World's Biggest Lottery Game Is Coming to the UK — With a £1 Billion Jackpot

The world's biggest lottery game is coming to the United Kingdom this week. The National Lottery has announced that Powerball — a hugely popular game from the United States — will go on sale in the UK starting Tuesday. For £4 per line, British players will compete for the same enormous jackpots as American players, with prizes that can grow into the billions of pounds.

Powerball has never been played outside the US before, making this a historic moment for UK lottery fans. The current jackpot sits at about $416 million, which is roughly £311 million. If no one wins before the UK launch, British players will get their first crack at it in Thursday's opening draw.

The jackpots in this game start at £12 million and have no upper limit, meaning they keep growing until someone wins. Sometimes that means hundreds of millions — or even billions — of pounds are up for grabs. Winners who claim the full prize receive payments spread out over 30 years.

The UK version of Powerball includes a special prize level that American players don't get. It's called 'match two main numbers,' and it pays a fixed £8 prize only to UK players. There is also a 'match five main numbers' prize worth a fixed £1 million, while most other prize amounts will change based on the draw results and the number of winners.

Andria Vidler, chief executive of Allwyn — the company that runs the National Lottery — is excited about the launch. She said: 'Powerball jackpots can soar into the billions, offering breathtaking sums with the potential to transform lives and communities.' She encouraged players to buy tickets and said she hopes the UK will soon have its first Powerball winner.

Powerball is not the only big change at the National Lottery recently. In June, the standard Lotto game got its biggest update since it launched in 1994, giving players two chances to win with every £2 ticket. This change is expected to more than double the number of Lotto millionaires each year — from around 140 to about 345.

The National Lottery also completed a huge technology upgrade costing £450 million. The project moved 18 million player records and more than three billion past transactions from old systems to new ones. It also improved the technology used by shops that sell lottery tickets across the country.

The lottery continues to raise large sums for the public good. Total sales in 2025 reached £8.1 billion — up 3.5 percent from the year before. More than £1.7 billion went to good causes such as health, education, arts, and charities, and nearly £967 million was raised in taxes.