Who needs Derren Brown, when you’ve got skilful sea lions Marcus and Claude on hand to pick your lucky numbers for Friday’s mega Euromillions jackpot draw?

When staff at Pleasurewood Hills in Lowestoft heard there was an estimated £85 million jackpot up for grabs, they put their faith in the ball-skills of the park’s sea lions.

February is a key time for trainer Tracy Jacobs and the sea lions. With the park opening again at the start of April, she is busy making sure Marcus and Claude are ready to dazzle the crowds with their fun tricks; including balancing balls, high ball jumps and somersaults.

So to pick the park’s numbers, Tracy, from originally from South Africa, now living in Lowestoft, decided to turn one of the winter training sessions into a special Euromillions lucky dip. Marcus (20) and Claude (6) dived into the pool filled with numbered balls, splashed around to select their choice and then leaped on to the podium to proudly display their selection, balancing the ball on their noses before throwing them to Tracy. They were then rewarded with some extra fish and a kiss from Tracy for their help.

Tracy said: “Marcus and Claude had a great time helping us to pick out our numbers and it added an extra bit of excitement to our training session.  Who knows, maybe they felt something lucky in their whiskers when they were picking the balls? Or maybe they just picked the one they most liked the colour of?  But either way it was a fun way of picking the numbers.  Now we all have our fingers crossed that they will prove lucky.”

The last few months have seen several big Euromillions winners in Britain.  November saw Les and Sam Scadding from South Wales, and the Magnificant Seven syndicate from Liverpool banked £45.5m each.  The Sturt family from Dorking also walked away with £26.1m earlier this month.

But records could still be broken this Friday, if the £85 million estimated jackpot is won by a single ticket holder – it would be the biggest lottery prize ever paid out in the UK. According to The Sunday Times Rich List 2009, if you won the entire £85 million jackpot you would be richer than the original 007 himself, Sir Sean Connery and the pop legend Robbie Williams, both worth £80m.

But if the sea lions’ choice proves lucky on Friday, Tracy will be sharing her winnings with her colleagues at the park. 

“It’s such a massive amount to win there would be more than enough to share between us and still change all of our lives forever,” said Tracy.  “Of course if we do win then we will have to give something to Marcus and Claude for their help.  But I think they would only really be interested in some new balls to play with and plenty of extra fish!  In the winter they can eat up to 24 pounds of sprat mackerel and herring each day, so that’s a lot of fish to keep them in.”

A spokesperson for Camelot said: “We love to hear about the fun and quirky ways people pick their numbers, and we will keep our fingers crossed that Marcus and Claude’s selections prove lucky for the staff at Pleasurewood Hills.  If we do hear that they have won then we will make sure that we put plenty of fish on ice as well as the champagne!”