A person in Belgium became very rich after scooping a whopping £113,000,000 in the EuroMillions draw on Friday night.
This will mark the 46th time in EuroMillions history a person or syndicate in Belgium has walked away with the big prize.
The biggest prize won by a lucky ticketholder in Belgium was back in June 2013 when they shared the jackpot money of £159,559,034 with a player in Ireland.
But unsurprisingly, out of the nine countries that take part in the lottery, those with the highest populations have the largest number of jackpot winners over the years.
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Previously, the UK, with a population of 69.3 million, topped the table with 132 jackpot winners since the contest began in 2004.
But France, which has a population of around 66.6 million, has overtaken the UK in the tables, holding the top spot with 132 jackpot winners.
Spain, with a population of 49 million, sits in third place with 123 winners.
Portugal places fourth with 86 winners, meanwhile Belgium’s most recent takes their total to 46 maintaining its position as the fifth country with the largest number of winners.
Switzerland has 26 winners, Austria 21, Ireland 20, and the tiny country of Luxembourg has 4 lucky players.
The top three most recent EuroMillions wins have all received the biggest jackpot of €250 million (around £218 million), and, as expected, all of the winners have remained anonymous.
A ticketholder from France became the third player in 2025 to win the €250 million jackpot to balance the records set by Ireland and Austria earlier this year.
This is not Ireland’s only win this year, however.
In July, a family from Cork won the largest EuroMillions prize in Ireland’s history taking home a massive £216,000,000.
It seems this part of Ireland contains all of the lucky tickets after a family from County Cork bagged £208 million in June.
Of the top five biggest jackpot winners from the UK, the only ones to have revealed their identity are British couple Jess and Joe Thwaite, who scooped €215 million (around £184 million) in May 2022.
They revealed they still went to work on the day they found out and decided to go public so as not to ‘burden’ others with their secret.
Winning such a colossal amount of money seems like a dream come true – and for some it really is.
But, as we explored here, there are many examples of winners whose lives took a turn for the worse after scooping the jackpot.
According one study, in the US one third find themselves in financial trouble.
Of course we don’t want to take pleasure in other people’s misery, but if you’re feeling a little sad that you didn’t win last night’s gigantic sum, bearing that in mind might take the edge off.
This article was first published on March 31, 2025.
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