Britain Celebrates First Powerball Millionaire!
The biggest Powerball prize won in the UK so far was landed on the Bank Holiday Monday draw on August 31st. One lucky player matched all five main numbers, just missing out on the Powerball Number, to land the £1 million second-place prize.
About the Big Prize
The £1,000,000 runner-up prize is the biggest non-jackpot prize in UK Powerball. It's a fixed prize, so multiple players can receive the full value during the same draw.
It's been known for unusual numbers of players to win the Match-5 prize in the US, on rare occasions. There were 110 Match-5 winners for the Powerball draw on the 30th of March, 2005, after the winning numbers were coincidentally printed on fortune cookies produced by a New York distributor. More recently, for the draw on the 29th of April 2026, there were 89 Match-5 winners along with two jackpot winners – it transpired that the five main numbers were printed in a vertical line on the playslips used in certain US states!
A Breakdown of the Draw – Stats & Figures
On this occasion, a single UK player managed to match the five main numbers: 11-17-25-37-49, but missed the Powerball number of 10 – had they matched that too, their £1 million win would've been a £71 million win! Ah well. Across the pond in New York state, another player picked the same main numbers and also won a prize of $1 million. Interestingly, the US Match-5 prize is substantially lower, since $1 million is equivalent to just £740,000. What's more, the US winner's prize will be taxed at 24% by the federal government, and a further 10.9% by the state government.
The UK prize fund for this draw was £1,408,961.60, shared between 31,853 winners. That means the Match-5 winner has won over 2/3 of the entire UK Powerball prize fund for Monday's draw!
There were 400,503 prizes won across all the states and jurisdictions that play Powerball, so the UK makes up about 1/12 of the total winners. This isn't an exact science however, since the UK has an additional bottom-prize tier that's unavailable in the US, while the US has the Double Play optional add-on in some states, giving players' numbers an extra chance at winning a 'second-chance' style draw.
How to Take Part in UK Powerball
If you're feeling lucky enough to be the second UK Powerball millionaire (or perhaps even 'jackpot winner'), then you'll need a ticket. You can get UK Powerball tickets at any National Lottery retailer, using the app, or even via our Tickets Page. The next draw is on Wednesday 3rd, and the estimated jackpot is an impressive £78 million. Will you be entering?
Published: Tuesday 1st September 2026Lottery News News Archive