Tips for setting up your own lottery syndicate

Unless you spend a fortune on lottery tickets each week, there is no better way to play the lottery than in a syndicate. This is statistically proven but it doesn't take a degree in mathematics to work out that the more entries you play, the better your winning odds.

So if you are thinking about setting up a syndicate, here are a few useful tips for you:

Gather your syndicate members together and decide on your weekly budget. One or more of the members may wish to spend more than the others, in which case they can buy double or treble entries and receive a double or treble share of any winnings.

Decide on a manager - obviously someone reliable, well-organized and trustworthy! He or she will be responsible for collecting the ticket stake and buying the tickets. Do remember that tickets will be purchased in the manager's name and you are completely reliant on him/her to pay out your winnings - so choose wisely!

Draw up a syndicate agreement and have it signed and dated by each member. Syndicate agreements can be downloaded from most lottery sites and although they sadly won't help you if your syndicate manager was last seen boarding a flight to Rio with your winnings, they are a useful safeguard as they set down the terms of your agreement in writing. They are also useful inasmuch as they allow players to stipulate what is to happen to their share of any winnings in the case of death. Is the share of the deceased to be equally shared between the remaining members or to be passed to his/her estate?

An important point to note here is that if an agreement can be shown to have been signed before the win, the prize will be free of Inheritance Tax as the law currently stands.

The agreement should also include the syndicate policy for what is to happen if a member does not pay their ticket stake on time. Will they forfeit any winnings, or is there to be a period of grace?

How much notice should each member give to leave the syndicate? What is the group policy on publicity in the case of a major win? This can be a major bone of contention if not agreed beforehand with some members wanting their 15 minutes of fame and their photo in the papers and others preferring to remain completely anonymous, some not even wanting their nearest and dearest to know they've hit the jackpot!

These are all factors which need to be discussed and agreed at the outset to avoid any problems later on.

You then need to agree the numbers you're going to play, preferably the same ones each week to make life easier for the syndicate manager! It's a good idea to print out a copy of the numbers for each player to allow them to check more easily.

Rather than paying weekly, if the players are in agreement it's better to pay every 4, or even 8 weeks and place the entries in advance. Of course, great care must be taken in this case as any small mistake would be carried forward for the whole period, not just one single draw.

Hold regular meetings with the syndicate members to give them chance to put forward any changes they would like to see with the numbers, payment methods etc.

There's no getting away from the fact that running a syndicate can be quite a lot of work and responsibility for the manager but there is another alternative - a managed syndicate such as the E-lottery offered by Syndicateworld. This is a large organisation where everything is taken care of for you and you enjoy all the fun and benefits of syndicate play but without any of the work. But whichever method you choose, your winning odds are greatly improved by syndicate play.

David Masters, Director Syndicateworld,

http://www.syndicateworld.co m