Brazil’s Mega da Virada draw for the 2025/26 rollover was held more than 12 hours later than scheduled, marking the first time since the lottery’s 2009 launch that the iconic year-end draw did not take place on 31 December.
Mega da Virada delay causes unprecedented overnight disruption
The lottery, traditionally drawn on the night of the last day of the year, was due to take place at 22:00 on 31 December but did not go ahead. After more than an hour of waiting without explanation, the Caixa Econômica Federal informed players that technical problems in the processing of bets forced the draw to be postponed until the following morning.
Transmission from Caixa’s official channels began at 10:00 on 1 January, with other lotteries drawn first. The Mega da Virada numbers were finally drawn shortly before 11:00. The winning combination announced was 09, 13, 21, 32, 33, 59.
Caixa said in a statement that all bets with confirmed payments were processed and that no bettor with a valid wager was excluded from the draw. The bank also clarified that entries marked as “cancelled” did not have payment confirmed within the regulatory deadline and thus were not eligible. In cases where payment was attempted but not completed, Caixa said funds were refunded automatically to the original source.
The 2025 Mega da Virada paid out a record R$1,091,357,286.52, divided between six winning tickets, each receiving R$181,892,881.09. Two of the winning tickets were syndicate plays; the other four were single, standard R$6 bets. Three winners purchased their tickets at physical lottery outlets in Franco da Rocha (São Paulo), João Pessoa (Paraíba) and Ponta Porã (Mato Grosso do Sul). The remaining three entries were placed online; Caixa did not disclose their origins.
Caixa highlighted the extraordinary volume of activity around this year’s draw, saying the size of the prize produced digital traffic peaks of approximately 120,000 transactions per second on online channels and around 4,745 transactions per second at retail lottery counters. The bank said that the unusually high load contributed to the technical difficulties experienced on the night of 31 December.
Officials emphasised that the Mega da Virada has never produced a single winner since its inception, noting that the large prize attracts a greater number of bettors and increases the statistical likelihood of multiple winners.
The 17th edition of the draw generated more than R$3 billion in ticket sales, an increase of 22.6% compared with the 2024 draw. Winners have 90 days from the draw date to claim their prizes; unclaimed funds revert to the national treasury to be allocated to the Fies student finance programme.
While some bettors expressed frustration on social media over the lack of immediate information during the delay, consumer advocates said Caixa’s prompt clarification and automatic refunds where payments failed should mitigate financial harm. Regulators may scrutinise the outage to assess whether system upgrades or contingency plans are required to support future draws with similarly high demand.
Key Takeaways:
- Mega da Virada delay led to the 2025 draw taking place over 12 hours later than scheduled, a first since the lottery began in 2009.
- The Caixa confirmed all validated bets were processed and reported peak digital traffic of ~120,000 transactions per second.
- Six winning tickets share the record R$1.091 billion prize; winners have 90 days to claim their awards.
- The disruption prompted concerns among bettors but Caixa said cancelled bets were due to missed payments and refunds were issued automatically.
