Powerball
Next estimated jackpot:
R70,000,000
About Powerball
Powerball is the biggest lottery in South Africa and has set the record for the biggest ever jackpot when R232 million was won in 2019. There have been multiple jackpots offered over R100 million, and the additional Powerball Plus game alongside gives players many chances to win millions of R! Keep reading below to find out more about our summary of Powerball and Powerball Plus.
Powerball Overview
It's incredibly simple to play Powerball and win huge prizes. Here is a quick overview of all the key points when it comes to playing:
- Players must pick five numbers from 1 to 50 and a PowerBall from 1 to 20. You can also use a Quick Pick instead which will randomly choose the numbers for you
- Tickets for just the Powerball draw cost R5 per line
- You can enter the Powerball Plus draw for an extra R2.50 per line. This will enter the same numbers from your Powerball entry as a Powerball Plus entry. You can’t enter the Plus draw without having bought a normal entry as well
- Draws are held twice a week on Tuesday and Friday evenings in Johannesburg at 21:00.
- You have 365 days to claim a prize after your ticket has won. After this, any unclaimed prizes are donated to charities and good causes
- There are nine prize tiers in total for both draws
- The prizes for matching just the PowerBall and one number with the Powerball are fixed for both Powerball and Powerball Plus. The remaining prizes are determined as a percentage of the prize pool, so change from draw to draw based on the number of winners and the number of entries
- There is no minimum jackpot once a draw has been won, but the jackpot usually resets to R5 million
- There is no jackpot cap, meaning the top prize will grow until it’s won
Powerball & Lotto Comparison
Draw Days
Starting Jackpot
Record Jackpot
Ticket Price
Next Jackpot
Powerball
Tuesday and Friday
R5 Million
R232 Million
R5
R70,000,000
Lotto
Wednesday and Saturday
R3 Million
R110 Million
R5
R3,000,000
You may also find these pages useful:
Statistics
Check out the latest Powerball statistics, updated in real-time after each drawing.
Number Generator
Generate your own Quick Pick results for a future draw, as many times as you like.
Powerball Prize Table
Powerball continues to offer the biggest jackpot in South Africa. All the prize divisions and odds can be found in the table below
| Prize Division | % of Prize Fund | Odds of Winning | Winners in Last Draw | Avg. Winners Per Draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match 5 + Powerball | 7.73% | 1 in 42,375,200 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Match 5 | 5.19% | 1 in 2,230,274 | 2 | 2.8 |
| Match 4 + Powerball | 3.25% | 1 in 188,334 | 17 | 29.3 |
| Match 4 | 5.51% | 1 in 9,912 | 522 | 563.1 |
| Match 3 + Powerball | 6.23% | 1 in 4,280 | 1,053 | 1,194.4 |
| Match 3 | 5.19% | 1 in 225 | 20,901 | 22,756.8 |
| Match 2 + Powerball | 3.90% | 1 in 299 | 13,986 | 15,848.6 |
| Match 1 + Powerball | Fixed Prize of R15 | 1 in 57 | 71,304 | 77,234.6 |
| Match 0 + Powerball | Fixed Prize of R10 | 1 in 35 | 111,438 | 117,054.1 |
| The overall Powerball odds are approx. 1 in 18 | ||||
Top 3 Biggest Powerball Jackpots
1
Jackpot: R232 Million
Date: 19 Februaury 2019
Winners: 1x (Cape Town)
The biggest jackpot ever won in Powerball history was claimed by a player from Cape Town who chose to remain anonymous and claimed their prize in secret. They obviously knew they were a winner straight away as the jackpot was claimed a week after the draw had taken place, rather than waiting a few weeks as many big jackpot winners do! The only details released were that it was a male player in his fifties who picked his own numbers at OK Mini Mart in Cape town. He said he plans to fund his kid’s education and has no plans to quit his job despite this massive win!
2
Jackpot: R167 Million
Date: 11 Februaury 2022
Winners: 1x (Ballito)
The second biggest jackpot win in Powerball history was also claimed by an anonymous participant, this time being a player from Ballito on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. No details were released about this player other than the fact that they won using a Quick Pick ticket, as many players do, and had bought R150 worth of tickets when entering. The win brought to an end 24 consecutive draws without a winner that had run from 16 November 2021.
3
Jackpot: R158 Million
Date: 27 July 2021
Winners: 1x (North West SA)
Third place on the list is also the biggest online winner ever after a woman in North West South Africa won R158 million when she played through her ABSA banking app. She played using her regular numbers and came at the perfect time for her after she had just become unemployed. She vowed to spend part of her winnings on an education trust for her children, along with donations to charity and plenty of money for traveling!
History
The first South Africa Powerball draw was held on Friday 23rd October 2009, nine years after the establishment of the country’s own National Lottery. The game was launched to increase the funds contributed to good causes. Approximately 27 percent of all South African Powerball ticket sales are donated to the NLDTF.
Since June 2015, the game has been run by Ithuba Holdings, who replaced Gidani as the operators of the South African National Lottery. In November 2015, an extra prize tier for matching just the PowerBall was added to the game, reducing the overall odds of winning a reward. The price of a ticket increased from R3.50 to R5.00.
The first South Africa Powerball Plus draw was held on Tuesday December 1 2015 and offered a jackpot of R10 million to mark the occasion.
Further changes to the game were made in June 2018, when the pool of main numbers to choose from increased from 45 to 50. The pool of PowerBall numbers remained unchanged at 20.
Quick Stats
Below are the current hot and cold numbers for Powerball from recent draws. More statistics like these can be found using the button below.
Hot Numbers
- 3
- 15
- 49
- 38
- 13
- 16
Cold Numbers
- 1
- 26
- 23
- 14
- 33
- 20