A new soccer lottery in China said it is dropping two of its five prize categories.

　　Launched on February 18, the lottery allows fans to bet on the number of goals scored by each of 12 selected teams in the Italian Serie A games.

　　All prize levels will be retained except the bottom two, announced China's Sports Lottery Administration on Friday.

　　According to the original settings, half of the proceeds from each round of goal-betting is allocated for prize money.

　　First-prize winners who make correct predictions for all 12 teams share 70 percent of the total prize pool, while players who hit 11 or 10 targets win a lesser percentage of the pool.

　　The original rule guaranteed a prize of 300 yuan (US$36) to those with nine correct tips and 30 yuan to those with eight.

　　Lottery tickets, which cost 2 yuan each, offer players four options on each team: no goals, one goal, two goals and three goals or more.

　　The top prize ceiling still stands at 5 million yuan.

　　To cover all options would cost 33 million yuan in a 13-game win-tie-loss bet.

　　(Xinhua)