The word Thunderball evokes images of super villains, weaponries, spies and an action packed novel by Sir Ian Fleming. These days, it's the fun-filled lottery game by the National Lottery. True to its namesake, this game is full of twists and surprises and an exciting ending. You can purchase tickets from the usual outlets around the city or you can opt for the more modern way of playing games online. All you have to do is sign up for an account on the National Lottery website.

Your National Lottery Account enables you to play selected lottery games and Instant Win Games online. To play, enter 5 main numbers from 1-34 and 1 Thunderball number from 1-14 on the online play slip. This system makes for better odds at winning the jackpot prize of £250,000! If you want to keep the suspense and excitement, why don't you try the Clucky which will randomly generate the numbers for you, but you can do this only after your ticket purchase. Play up to twenty-five lines of numbers on your Thunderball play slip or buy 8 weeks of tickets at a time online3.

The draws are twice weekly, every Saturday and Wednesday on the same schedule of the Lotto draws. It is twice as exciting waiting for the Lotto and Thunderball results to be announced during the live draw shows on BBC One. You can also watch it online. Our Thunderball checker section will also tell you if you have the winning tickets or if your numbers were indeed lucky in the past draws. As the usual practice, 28p of each ticket goes to numerous, carefully selected National Lottery causes.

Unleash the thrill seeker in you and play lottery games. It is the perfect combination of fun, adventure and thrill with a purpose - just like that of the famous spy hero.