There are ten different ways to win a Powerball prize in the UK for every single draw, with the size of your prize depending on how many numbers you match (more numbers = bigger prizes). You can win £8 by matching just two of the main numbers, which is a UK exclusive prize tier you can’t get in the USA, and prizes continue to increase the more numbers you match. Match all five numbers and the Powerball to win the jackpot that starts at an estimated £12 million, but will quickly rise every draw it's not won up to billions of pounds.
The jackpot is the only prize tier that is split between all the players that match five numbers and the Powerball. So, if the jackpot is £100 million and two players win, each would get £50 million. The UK then has two more fixed prize tiers; Match 5 will win you £1 million (which is higher than the USA at $1 million) and the Match 2 tier will win you £8 (a tier that they don’t have in the USA). All the other tiers are dependent on the number of UK tickets sold and the number of winners, so they vary from draw to draw.
The Powerball prize chart displayed below shows all the different prize levels and how many numbers you have to match to win in that prize level. Remember, you can only win in one prize level, so matching three numbers gets you the Match 3 prize and not the Match 3 + Match 2 prize. We have also displayed the odds of winning each, and the prize amount for each tier.
| Prize Level | Payout | Odds | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match 5 + PB | Jackpot | 1 in 292,201,338 | ||||
| Match 5 | £1,000,000 | 1 in 11,688,054 | ||||
| Match 4 + PB | £33,000 | 1 in 913,129 | ||||
| Match 4 | £1,100 | 1 in 36,525 | ||||
| Match 3 + PB | £500 | 1 in 14,494 | ||||
| Match 3 | £52.10 | 1 in 580 | ||||
| Match 2 + PB | £30.80 | 1 in 701 | ||||
| Match 1 + PB | £15.30 | 1 in 92 | ||||
| Match 0 + PB | £11.90 | 1 in 38 | ||||
| Match 2 | £8 | 1 in 28 | ||||
| The overall odds of winning a Powerball prize are approximately 1 in 14 | ||||||
£377 Million
0Days
0Hrs
0Mins
0Secs
Buy Tickets
Buy Tickets
You can also find the prizes below and how they compare to those you would get if you played in the USA, who have fixed prizes at every level except the jackpot:
| Prize Level | UK Payout | US Payout | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match 5 + PB | Jackpot | Jackpot | ||||
| Match 5 | £1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | ||||
| Match 4 + PB | £33,000 | $50,000 | ||||
| Match 4 | £1,100 | $100 | ||||
| Match 3 + PB | £500 | $100 | ||||
| Match 3 | £52.10 | $7 | ||||
| Match 2 + PB | £30.80 | $7 | ||||
| Match 1 + PB | £15.30 | $4 | ||||
| Match 0 + PB | £11.90 | $4 | ||||
| Match 2 | £8 | N/A | ||||
| The overall odds of winning a Powerball prize are approximately 1 in 14 | ||||||
If you win the Powerball jackpot in the UK, the full amount is paid to you in instalments over a 30-year period. That may sound strange to UK players, as all UK jackpot prizes (except Set for Life) are paid as the advertised amount immediately upon a successful claim. In the USA its very normal for the advertised jackpot amount to be paid as an “annuity” meaning its spread over a number of years.
This happens because the jackpot advertised is the amount you would get if you took the lump sum amount collected from ticket sales and invested it over a 30-year period, paying yourself incrementally from the total pot + investment returns. It offers regular, increasing payments until you have been paid the full amount.
In the USA, winners have the chance to just take the Lump Sum amount (often called the 'Cash option'), i.e. the amount that has already been collected from ticket sales. This is a much smaller amount compared to the advertised jackpot as it has not been invested.
The majority of jackpot winners take the Lump Sum in the USA. This is usually due to wanting to have all their money now so they can be done with it and begin their new life, rather than having “smaller” amounts over 30 years, and to pay their tax burden straight away (more on that below). UK players won’t have this option at launch.
The advertised Powerball jackpot in the UK will be a totally different number compared to the US jackpot. For a start, the British Pound is worth more than the US Dollar, but, even then, it isn't simply a currency conversion. In The USA, lottery prizes are advertised as before-tax values. Most lottery prizes in Britain are not taxed, but annuity prizes are*. Since the UK Powerball jackpot is only available as an annuity prize, it is considered to be investment income under UK tax law. As a result of all this, the advertised jackpot for UK Powerball is an estimation of the amount the winner would receive in the course of their 30-year annuity once tax deductions have been applied.
So, if you win the UK Powerball jackpot, what you see will be near-enough what you get; although the prize is taxed as an investment income, the advertised jackpot value has already taken these deductions into account.
In the USA, lottery winnings are subject to tax immediately at both the federal and state level on prizes greater than $5,000. Federal tax varies between 24-37%, and state tax from 2.9% to 10.9%, although a handful of states do not levy state taxes on lottery winnings. That means winning in New York (10.9% state tax) compared to California (no state tax) can massively change your take home pay.
*If you're a UK lottery fan and were wondering how this works for the Set for Life jackpot annuity - the annuity payments are also subject to tax, but the National Lottery tops up each payment so that it's still worth the advertised £10,000 after tax.
