PowerBall FAQs

PowerBall draws take place twice a week, at 20:58 on Tuesdays and Fridays.

You must purchase your tickets by 20:30 on draw days. You’ll have to wait until the next draw if you don’t get your entries in by the time sales close.

To play PowerBall, you need to select five main numbers from 1 to 50 and a PowerBall number from 1 to 20. You can play online, in-store or through select banks, including FNB and Nedbank. Go to the How to Play page for more information about entering the game.

Yes. There is a Multi-Draw option that allows you to submit your entries into up to 10 draws in advance.

The cost of PowerBall is R5 per line. You can also play PowerBall Plus for an additional charge of R2.50 per line.

PowerBall Plus is a supplementary game which can only be played alongside the main draw. You cannot play it on its own. When you add the Plus option to your ticket, your numbers will also be entered into a second draw for more chances to win prizes.

No. Your selections for PowerBall will be carried over to PowerBall Plus. The draw works exactly the same way for both games, so there is no need to pick another set of numbers.

You win prizes by matching your chosen numbers to the winning numbers. There are nine different prize divisions altogether, and you have to match all the numbers to win the jackpot.

You win a prize if you match three main numbers. You also win a prize if you match two main numbers plus the PowerBall.

However, you do not win a prize if you match just two main numbers. Even if another one of your main numbers is the same as the winning PowerBall, this does not put you in the ‘Match 2 +1’ prize division. To win in this category, your PowerBall must match the winning PowerBall number.

The PowerBall is selected separately to the main numbers - it is drawn from a pool of 1 to 20. The same number can therefore appear twice in the same draw - once as a main number and once as the PowerBall.

The aim of the game is to match your main numbers to the winning main numbers and your PowerBall to the winning PowerBall. The two types cannot be interchanged.

There are fixed prizes (R15 and R10) in the two lowest divisions, but the other categories each receive a percentage of the prize fund. The largest portion goes to the jackpot, and if nobody matches all the numbers the top prize rolls over to the following draw. There is no jackpot cap or rollover limit, so the top prize has been known to grow into nine figures.

The biggest ever jackpot was given away in the draw on 19 February 2019, when one player from Cape Town won R232 million.

Yes. The PowerBall Plus jackpot works in just the same way as the main game, so it rolls over if there are no winning tickets. The top prize has even climbed higher than R100 million on PowerBall Plus.

The results are produced by a random number generator - a computer system set up to select the winning numbers. The PowerBall and PowerBall Plus draws are held consecutively, with an independent auditor always present.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 42,375,200. The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 18.

You can use the ticket checker to find out if you have won - enter the numbers you played and the Checker will show you whether they matched the winning numbers. Alternatively, you can head over to the results page to see the latest winning numbers. If you played in a store, you can take your ticket to a retailer to get it checked, and if you played online you can just log in to your account to check.

The method for claiming prizes depends on how much you have won and the way you purchased your tickets. You can claim smaller amounts by post or from retailers if you played in-store, while most online prizes will be paid straight into your account. However, you will need to visit one of the National Lottery’s regional offices to receive a sum larger than R50,000. Go to the How to Claim page for full details.

You have 365 days from the date of the winning draw to claim any prize. Prizes that remain unclaimed after this time are allocated to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund to benefit good causes.

Yes. It is up to you whether you want details of your win to be publicised. No information about you will be released without your consent. Whether you wish to remain anonymous or not, you will be offered financial advice and counselling sessions to help you come to terms with your big win.