WINNER Sports Lottery in Japan

WINNER is the newest face of Japan's sports lottery, and it works differently from the older toto pools. Instead of predicting a long list of matches, you pick a single game, or a league champion, and bet on that alone. Here is how it all works.

What WINNER is and who runs it

WINNER is one of the sports lottery products sold in Japan alongside BIG, toto, and DUNK, and it covers soccer and basketball. It launched at the end of September 2022 as a new product, and unlike the others it focuses on a single match: you pick one game and predict its result¹.

What sets WINNER apart is its focus. Where toto asks you to predict the results of 13 matches, WINNER covers one match only: you choose the game, predict its result, and that is the whole bet⁵. The product was not launched for the 2026 FIFA World Cup; rather, the World Cup 2026 matches, jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, were offered on it, with all 104 matches from the group stage to the final available for single-match prediction⁵.

The purchase method also differs from the other three products. Even when you want to pay at a lottery counter or a convenience store, you must first register your prediction on the official sports lottery website and issue a QR code or barcode there. BIG, toto, and DUNK can be bought more directly, so do not assume the habits from those games carry over⁴.

Bet types: single-match and competition prediction

WINNER offers two kinds of lottery, and each sport has both¹.

Single-match prediction (1-shiai yosō). You pick one match and predict its exact outcome. For soccer, you choose from 18 options covering which team wins or draws, and at what score, for example "home 2-1" or "1-1 draw." For basketball, you choose from 16 options covering which team wins and by how many points. The prediction covers the 90-minute result in soccer; extra time is not included⁶.

Competition prediction (kyōgikai yosō). You predict the winning team of a league or tournament. In some rounds this extends to predicting both the champion and the runner-up¹.

There is only one prize grade: first prize, for getting the prediction exactly right. Half of all sales for the round is allocated to that grade, and the prize is the payout odds multiplied by your purchase amount².

Sports covered: J.League and B.League

WINNER covers two sports: soccer and basketball¹⁰.

On the soccer side, the single-match lottery covers J.League matches, with the first section of the season on sale and later matches opening in order from the opening match onward⁹. World Cup matches were offered as well, and Emperor's Cup rounds appear too. One quirk worth knowing: the Emperor's Cup has no home or away distinction, but WINNER rounds for it use home and away notation for convenience, following the sales order published by the Japan Football Association¹¹.

On the basketball side, the single-match lottery covers B.League games, including the B.LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP playoffs, where quarterfinal, semifinal, and final matches were each offered for single-match prediction¹².

For competition prediction, the lineup includes J.League champion prediction for J1, J2, and J3, B.League champion prediction for B.PREMIER and B.ONE, and domestic league cup winner prediction. Note that these competition products are not handled at lottery counters; they are online purchases only⁸.

Price, odds and payouts

Each WINNER bet costs JPY 200².

The payout works on odds, like a sportsbook rather than a fixed lottery prize. Your prize is the payout odds (払戻倍率) multiplied by your purchase amount. The theoretical value is the unit price multiplied by the number of options multiplied by 50 percent, which reflects the fact that half of sales goes to the prize pool⁷.

For example, in a soccer single-match round with 18 options, the theoretical top payout works out from JPY 200 times 18 options times 50 percent. The actual odds depend on how many people picked each option, so a popular pick pays less and an unpopular pick pays more.

First prize can reach about JPY 10,000,000³. There is a maximum limit: JPY 250,000,000 per JPY 100 of purchase. If the calculated prize exceeds that cap, the excess is divided among the winning entries and refunded to purchasers, so a very long-odds win can still pay out beyond the cap through this redistribution¹⁰.

Odds are not fixed when you buy. They change with the voting status and keep moving until sales close, and the current odds are updated on the official site, so you can watch them shift as more money comes in⁷.

How to buy: online, convenience store, or lottery counter

Every WINNER purchase, whatever the payment channel, starts on the official sports lottery website⁴.

Online (net payment). Register your prediction on the official site, pay online, and you are done. You need a Club toto membership for this, which is free to join. Members can buy 24 hours a day, outside system maintenance windows, and WINNER can be bought together with BIG, toto, and DUNK in one transaction¹³.

Convenience store payment. You cannot buy WINNER directly from convenience store multimedia terminals or multifunction copiers, the way you might with other lottery products. Instead, the site accepts your payment, and you are issued a QR code or barcode. The steps at the register differ by store⁴.

No ticket is issued for convenience store payment, and winnings are transferred automatically to your registered bank account⁴.

Lottery counter (kujiba). Reserve your purchase on the official site in advance and issue a QR code. Present the QR code at the counter, pay in cash, and receive your ticket. If you are using a PC rather than a phone, print the QR code and bring the printout with you. Anyone can buy at a counter, whether or not they are a Club toto member³.

A few membership details worth knowing:

• Club toto membership is required for purchases on the official site, both net payment and convenience store payment¹³.
• Non-members can still reserve on the site and buy at a lottery counter without registering, but they earn no Club toto points¹⁷.
• Members who reserve while logged in earn Club toto points at the counter without showing their member card, because the login information already carries the member details¹⁷.
• Members who already use a Club toto card for BIG, toto, or DUNK must complete a one-time online registration procedure on the site before making WINNER purchase reservations⁴.

Sales deadlines and odds changes

Online sales run 24 hours a day during the sales period, and online sales close 10 minutes before each designated match starts. At lottery counters, sales close 60 minutes before kickoff².

For competition prediction rounds, deadlines are set per event. In the B.LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP 2025-26, for example, the champion and runner-up prediction closed on May 7 at 18:55, while single-match rounds for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and final each ran until 10 minutes before the relevant match¹².

Sales periods and cutoff times can change, so check the information for each round before you plan your purchase²⁰.

Remember that odds move with the betting volume until sales close. The odds shown when you buy are not the odds you will finally be paid at; the payout is calculated from the odds at the close of sales⁷.

Checking results and collecting winnings

How you check results and collect depends on where you bought.

Bought online (net or convenience store payment). Log in to Club toto, go to the purchase history and winning check page, and select the detailed check. You can filter by product, purchase period, and result, and no reference number entry is needed. Winnings are automatically transferred to your registered bank account, so there is nothing to claim and no risk of forgetting²¹.

Bought at a lottery counter. Use the winning check page on the official site: select the lottery type and round number, enter the reference number printed on your ticket, and display the result. Club toto members who bought at a store can also check through the member menu. In person, results can be checked at lottery counters and 7-Eleven stores²³.

Counter-bought winnings are not transferred automatically. You can collect them at credit unions that handle the sports lottery, at lottery counters that allow payouts, and at 7-Eleven. For winnings over JPY 500,000, the procedure is done at a handling credit union, and you can choose to receive the money at the counter 12 business days later or have it transferred to a designated account, with the transfer arriving roughly ten to twenty days after the procedure²³.

Special refund (tokubarai-kin) and no carryover

WINNER has no carryover. If nobody wins a round, the prize pool does not roll over to a later round the way toto jackpots can².

Instead, WINNER uses a special refund system (特払金, tokubarai-kin). When there are no winning entries, 50 percent of the purchase amount is refunded to all purchasers. So even a losing ticket can return half your stake in a round where nobody picked the right result¹⁰.

The same redistribution applies at the top end: when a prize exceeds the JPY 250,000,000-per-JPY-100 cap, the excess over the cap is divided among the winning entries and refunded to purchasers¹⁰.

One caution that applies to all sports lottery tickets: once purchased, a ticket cannot be canceled or refunded²⁸.

Who can play

WINNER is sold openly in Japan to residents and visitors alike, with one age rule: persons under 19 may not buy or receive WINNER tickets, and prizes cannot be paid to them. This is the same rule that applies across all Japan's sports lotteries²⁶.

Help and contact

For any question about WINNER tickets, purchases, or winnings, contact the Sports Lottery Customer Center at 0120-9292-86⁷.

If you want to compare WINNER with the other sports lottery products before buying, see our pages on toto, BIG and MEGA BIG, and DUNK, or the wider guide to sports betting in Japan.