£66m Lotto Jackpot Won By Two Lucky Players

Players are being urged to check their tickets, and the numbers were as follows: 26, 27, 46, 47, 52 and 58. The bonus ball was 48.

Saturday's draw, which had previously been estimated at £57.8m, had to be won - and if nobody had a winning ticket, the fund would have been shared between players who matched five numbers and the bonus ball.

A National Lottery spokesperson said: "What an amazing way to start off the New Year!

"Two players shared the biggest-ever Lotto jackpot, and each ticketholder will be starting 2016 £33m richer.

"We have plenty of champagne on ice ready to welcome these winners into the National Lottery millionaires club."

Technical glitches plagued the National Lottery's website as ticketholders tried to find out if they had defied odds of one in 45 million to scoop the prize.

The inflated jackpot, which rolled over 14 times, came after lottery operator Camelot made controversial changes which experts said would make it three times harder to scoop the top prize.

Under the changes, there are 59 balls instead of 49 - but Camelot has argued the changes have increased the chances of becoming a millionaire.

Lotto rules mean the jackpot has to be won in the first draw after it reaches £50m.

With a new-found wealth of £33m each, the winners are now richer than Ed Sheeran - who has earned about £20m so far in his illustrious music career.

The previous jackpot record was £42m, which was shared between three ticketholders in January 1996.

It will now be business as usual for Wednesday's draw, with a considerably smaller prize of £2.4m up for grabs.

Although a £66m jackpot is certainly enough to bring out the crowds, it pales in comparison to the Powerball prize fund in the US - which has rolled over to a record $1.3bn (£895m).