Powerball is jumping the pond.
The lottery game that has made millionaires in the United States will expand this summer to include players in England, Scotland, and other parts of the United Kingdom.
An agreement was announced Tuesday between the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the lottery game, and Allwyn UK, which operates the U.K.’s National Lottery. The deal still must be approved by a U.K. gambling commission.
It will mark the first time a lottery outside the United States will contribute to the Powerball jackpot.
“We’re constantly looking for ways to make sure that we’re keeping Powerball culturally and commercially relevant,” said Matt Strawn, who heads Powerball and is chief executive of the Iowa Lottery. “And this really is the next natural progression in doing just that.”
The same jackpot amount will be available to players on both sides of the Atlantic, with U.S. payouts in dollars and those in the U.K. in pounds.
For players in the U.S., nothing changes, including the $2 cost of a Powerball ticket and the long odds of winning the jackpot of 1 in 292.2 million, Strawn said. But with U.K. players buying tickets, a larger player pool will grow jackpots more quickly.
“Players consistently tell us in survey after survey that faster growing Powerball jackpots is what they’d like to see,” Strawn said. “Not surprisingly, the higher the jackpots grow the more people play the game in a particular drawing. The more people play, the higher sales grow. The higher sales grow, the higher the jackpots get, the more people play.”
For U.K. players, Powerball will offer a chance at much larger jackpots than are now available at lotteries in the country and Europe.
The largest Powerball payout was just over $2 billion from a ticket bought in 2022 in California. EuroMillions, a lottery offered across nine European countries and also operated in the U.K. by Allwyn, paid the biggest prize to a U.K. player of 195 million ($265 million) in 2022.
“Our ambition is to bring more games, more innovation and more excitement to The UK National Lottery – and it doesn’t get more exciting than Powerball, with its transformative jackpots and life-changing contribution to good causes,” Allwyn UK Chief Executive Andria Vidler said in a statement.
Although jackpots will be the same in each country, estimated jackpot amounts will be different due to currency conversion rates and because the U.S. advertises prize amounts pretax, unlike in the U.K.
U.K. Powerball jackpots also will be paid over 30 years, whereas in the U.S., jackpot winners have a choice between taking their winnings spread over years through an annuity or in cash – nearly all winners opt for cash.
All players will vie for the same jackpot prize, but smaller prizes will be different in the two countries.
Powerball is played in 45 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In the game, players choose numbers displayed on five white balls numbered 1 to 69 and one number from 1 to 26 on the red Powerball numbered. Drawings will continue to be held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.
More than 31 million people play at least one National Lottery game each year across the U.K.
The new agreement won’t change how Mega Millions, the other large U.S. lottery game, operates.
Top Ten Powerball Jackpots
1. $2.04 billion – Nov. 7, 2022 – CA
2. $1.817 billion – Dec. 24, 2025 – AR
3. $1.787 billion – Sept. 6, 2025 – MO, TX
4. $1.765 billion – Oct. 11, 2023 – CA
5. $1.586 billion – Jan. 13, 2016 – CA, FL, TN
6. $1.326 billion – April 6, 2024 – OR
7. $1.08 billion – July 19, 2023 – CA
8. $842.4 million – January 1, 2024 – MI
9. $768.4 million – March 27, 2019 – WI
10. $758.7 million – Aug. 23, 2017 – MA
Here is a look at the 10 largest U.S. jackpots that have been won and the states where the winning tickets were sold:
1. $2.040 billion, Powerball, Nov. 7, 2022 (one ticket: California)
2. $1.787 billion. Powerball. Sept. 6, 2025 (two tickets: Missouri and Texas)
2. $1.765 billion, Powerball, Oct. 11, 2023 (one ticket: California)
3. $1.602 billion, Mega Millions, Aug. 8, 2023 (one ticket: Florida)
4. $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 (three tickets: California, Florida and Tennessee)
5. $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket: South Carolina)
6. $1.348 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 13, 2023 (one ticket: Maine)
7. $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket: Illinois)
8. $1.269 billion, Mega Millions, Dec. 27, 2024 (one ticket: California)
9.$1.128 billion Mega Millions, March 26, 2024 (one ticket, from New Jersey)
10. $1.08 billion, Powerball, July, 19, 2023 (one ticket: California)
You can watch the New York state lottery drawings live daily at 2:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. and Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. on ABC 7 New York.
Powerball drawings are also streamed here on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 p.m.
Mega Millions drawings are streamed on Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 p.m.
The New York Lottery continues to be North America’s largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing $3.7 billion in Lottery Aid to Education for FY2022-2023 to help support education in New York State.
New York Lottery revenue is distributed to local school districts by the same statutory formula used to distribute other state aid to education. It takes into account both a school district’s size and its income level; larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of Lottery school funding.
For more information about the New York lottery and to see lottery results, please visit nylottery.ny.gov..
New Yorkers struggling with a gambling addiction, or who know someone who is, can find help by calling the State’s toll-free, confidential HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY (1-877-846-7369) or by texting HOPENY (467369). Standard text rates may apply.
———-
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* More local news
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
Copyright © 2026 ABC News Internet Ventures.
