Promoted Lotto Party sessions are now capped by the number of customers in them, not only the number of shares sold. When a session reaches its customer limit it's marked as full and a new session opens automatically for the same draw, so groups can keep going without anyone missing out.
Why this matters
Lotto Party lets customers organise and join shared tickets with friends, family or colleagues, each buying shares in a group ticket for a given draw. As the product has grown - especially through promoted public groups - the number of individual customers in a single session has climbed a long way.
In some jurisdictions, divisional prize payouts for Lotto Party sessions are processed through an external provider. Very large sessions make distributing those winnings operationally complex and introduce real manual handling risk. Capping sessions by customer count keeps participant numbers manageable where it matters, without changing how anyone plays.
Importantly, the customer cap only applies to public/promoted parties. Private groups are only subject to the shares cap, so any regional customer caps will never apply to private groups.
What's new
Customer-based session limits, set by region
Sessions now have a customer cap alongside the existing share cap. The two work together - the share cap stays in place as a secondary limit, so unusually large tickets are still guarded against.
Caps are configured per region pool, so stricter limits can apply only where payout complexity is greatest:
- Victoria and Tasmania
- All other jurisdictions
Cap values are set by Jumbo, not by group organisers.
Full sessions and automatic session regeneration
When a session hits its customer limit it moves to a new Full status:
- New customers can't join a full session
- Customers already in the session can keep buying additional shares, up to the share cap
- A new session opens automatically for the same draw, so the group carries on
This extends the session regeneration behaviour introduced in earlier work.
AutoPlay keeps working
Customers with recurring AutoPlay purchases are moved across to the new session automatically. There's no gap to wait out and no action needed from the customer - recurring purchases are placed as soon as the next session is available.
Open and Closed tabs on the group details page
The group details page on web, iOS and Android now splits sessions into two tabs:
Open shows sessions that are still live:
- Everyone sees open sessions available to join
- Group members also see full sessions they're already part of
- Organisers see all open and full sessions, whether or not they're in them
Closed shows the group's history - purchased, drawn and cancelled sessions - to everyone, regardless of membership.
Session cards now show when a session is full, for the group organiser and customers who are in that session.
A more accurate "Party is X% full"
The fullness percentage on promoted session cards now accounts for both limits. It shows whichever is higher - how full the session is on shares, or how full it is on customers - and appears once a session passes 50%.
Improvements to the invite and join experience
- The broken session card carousel on the invite page is fixed
- The invite page layout has been updated, with text and session card positions swapped and the lotto logo and jackpot image repositioned within the card
- Customers can now join a group without buying a ticket straight away, and land on the group details page after joining
- In the apps, following an invite link no longer joins you to the group automatically - you get an explicit Join Group button instead, so joining is always a deliberate action
What hasn't changed
- Prize distribution. Winnings are still distributed proportionally by shares held. The customer cap doesn't affect share ownership or prize allocation.
- Ticket generation and number selection. No change.
- Jurisdiction eligibility. No change to who can play.
- Organiser controls. Organisers can't set their own customer caps.
Caps apply to new sessions only. Sessions that are already open when a cap is set or changed run through to their natural close, unaffected.
Who this impacts
This applies to Oz Lotteries only. Customers in Victoria and Tasmania are most likely to notice a difference, since that pool carries the stricter cap, and the effect is concentrated in large promoted public groups. private parties are unlikely to reach the limits in practice. customer cap only applying to Public/promoted parties. Private groups only have the Shares caps and any regional customer caps won't ever apply to private groups
Using an older version of the app
Older app versions don't recognise the Full status, so a full session appears as closed rather than joinable. Nothing breaks and no forced update is needed, but customers on older builds will get a clearer picture of their group once they update.
Reach out to Customer Success when ths