BIG Lottery in Japan

Soccer lotteries with no predictions to make

BIG and MEGA BIG are part of Japan's sports lottery family, run alongside the prediction games toto and WINNER. The difference is simple: with toto you study the fixtures and mark your own predictions, while with BIG the computer does all the choosing. You buy a ticket, the machine assigns you a random set of results, and the real matches decide whether you win⁵.

Each round is built around a list of designated soccer matches, mostly J.League games. For every match the possible outcomes are the home team's win ("1"), loss ("2"), or anything else, meaning a draw or a result after extra time ("0"). Your ticket is a column of these digits, one per match, and prizes depend on how many you get right⁵.

The games are sold every week as regular products, all year round¹. BIG has produced more than 400 winners of its JPY 600 million top prize over the years, and MEGA BIG's maximum first prize is the largest in Japanese lottery history apart from the public racing bets⁷.

If you are curious about the wider picture, see gambling in Japan or the broader Japan lottery page.

The five games in the BIG family

There are five no-prediction soccer lotteries, and they differ in how many matches they cover, what they cost, and how big the top prize can get¹.

BIG is the flagship: 14 matches, six prize tiers, and a first prize that can hit JPY 600 million when a carryover is running¹. MEGA BIG covers 12 matches and has the biggest ceiling of all, JPY 1.2 billion with a carryover, which the operator advertises as the highest amount in Japanese lottery history excluding the public racing sports⁸. Its normal maximum is JPY 700,000,020, though advertising rounds this to 700 million for readability⁵.

100円BIG is the budget version of BIG, also over 14 matches but at a third of the price, with a top prize of JPY 100 million, or JPY 200 million with a carryover¹. BIG1000 and mini BIG are the small games: BIG1000 runs over 11 matches with a first prize of around JPY 10 million in theory, and mini BIG over 9 matches with a first prize of around JPY 1 million¹. Their prize amounts vary with sales and the number of winning tickets in each round¹⁰.

There is also a combined product sold online called the "up to JPY 2 billion pack", which bundles BIG, MEGA BIG and 100円BIG tickets. If you somehow hit the first prize on all three in a round where carryovers are running, the combined maximum is JPY 2 billion. The purchase limit is 23 packs per transaction¹¹.

How the computer picks your numbers

You never fill in a marksheet for any BIG-family game. For each designated match, the computer randomly selects one of the three outcomes: the home team's 90-minute win is "1", its loss is "2", and a draw or an extra-time result is "0"⁵. That column of digits is your entry, printed on your ticket.

This is what makes the BIG family distinct from toto, where you mark your own predictions on a marksheet and hand it to the shop staff⁵. With BIG you are buying a random draw, closer in spirit to a Loto 6 quick pick than to a bet on form. No soccer knowledge helps you, and none is needed.

One quirk worth knowing: for rounds based on the Emperor's Cup, those matches have no home or away teams in reality, but the ticket still uses home and away notation for convenience, following the match cards published by the Japan Football Association⁷.

First prizes and how carryovers work

The headline numbers are the ones with a carryover, and it is worth understanding what that means. The prize fund for each round is 50% of sales, split across the prize tiers⁶. If nobody wins the first prize in a round, the unclaimed portion rolls forward into the next round.

For BIG, the first-prize pool in any round equals the previous round's carryover plus 40% of that round's BIG sales¹². That is why the first prize normally tops out at JPY 300 million, but can climb to JPY 600 million when a carryover is in place¹². MEGA BIG works the same way, with 35% of its sales going to the first-prize pool, which lifts its ceiling from JPY 700,000,020 to JPY 1.2 billion¹². 100円BIG allocates 38% of sales to its first prize, with a ceiling of JPY 200 million on a carryover¹².

A real example shows how big these pools get. If a BIG first-prize pool reaches JPY 1.8 billion, up to three winners could each take JPY 600 million¹³. And since prize amounts vary with sales and the number of winning entries, a big round with no first-prize winner can push the carryover pool even higher for the next draw¹².

Carryovers in MEGA BIG are applied per winning grade, so money can roll forward at more than one prize level⁸. Note that special draw rounds are excluded from some of these standard figures, and every prize amount moves with sales and the number of winners in the round¹.

Odds and prize tiers by game

Prize tiers are based on how many matches you miss. First prize means every match correct; second prize means one match wrong; and so on down the scale. The number of tiers depends on the game¹.

The odds come from the number of possible combinations: 4,782,969 for BIG and 100円BIG, 16,777,216 for MEGA BIG, 177,147 for BIG1000 and 19,683 for mini BIG⁹. MEGA BIG's first prize is genuinely hard to hit, but its sixth prize, for five matches wrong, lands about once in every 87 tickets¹.

The prize fund, half of sales, is split differently by game. BIG gives 80% of the fund to the first prize, 7% to second, 2% to third, 3% to fourth, 3% to fifth and 5% to sixth. MEGA BIG spreads it more evenly: 70% to first, 14% to second, 2% to third, 3% to fourth, 5% to fifth and 6% to sixth. BIG1000 uses 60/15/15/10, and mini BIG splits 50% first, 20% second and 30% third¹. Because these are percentages of a shared pool, the actual amount you receive depends on how many other people hit the same tier¹⁰.

For a sense of scale, in one 2026 BIG draw the third prize paid JPY 33,330 per winning ticket¹⁴.

What a bet costs

Prices are per bet, and one bet is one column of numbers¹:

• BIG: JPY 300
• MEGA BIG: JPY 300
• 100円BIG: JPY 100
• BIG1000: JPY 200
• mini BIG: JPY 200

You can buy multiple bets, and the online pack product bundles several games in one purchase, capped at 23 packs per transaction¹¹. Compare that with toto, which costs JPY 100 per bet, and you can see the BIG family is priced for chasing large prizes rather than small stakes⁹.

Where and when you can buy

There are three ways to buy, and the hours differ by channel².

Convenience stores. BIG is sold at convenience stores that handle the sports lottery, generally from 8:00 to 22:30, with a cutoff of 11:30 AM on the final sales day³. The purchase method varies slightly by chain: at Lawson you use the Loppi terminal, at FamilyMart the multi-copy machine, and Seven-Eleven and Ministop sell it directly³. Look for the sports lottery logo as the marker of a participating outlet¹⁶.

Lottery counters. Standalone lottery kiosks that handle the sports lottery sell BIG during their own hours, typically 8:00 to 23:00, though hours differ by store, with a cutoff of noon on the final sales day². BIG cannot be reserved from the website for counter pickup; you buy in person¹⁶.

Online. The official sports lottery site sells BIG 24 hours a day, but you need a free Club toto membership to buy there². Payment can be by net settlement or by convenience store settlement, where you accept the payment on the site first and get a QR code or barcode to pay at the store². Deadlines online are tighter than you might expect: with net payment you can buy until 10 minutes before the first designated match kicks off, or 120 minutes before with convenience store payment. For rounds based on non-J.League matches, the cutoffs are 19:00 and 17:10 on the final sales day respectively². We cover the online process in more detail on buying toto and BIG online.

Sales periods and cutoff times can change from round to round, so check the information for the specific draw you want to enter². Occasionally sales are suspended briefly, for example to finalize match cards and prepare sales for a new round⁷.

Checking results

If you bought at a store, there are four ways to check. The simplest is the official website: click the winning-check button on the top page, select the lottery type and draw number, enter your ticket's reference number, and the result is displayed. This works whether or not you are a Club toto member¹⁷. You can also check in person at lottery counters and Seven-Eleven stores, which are the only in-store checking points¹².

Results are also published in the morning paper the day after the announcement date, usually in the sports and soccer sections. One thing to watch: your ticket shows the numbers in a vertical column, while newspapers print the winning numbers in a horizontal row, and the notation differs slightly between papers¹⁸.

If you bought online, log in to Club toto, click the purchase-history and winning-check link at the top of the page, and open the detail view, where you can filter by product, purchase period and result¹⁷.

Collecting winnings

Online purchases are the easy case: winnings are transferred automatically to your registered bank account, including purchases made on the official site with convenience store payment¹². You do nothing.

For store purchases, you collect in person at credit unions that handle the sports lottery, at lottery counters that allow payouts, or at Seven-Eleven stores¹². Payout hours differ from store to store, so it is worth confirming before making a trip¹⁹. One restriction to know: DUNK, the basketball cousin in the same family, cannot currently be paid out at convenience stores¹⁹.

Who can play

The BIG family is open to anyone in Japan aged 19 or older, whether citizen, resident or visitor, and tickets are sold to foreign visitors at the same counters and convenience stores. The one firm rule is age: people under 19 may not buy or receive sports lottery tickets, and prizes cannot be paid to them⁹. That is the only practical restriction; there is no residency test at the counter.

Help and contact

If anything goes wrong with a purchase, a ticket or a payout, the Sports Lottery Customer Center takes calls at 0120-9292-86⁸. The official site also carries guidance pages for buying, checking results and refunds, and each draw round publishes its own sales period and cutoff details, which is the place to confirm times before you buy².