ScratchPulse™

About Our Rankings

How ScratchPulse™ compares Virginia scratch tickets by estimated value, current odds, remaining prizes, ticket price, and Virginia Lottery data.

State

In plain English: how ScratchPulse™ compares Virginia scratch tickets

Best Value: compares estimated remaining prize value against ticket cost.Best Odds: compares estimated chance of winning the selected prize size, from any prize to top prize odds.Important: rankings are informational estimates, not predictions. Most scratch tickets have negative expected value, and no result is guaranteed.

ScratchPulse™ compares Virginia scratch tickets based on what appears to be left today, not only the odds printed when a game first launched.

Virginia Lottery posts useful scratcher data, including ticket price, starting odds, top prize odds, and prize tables with Winning Tickets At Start and Winning Tickets Unclaimed. Virginia does not appear to publish a direct tickets-remaining number for each game, so ScratchPulse™ estimates tickets left from posted prize depletion patterns.

Virginia $0 promotional tickets and REVEAL Play Digital Scratcher entries are kept out of public ScratchPulse™ rankings. The public rankings are intended for normal retail scratch tickets.

Best Value

Best Value estimates how much prize value remains per ticket. It starts with Virginia Lottery prize tables, estimates how many tickets remain, and compares the adjusted remaining prize pool to ticket cost.

Estimated value per ticket =
adjusted remaining prize value ÷ estimated tickets left

Net estimated value per ticket =
estimated value per ticket − ticket price

Higher Best Value rankings do not mean a ticket is profitable or likely to win. They simply mean the ticket looks stronger relative to other currently listed Virginia scratch tickets using the available posted data and ScratchPulse™ estimates.

Best Odds

Best Odds ranks tickets by estimated chance of winning a selected prize level. The default view focuses on top prize odds, and the filter can compare other prize levels such as Any Prize, $100+, $500+, $1K+, and $10K+ where those prizes exist.

Estimated current odds =
estimated tickets left ÷ estimated remaining prizes counted

Some low-ceiling tickets can rank very well by top-prize odds because their top prize is small. ScratchPulse™ labels those tickets so the ranking does not look like jackpot upside when it is really a smaller fixed-prize game.

How Virginia ticket estimates work

Virginia posts how many prizes existed at the start of the game and how many are still unclaimed. ScratchPulse™ estimates starting tickets from posted odds and starting prize counts, then estimates current tickets left from common-prize depletion.

Estimated starting tickets =
posted overall odds × starting winning-ticket count

Estimated tickets left =
estimated starting tickets × common-prize remaining ratio

Common lower prize tiers usually have large prize counts, so they tend to be more useful for estimating ticket depletion than rare jackpot tiers. ScratchPulse™ uses those common-prize patterns as the main signal for tickets remaining.

Important limitations

ScratchPulse™ is informational only. Rankings use Virginia Lottery posted prize data plus estimates. Lottery outcomes are random, no result is guaranteed, and most scratch tickets have negative expected value.

Prize claims, reporting delays, inventory differences, and games near their end date can all affect the accuracy of estimates. Always check the official Virginia Lottery site for the latest posted game information before relying on any ticket data.