Powerball is “going international,” with the Multi-State Lottery Association saying the jackpot game will expand this summer to include players in England, Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom. The agreement announced Tuesday links U.K. participation to Powerball’s jackpot, but it still requires approval by a U.K. gambling commission, the company said.
The deal, announced by the Multi-State Lottery Association and Allwyn UK, would mark the first time a lottery outside the United States contributes to the Powerball jackpot. Strawn, who heads Powerball and is chief executive of the Iowa Lottery, said the change is intended to keep the game relevant as it grows.
“We’re constantly looking for ways to make sure that we’re keeping Powerball culturally and commercially relevant,” Strawn said. He described the expansion as the next step in a process designed to broaden the player base that drives the jackpot’s growth.
For players in the United States, the plan is designed to leave the game largely unchanged. Strawn said the $2 cost of a Powerball ticket will remain the same and that the long odds of winning the jackpot in the U.S. continue to be 1 in 292.2 million, and he said the jackpots available through U.S. ticket sales would be paired with U.K. participation.
The same jackpot amount will be made available to players on both sides of the Atlantic, with U.S. payouts paid in dollars and U.K. payouts in pounds, according to Strawn. The Multi-State Lottery Association said that expanding to U.K. players increases the player pool, which it said makes it more likely jackpots will grow faster because more people play as jackpots rise.
“Players consistently tell us in survey after survey that faster growing Powerball jackpots is what they’d like to see,” Strawn said. He tied that feedback to a cycle he said drives participation: higher jackpots lead to more play, which then lifts sales and helps jackpots grow more quickly.
For U.K. players, the expansion would offer the chance at much larger jackpots than those currently available through lotteries in the country and across Europe. The reporting described the largest Powerball payout in the U.S. as just over $2 billion from a 2022 ticket in California, while it said EuroMillions’ biggest prize for a U.K. player was £195 million ($265 million) in 2022.
Allwyn UK Chief Executive Andria Vidler said the company’s goal is to make the U.K. National Lottery more competitive through the partnership. “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,” Vidler said in a statement.
Even with shared jackpot amounts, estimated jackpot figures are expected to differ between the U.S. and the U.K., the agreement said, in part because of currency conversion and because U.S. advertisements list prizes pretax while the U.K. does not. The reporting also said U.K. jackpot winners would be paid over 30 years, while U.S. jackpot winners can choose to take winnings spread over years through an annuity or take cash, with nearly all winners opting for cash.
Powerball will still be played using the same number-drawing format, with players selecting numbers from five white balls numbered 1 to 69 and one red Powerball numbered 1 to 26. Drawings will continue on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and the reporting said Powerball is currently played in 45 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The expanded Powerball agreement is not expected to change how Mega Millions operates. The reporting said Mega Millions, the other large U.S. lottery game, will continue as it currently is, separate from Powerball’s U.S.-U.K. expansion.