Three lucky winners split Sunday's first prize Joker jackpot of 14 million euros, the fourth-largest sum awarded in the lottery's history.

The three winners, who were not named, will each receive 4.6 million euros after they each had the six lucky numbers - 6, 8, 16, 19, 24 and 7 (Joker).

One of the winning tickets was played at a betting agency at Vyronas in eastern Athens, where the owner said that it may belong to one of the children who was given a ticket on Christmas Eve as a gift for caroling, according to press reports.

The remaining two tickets were played at betting agencies in Omonia in central Athens and Aghioi Anargyroi in western Athens.

On Sunday, massive demand had caused long queues and delays in the internal data network of betting agencies.

Some 8.3 million lottery tickets were submitted by people who hoped to claim the big prize.