery wheeling systems.
You are in the right place to learn everything about wheeling. This article offers a detailed guide to lottery wheels. We cover everything from its benefits to major elements and system types. Keep reading to learn more and try this method of playing the lotto!
A wheeling system is a way of playing the lottery. Some call it a method, others a strategy. Whatever name you use, it’s an approach that could potentially boost your winning odds.
The main idea of designing a lottery wheel is to organize your lotto gameplay to have more chances of winning prizes.These systems focus on utilizing mathematics. It all starts by selecting the numbers and then grouping them in multiple combinations.
The lottery wheeling systems seems complicated at face level. But it’s just an auto generation of lucky numbers for you based on different rules. You can get numbers based on different systems, and most times, the numbers guarantee a win.
A lottery wheeling system relies on purchasing more than a single ticket. The exact number depends on the chosen wheel. The important thing is that lotto wheels are easy. They apply simplicity to advanced math. That’s what makes them popular among beginners and advanced players.
It’s useful because not only does it increase your chances of winning, you will also be using science to beat the lottery system.
What Is Number Wheeling?
Number wheeling is a different name used for lottery wheel systems. It’s suitable because you’ll be “wheeling” a selection of numbers to boost your lottery odds. That means you combine the selected digits in a particular way.
You can wheel as many numbers as you want. However, the more digits you choose, the bigger the number of tickets required to play.
The Top Strategies to Use with Lottery Wheeling
Have you decided to try lottery wheels? If yes, you should choose the numbers for your wheeling system. That’s where other lotto strategies could help.
Here is an overview of strategic methods that could be useful when selecting the numbers:
It all comes down to balance. The law of probability indicates that numbers in a single lottery draw can’t be all odd or all low. That’s why balancing the chosen numbers is vital. You want to pick even and odd, but also low and high numbers.
A median value can serve as guidance. The median value in Canada Lotto 6/49 is 24.5 since that’s half of the highest number in the pot. If you add up the value of all numbers chosen for your ticket, the median value should be as close to 24.5 as possible. This strategy also relies on the law of probability. It can also be beneficial when choosing numbers for the lottery wheeling systems.
Rely on statistics and previous draw analysis. Is there an overdue number that wasn’t drawn for a while? Are there hot numbers that are particularly popular? It depends on whether you want to follow statistics or play against it. Either way, a detailed previous draw analysis can be useful for choosing the numbers.
What Are the Benefits of Using a Lottery Wheeling System?
Lottery wheels have been around for decades. They’ve proven to be an efficient strategy for many players, but why would you choose them?
Check out the advantages offered by a lotto wheel:
It’s a science-based system. If we are precise, it’s a math-based method. The idea is to approach ticket designing systematically to improve your winning odds.
Maximum number coverage. Lottery wheels ensure you cover the numbers selected to play extensively. If you are lucky enough to guess the right digits, that will enhance big win chances.
A simple method of playing the lotto. You might be wary of math, but lottery wheels are easy to play. It comes down to a few basic steps to use this advanced lotto method.
Applicable to virtually any lottery. You might need to tweak the system a bit based on the game chosen. But apart from that, lotto wheels are applicable to any lotto ranging from US Powerball to Portugal Totoloto.
The Best Wheeling System Software
Are you having problems with choosing the numbers for your lottery wheel? It’s another area where using lotto software can be useful. We selected the best tools to utilize when assembling your wheeling system below.
1. Lotto Pro
Lotto Pro offers an extensive library of previous draws. It covers lotteries from different continents and updates the drawing archive regularly. The software utilizes statistical analysis to help you select the best numbers to play in the upcoming round.
You only need to purchase Lotto Pro once, and you can use it forever. The software works with all Windows versions back to Win XP. It’s an excellent choice for wheeling systems, especially since it simplifies previous draw analysis.
Lotto Sorcerer is another software that has wheeling utilities. Satori Publishing added an option to create and edit a wheel easily. You can also use features to analyze previous draws.
The tool supports more than 600 lotteries, which is impressive. You can add more because of the web scraping capability. Lotto Sorcerer isn’t the easiest software to use. However, it will be worth going through a small learning curve. The tool comes with 12 trial uses, which means you can try it before buying.
Gail Howard is a pioneer when it comes to designing lottery strategies based on mathematics. It was in the 1980s when she started making lotto systems. Today, you’ll find her publications are among the best lottery books in the market.
Lotto – How to Wheel a Fortune reached its fourth edition in 2007. It contains more than 400 pages of various lotto wheeling systems. It covers all lotteries that have up to 59 numbers in the pot. You can find many ready-to-use systems that focus on pick-6 and pick-7 wheels.
2. Combinatorial Lottery Systems (Wheels) with Guaranteed Wins
Iliya Bluskov wrote this book that focuses on pick-6 lotteries. Fortunately, most lotto games use this drawing format, so the publication is highly versatile.
The author tried to make the lottery wheels economical. That means he optimized the combinatorics to give you the best odds of winning with minimum investment. You’ll see a complete possible win table with each system, which is helpful. The book is only available as a paperback edition.
How Does a Lottery Wheeling System Work?
Allow us to give an example of a lottery wheel, so you could better understand it. We picked Romania Lotto 6/49, which means the highest number in the drum is 49.
Our goal is to pick seven numbers for this system. We chose “4, 11, 15, 22, 28, 39, 46.” But in order to make it simpler, we’ll use letters instead of numbers.
Here is a quick table for you to understand better:
A – 4
B – 11
C – 15
D – 22
E – 28
F – 39
G – 46
So, our wheel pool is “ABCDEFG.” However, we can only put six numbers on a single ticket. That gives us the following combinations:
ABCDEF
ABCDEG
ABCDFG
ABCEFG
ABDEFG
BCDEFG
The conclusion is this system requires playing six combinations. That means you’ll buy six different ticket combinations. And if four of the seven numbers in the wheel are drawn, you’ll have at least a single winning ticket.
4 Steps to Playing a Lottery Wheeling System
The easiest way to explain a lottery wheeling system is to describe the steps to playing it. This is what you need to when designing a lotto wheel:
Pick a lottery you want to play. These systems are applicable to virtually any lotto in the world.
Choose a suitable system. You can go for full, abbreviated, key-number, or other wheel options. We’ll describe them in detail later.
Pick the numbers for the wheel. It’s time to select the numbers to include in your wheel.
Follow the wheel specifics and choose how many combinations to play. Each combination is a single ticket. That’s why you want to choose the wheel that suits your budget and feels like a smart choice. Finally, purchase those tickets and wait for the draw!
Major Elements of Every Wheeling System
If you want to understand lottery wheels better, it’s crucial to recognize their major elements.That’s why experts designed the “Wheel Tag” or “Identification.” This is a simple code that describes the entire wheel by using only six symbols.
Those symbols contain all the major elements of a wheeling system, including:
Type. Did you choose a full (F), abbreviated (A), or a key number (K) wheel?
Lottery. This number describes the lotto. If you see “6,” that means the lottery’s main pot format is 6/XX. It implies you need to guess six numbers from the primary drum to win the grand prize.
Number pool. This indicates how many numbers you’ll play in the system. It can be anywhere from 3 to 15 or more. However, the more numbers chosen, the more tickets are required for optimal coverage.
Win guarantee. This implies how many numbers you need to guess CORRECTLY to have a guaranteed win. If you see “4-4,” you’ll need four winning numbers to be among those you picked in the wheel. If that requirement is met, you’ll have at least one winning ticket in the tier that requires guessing four numbers right.
How many combinations did you play? The last digit marks the number of combinations in the wheel.
Here’s an example of a Wheel Tag:
“A-5-7-4-4-8”
That marks an abbreviated wheel for a lottery that requires guessing five numbers for the grand prize. It indicates the system has seven numbers in the wheel pool. If you guess four of them correctly, you’ll win at least a single prize in the four-number-requirement reward tier. Finally, there are eight combinations in this wheel.
The Main Types of Wheeling Systems
You have a wide range of lottery wheeling systems available. The best way to find a suitable one is to learn more about the available options. Here are the top seven lotto wheel systems available!
1. Key Number Wheel
A key number wheel is a convenient way of making the system more economical. It relies on a single or “key” number that needs to be present in every combination.
Here’s an example. These would be the numbers for your wheel: K (Key), A, B, C, D, E, F.
Now, let’s say you picked a pick-6 game. Key has to be in every combination, which means these are the potential options:
KABCDE
KABCDF
KABDEF
KACDEF
KBCDEF
This reduces the number of combinations to play, making the system more budget-friendly. The problem with the wheel is that you will significantly reduce your chances if the key number doesn’t get drawn. Here is how this will work in practice:
Your Number Line:
KEY
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
Potential Combinations:
Ticket 1
KEY
A
B
C
D
E
Ticket 2
KEY
A
B
C
D
F
Ticket 3
KEY
A
B
D
E
F
Ticket 4
KEY
A
C
D
E
F
Ticket 5
KEY
B
C
D
E
F
Advantages of Key Number Wheel
One of the most significant advantages of the key number wheel system is that the combinations you can potentially play are reduced quite a bit, which immediately means fewer tickets and a more budget-friendly strategy in general.
This makes it perfect for most lottery lovers who want to try a potentially winning system without breaking the bank.
Disadvantages of Key Number Wheel
Generally, we can say that the key number wheel system has only one true disadvantage. And, of course, that’s the key number itself. The approach is excellent as you will be covering most playing scenarios with a minimal initial bet amount, which looks fantastic on the surface.
However, the real success of the system relies on the key number, and if it doesn’t come, you will be losing too frequently in the long run.
Online lottery gaming is unlike betting, where you can make a great prediction based on several factors. Instead, you will be putting too much faith in a unique number without any evidence to back your prediction.
2. Full Wheel
As the name suggests, the full wheel covers all potential combinations in a system. For example, we can use a full wheel for a pick-6 lottery, but the total possible combinations will be just too much, and we won’t be able to cover them.
The potential combinations are:
ABCDEF
ABCDEG
ABCDFG
ABCEFG
ABDEFG
BCDEFG
We’ll compare it to the key number wheel system described above. The key option reduced the number of required combinations by one. Although it made playing the system cheaper, it relies on a single number. The key wheel doesn’t rely on a particular number but covers all potential combinations.
The full wheel gives you the best odds of winning big if you guess the right numbers. The problem is that it can be expensive to play. For example, you’ll need 84 combinations to cover every option in a pick-6 lotto game with six numbers in the wheel pool.
That said, let’s not overcomplicate things and check out how this works in practice when we play a standard lottery game, and we have to pick from seven numbers with a line of ABCDEFG. You can check out how the complete potential combinations will work in practice below:
Your Number Line:
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
Potential Combinations:
Ticket 1
A
B
C
Ticket 2
A
B
D
Ticket 3
A
B
E
Ticket 4
A
B
F
Ticket 5
A
B
G
Ticket 6
A
C
D
Ticket 7
A
C
E
Ticket 8
A
C
F
Ticket 9
A
C
G
Ticket 10
A
D
E
Ticket 11
A
D
F
Ticket 12
A
D
G
Ticket 13
A
D
H
Ticket 14
A
E
F
Ticket 15
A
E
G
Ticket 16
A
E
H
Ticket 17
B
C
D
Ticket 18
B
C
E
Ticket 19
B
C
F
Ticket 20
B
C
G
Ticket 21
B
D
E
Ticket 22
B
D
F
Ticket 23
B
D
G
Ticket 24
B
E
F
Ticket 25
B
E
G
Ticket 26
B
F
G
Ticket 27
C
D
E
Ticket 28
C
E
F
Ticket 29
C
E
G
Ticket 30
C
F
G
Ticket 31
C
D
F
Ticket 32
C
D
G
Ticket 33
D
E
F
Ticket 34
D
E
G
Ticket 35
D
F
G
Ticket 36
E
F
G
Advantages of the Full Wheel System
There is nothing quite like the full wheel lottery system. What makes it unique and a preferred approach for so many players is that they guarantee they will get something out of their game.
That’s possible because this system theoretically covers all possible combinations for the numbers you have chosen to play. And when you have all possible scenarios covered, how can you potentially lose?
Disadvantages of the Full Wheel System
As you are basically covering all possible outcomes from a particular lottery draw with this system, there is only one true disadvantage that comes with it. And this is the price of the tickets, or more precisely, the quantity of all the tickets.
So when you use this strategy, depending on the numbers you are playing, you might need to pay tens or even hundreds of tickets, which always makes for a very significant investment.
3. Abbreviated Wheel
This wheel is another way of reducing the expense required to play these systems. The idea is to identify the number of combinations required to win if you match a particular amount of numbers. It relies on advanced math, but let’s see an example.
You picked eight numbers in the wheel pool for a pick-6 lottery. Those numbers are ABCDEFGH. The math says you’ll need seven combinations and guessing at least four numbers to have at least a single winning ticket.
The combinations you’ll play are:
ABCDEG
BCDEGH
BCDEFG
ADEFGH
ACDEFH
ABDEFH
ABCFGH
The winning ticket will have at least four matching numbers. The problem is that an abbreviated wheel cannot guarantee a jackpot. You could guess all numbers correctly but miss the grand prize. There’s a chance you’ll win it, but no guarantee. In practice, all of this will look like this:
Your Number Line:
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
Potential Combinations:
Ticket 1
A
B
C
D
E
G
Ticket 2
B
C
D
E
G
H
Ticket 3
B
C
D
E
F
G
Ticket 4
A
D
E
F
G
H
Ticket 5
A
C
D
E
F
H
Ticket 6
A
B
D
E
F
H
Ticket 7
A
B
C
F
G
H
Advantages of the Abbreviated Wheel System
Undoubtedly, this particular system is the most balanced of the other lottery gaming approaches you can take. This makes it one of the most frequently used systems in the lottery gaming world.
Its flexibility comes from the advanced math used to determine the potential winning combinations, which results in lower bets, and a better chance of taking down the jackpot. What more would you want from a lottery betting system?
Disadvantages of the Abbreviated Wheel System
The abbreviated wheel system will always provide great predictions for the upcoming numbers in a particular lottery draw.
However, as these predictions will be based purely on advanced math, there is no guarantee that you will ever take down the lottery jackpot, which is not news that most players want to hear.
4. Filtered Wheel – Bringing All the Systems Together
As its name suggests, the filtered wheel is one last method, or we should say filter, that can additionally customize every lotto wheel system to your preference. For example, you can implement a filter to remove all odd digits from the finalized lines of picked numbers.
You can even remove all numbers under a particular border in other scenarios. The opportunities with a filtered wheel are limitless. The only thing to be aware of is that these filters will frequently destroy your winning guarantee, but if this is not bothering you, the filtered wheel will be a powerful tool.
Advantages of the Filtered Wheel System
Have you ever come across another lottery gaming tool that will provide you with even a fraction of the freedom that this system has to offer?
With the filtered wheel, you can always additionally customize every lottery gaming system to be suitable for your needs and preferences. This may allow you to reach new heights in winnings you never knew were possible up until that moment.
Disadvantages of the Filtered Wheel System
It may sound pretty cool to customize every lottery gaming system, but in reality, this is far from easy. First, you will always have to rely on plenty of experience to do something like that correctly.
On top of that, almost all lottery gaming systems are created in harmony with the latest detail, which means even a slight difference can make you lose every winning guarantee available before changing the system.
5. Pick 3 Wheel
A pick-3 wheel is an option where you use three numbers from your system per combination. For example, you picked seven numbers for your wheel pool – ABCDEFG. Each ticket requires placing three of those numbers. The potential combinations are ABC, ABD, ABE, ABF, ABG, ACD, ACE, ACF, ACG, ADE, ADF, ADG, ADH, AEF, AEG, AEH, BCD, BCE, BCF, BCG, BDE, BDF, BDG, BEF, BEG, BFG, CDE, CEF, CEG, CFG, CDF, CDG, DEF, DEG, DFG, and EFG.
The potential combinations are just like in the full wheel example we presented above. That means there are 36 combinations to play. You can reduce them by choosing a key digit. If you pick it to be “A,” you’ll have 16 combinations left.
Total Numbers
Winning Guarantee
Total Tickets
4
3/3
4
6
3/3
20
7
3/3
35
8
3/3
56
6. Pick 4 Wheel
This wheel is a variation from the previous system. The difference is that you pick to include four numbers on a wheeling ticket.
Let’s say your wheel pool is ABCDEFG, so seven numbers inside it. The potential combinations are ABCD, ABCE, ABCF, ABCG, ACDE, ACDF, ACDG, ADEF, ADEG, AEFG, BCDE, BDEF, BDEG, BCEG, BCEF, BDFG, CDEF, CEFG, CDEG, and DEFG. That’s 20 potential combinations, and you can reduce it to ten if you choose a key digit.
Total Numbers
Winning Guarantee
Total Tickets
4
4/4
24
6
3/4
3
7
4/4
35
9
3/4
14
11
3/4
26
12
3/4
39
13
3/4
55
14
3/4
77
18
3/4
148
19
3/4
164
20
3/4
189
7. Pick 5 Wheel
If you go with this variation, you’ll need to add five numbers from the wheel pool to each ticket. Let’s say that your pool contains six numbers – ABCDEF.
The potential combinations are ABCDE, ABCDF, ABCEF, ACDEF, and BCDEF. The number of options increases if you add more numbers to the pool. You can reduce the number of combinations by using a key digit.
Total Numbers
Winning Guarantee
Total Tickets
7
5/5
21
7
3/3
5
8
3/3
8
8
5/5
56
9
3/3
12
10
5/5
252
10
3/3
17
11
3/3
21
11
4/5
26
11
5/5
462
12
3/3
32
13
3/3
34
14
3/4
23
14
4/5
135
15
3/3
57
16
3/4
37
17
3/3
68
17
3/5
23
18
3/3
94
19
3/5
28
19
3/4
66
21
3/5
37
22
3/5
40
24
2/5
30
26
3/5
79
28
2/5
12
30
3/5
119
31
3/5
125
34
3/5
154
45
2/5
592
8. Pick 6 Wheel
The pick-6 wheel is common among players because most games require guessing six numbers in the primary drum to win the main prize. That includes big lotteries like MegaMillions. The approach is similar to other pick-X wheels.
Here’s an example – you have seven numbers in the wheel pool: ABCDEFG. You need to put six on each ticket, so the options include ABCDEF, ABCDEG, ABCDFG, ABCEFG, ABDEFG, BDCEFG
Total Numbers
Winning Guarantee
Total Tickets
7
6/6
7
8
5/6
4
8
4/4
8
8
4/5
12
8
6/6
28
9
6/6
84
9
5/6
9
10
5/5
50
10
5/6
15
10
3/6
21
10
4/4
22
10
6/6
210
11
5/6
27
11
4/4
38
11
5/5
101
11
6/6
462
12
5/6
42
12
5/5
132
12
6/6
924
13
4/6
12
14
4/6
15
14
4/5
36
15
4/6
21
16
4/6
38
18
2/6
11
18
4/6
42
19
4/6
64
28
3/6
36
34
3/6
64
39
3/6
93
9. Pick 7 Wheel
As its name suggests, the pick-7 wheel system is generally being played with at least seven marked numbers per ticket. As most online lotteries have a border of precisely that many to choose from, using the pick-7 wheel system is a perfect option for all thrill-chasers. To begin implementing the system, however, you must first select the eight numbers you will use.
Here’s a quick example of the unique set you could follow with this system. Let’s say you will play seven total numbers like in some online lotteries. But your potential line will include eight numbers to choose from: ABCDEFGH. By picking seven numbers, some of the possible combinations are AHBCDEF, AHBCDEG, AHBCDFG, AHBCEFG, AHBDEFG, AHCDEFG, ABCDEFG.
Total Numbers
Guarantee
Total Tickets
8
7/7
7
9
7/7
28
10
6/6
30
12
6/7
27
15
5/7
15
16
5/7
21
20
4/7
30
10. Pick 8 Wheel
The pick-8 wheel system is generally used in the most popular lotteries with up to six numbers to choose from, just like MegaMillions. The system is fantastic because you will pick eight different numbers to choose from, putting six in each ticket.
This will give you a great winning chance. For example, if your numbers line is ABCDEFGH, your potential combinations will be as follows: ABCDEF, ABCDGH, ABEFGH, CDEFGH.
Total Numbers
Guarantee
Total Tickets
8
2/2
3
8
2/3
2
8
3/3
4
8
3/4
3
8
4/4
7
8
4/5
3
8
5/5
12
8
5/6
4
8
6/6
28
11. Pick 10 Wheel
The pick-10 wheel system is not something you will come across too often regarding online lotteries. It can only be used in lotteries that allow players to pick up to 10 numbers, like the New York Lottery.
This lottery has a jackpot of $5,000,000, which is significant because, with the pick-10 wheel system, you will be picking from a total of 20 numbers!
We will use number metrics for this particular scenario as they will be more comprehensive. From your 20 numbers, let’s say your wheel number line looks like this:
From this line, you will use a total of eight combinations. These are:
01-02-04-10-11-12-15-16-18-19
01-02-04-06-10-14-15-16-17-19
01-03-05-06-08-09-11-13-17-18
01-05-07-08-09-11-12-13-14-18
02-03-04-07-09-10-12-15-16-20
02-03-06-07-08-12-14-15-16-20
03-04-05-06-08-11-13-17-19-20
05-07-09-10-13-14-17-18-19-20
Total Numbers
Winning Guarantee
Total Tickets
20
8/14
8
20
9/14
32
20
10/14
181
25
8/14
83
25
7/14
23
25
9/14
405
30
7/14
102
30
6/14
30
FAQ
Do lottery wheels really work?
Lottery wheeling systems offer a scientific approach to assembling lotto tickets. These systems work because they deliver what’s promised. If you meet the minimum guarantee requirement, you’ll have a winning ticket.
Can wheeling systems guarantee a lottery win?
You’ll often encounter a term called a “minimum win guarantee” when playing lottery wheels. This guarantee means you’ll have at least a single winning ticket. However, it is necessary to guess a certain amount of numbers that will be drawn from the pot. That means just using this method doesn’t guarantee a win. No strategy can guarantee you a prize in the lottery. However, lottery wheeling can play to your advantage if you are lucky enough to pick the right numbers.
What are the best lotteries for playing lottery wheeling systems?
Lottery wheels work for any lotto game in the world. However, the number of combinations in a single system varies. If you want an economical wheel, go for a lottery-like Texas Cash Five. That’s because it only has 35 numbers in the pot, and it’s a pick-5 game. If you choose Germany Lotto or another pick-6 game, you’ll need to cover more combinations.
Are lottery wheeling systems expensive to play?
It depends on the lotto wheel you choose to play. If there are six combinations in the wheeling pool, it’ll require buying six tickets. But if the wheel has 30 combinations, you’ll need to purchase 30 tickets. That indicates lottery wheels can be expensive, but it all depends on your selection.
Is quick pick better than lottery wheeling?
Both the lottery wheeling and quick pick system have no direct effect on your winning odds. So it’s ideal to go for the method you understand best.
Final Thoughts
For many players, assembling a lottery ticket is as fun as watching the draw itself. Lotto wheels can be an entertaining way of playing lotto games. These advanced systems rely on math and calculations to boost your winning odds. While they aren’t magical, they can improve your chances if you choose the right numbers for the wheel. Make sure to give lottery wheeling a shot to see why these systems have been popular for decades!
