There are 1176 ways to make a pair of numbers from the first 6 drawn in the UK lotto. Some pairs are more easily spotted than others such as consecutives. A full listing of all pairs is available from a link lower down the page, meanwhile this part concentrates on consecutives.

When two numbers fall consecutively in the main ball set of a result, a consecutive pair or doublet is formed. The theoretical probability of at least one doublet such as 33, 34 in a lotto draw is 0.495, so on the face of it you would expect a consecutive pair to happen once in every two draws. In fact there are times when more than a single doublet occurs, either as two sets of doublets e.g 5, 6, 32, 33 or as a triplet such as in draw 583 when 1, 2, 3 came out in the main balls. Because of this there are more doublets than the probability of 0.495 would suggest. At the time of writing, draw 1164 there were 684 consecutive pairs (including those contained in triplets) which means that a doublet occurs on average once in 1.7 draws.

The actual frequency of ocurrence of consecutive pairs within the main numbers of the same draw, are displayed graphically below in ascending order, and in the table in number order. I would suggest that a syndicate sharing a large number of fixed lotto numbers should have lines which contain doublets in the proportion of 5 lines with doublets to every set of 13 lines.

The question arises, which ones if you are betting less than 48 lines ? For this you need to track when the pairs appear, and with a knowlege of how often, statistically they should appear, it is possible to make an assessment of when a doublet is overdue.
Well if you take the general case of any pair - (not necessarily consecutive) then there are 49 x 48/2 =1176 possible pairs. In every lotto draw 15 such pairs can be created from the 6 main balls. Whilst it is certain that 15 pairs will always appear, the probability of an identifiable specific consecutive pair is 15/1176 =0.01275. Another way of saying this is that the odds of a named consecutive pair are 1176/15 to 1 = 78.4 to 1 This is the expected (average) number of draws you would have to wait until a particular identifiable pair appeared. Incidentally this also applies to any specific non consecutive identifiable pair such as 38,41. Thus if a pair hasn't shown for 160 draws it is 160/78.4 = 2.04 times overdue.

In the Consecutives list You could do worse than assume that the pairs with Red 'times overdue' figures are due to come out soon. Pair freq - uency last drawn Draw No. ab- sence draws times over- due 1,2 22 1447 35 0.45 2,3 19 1472 10 0.13 3,4 15 1472 10 0.13 4,5 13 1241 241 3.07 5,6 19 1230 252 3.21 6,7 13 1090 392 5.00 7,8 7 1470 12 0.15 8,9 15 1304 178 2.27 9,10 19 1399 83 1.06 10,11 24 1407 75 0.96 11,12 23 1473 9 0.11 12,13 20 1451 31 0.40 13,14 12 1252 230 2.93 14,15 12 1139 343 4.38 15,16 21 1327 155 1.98 16,17 19 1469 13 0.17 17,18 16 1469 13 0.17 18,19 17 1451 31 0.40 19,20 14 1419 63 0.80 20,21 13 1473 9 0.11 21,22 13 1413 69 0.88 22,23 17 1458 24 0.31 23,24 21 1426 56 0.71 24,25 15 1445 37 0.47 25,26 21 1410 72 0.92 26,27 18 1439 43 0.55 27,28 20 1482 0 0.00 28,29 19 1365 117 1.49 29,30 16 1464 18 0.23 30,31 20 1307 175 2.23 31,32 28 1444 38 0.48 32,33 21 1422 60 0.77 33,34 18 1466 16 0.20 34,35 21 1463 19 0.24 35,36 18 1326 156 1.99 36,37 20 1461 21 0.27 37,38 21 1346 136 1.73 38,39 21 1366 116 1.48 39,40 23 1423 59 0.75 40,41 12 1457 25 0.32 41,42 19 1404 78 0.99 42,43 20 1464 18 0.23 43,44 26 1432 50 0.64 44,45 19 1480 2 0.03 45,46 13 1439 43 0.55 46,47 21 1435 47 0.60 47,48 11 1424 58 0.74 48,49 13 1276 206 2.63 From the Full set of pairs Most Drawn   Least Drawn 2,23 34 times 1,19 10 1,38 33   13,20 10 17,40 33   18,41 10 25,32 33   20,38 10 6,19 32   20,42 10 9,27 32   35,41 10 19,44 31   40,45 10 25,47 31   15,41 9 7,44 30   16,36 9 25,30 30   16,40 9 25,45 30   26,48 9 35,39 30   34,36 9 38,46 30   1,21 8 10,31 29   10,26 8 15,23 29   16,20 8 25,31 29   21,26 8 31,33 29   5,36 7 3,23 28   7,8 7 3,29 28   7,36 7    07-03-2010 23:14 List All the pairs

The table on the left lists overdue figures:- Not overdue (in Grey) Between once and twice overdue (Black) Between twice and 5 times overdue (puce) More than 5 times overdue (red bold) Here the 48 consecutive pairs are split over 2 graphs This shows how historically since the Lotto began, half of the consecutives have been missing for less than 60 draws, but some extremely long absences pushes the average up to 73.79 draws. If you look at ALL the pairs, not just consecutives this graph shows that most have been out between 11 and 12 times.

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