British residents will soon have an opportunity to compete for a potential jackpot of £1 billion in the upcoming lottery draw starting later this month.
Allwyn, the operator of the National Lottery, has officially announced that tickets for the UK version of the renowned American Powerball game will go on sale on July 21, with the draw scheduled for July 23.
Over the first five years, this game is anticipated to generate approximately £1 billion for charitable causes in the UK.
The inclusion of the UK marks the first time the Powerball game will occur outside the US, expanding on the success of the pan-European Euromillions draw introduced in 2004.
Tickets priced at £4 per line will be purchasable online or in-store until 11.55pm the night before the draws on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. The draws will subsequently take place around 4am the following morning – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays – from the Powerball studio located in Florida.
Participants will select five primary numbers within the range of 1 to 69, along with one Powerball number between 1 and 26 or opt for a Lucky Dip entry.
Britons will compete against players from 48 lotteries in the US, with exclusive features tailored for the UK market.
The UK version introduces a unique prize tier for “matching two main numbers,” offering an £8 fixed prize available only to UK players. Additionally, there will be a “matching five main numbers” tier with a £1 million fixed prize.
To secure a jackpot prize of at least £12 million, players must match all five main numbers along with the Powerball number.
Unlike traditional draws, there is no cap on rollovers, allowing the jackpot to increase significantly if there is no winner.
Allwyn envisions the possibility of a UK resident winning an unprecedented £1 billion jackpot, making it the largest prize ever offered. However, the odds of winning this substantial prize stand at one in 292 million.
Contrary to typical National Lottery payouts where winners receive tax-free cash in a lump sum, Powerball jackpot winners receive their prize over a 30-year period.
For those who secure the potential £1 billion jackpot, it translates to over £30 million annually for three decades. In the unfortunate event that the winner does not live the entire period, the remaining sum will be passed on to their estate, as stated by an Allwyn spokesperson.
The biggest Powerball winner to date was Edwin Castro, who claimed just over $2 billion in the