It took nine years for the South African National Lottery to bolster its Lotto draw up by introducing a bi-weekly PowerBall draw, but when it did in 2009, South African lottery fans were quick to embrace the new game. Like its Lotto counterpart, the Powerball has two weekly draws in South Africa. Unlike the Lotto, however, the Powerball draws take place every Tuesday and Friday.

This means South Africans can enjoy some lottery action every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Like the Lotto, players can only buy PowerBall tickets if they’re 18 or older. They can purchase physical tickets at any participating lottery retailer or outlet, or for the ultimate in convenience, buy tickets on the internet from the National Lottery website or other safe 3rd party sites.

In this article we’ll give you a complete rundown of the South African PowerBall lottery including how it works, where you can buy tickets, how to check your PowerBall results, how to increase your chances of a winning a multi-million Rand jackpot and more.

The PowerBall, South Africa’s newest and lottery game generates millions of Rands in weekly ticket sales from players eager to win a life-changing jackpot. The table below showcases the most important information about this popular SA lottery variant:

In the event that a PowerBall jackpot is not won in any draw, it will automatically roll over to the next draw date until it is finally won. All PowerBall ticket prices are VAT inclusive (15%), and there’s no limit to the number of tickets you can buy for any draw.

With the Lotto you must pick 6 numbers (from 1 to 52). With the Powerball, however, a whole new set of numbers is thrown into the mix. For instance, you must first choose 5 numbers from 1 to 45, and then 1 number (the PowerBall) from another set of numbers 1 to 20. Come draw time, if you manage to match all 5 numbers from your first set plus the single PowerBall number from your second set, the jackpot is yours.

In the event here is more than one winning PowerBall jackpot ticket, the total jackpot for that draw will be split equally by the number of winning tickets.

When it comes to choosing your numbers for any given PowerBall draw, there are two ways you can do this. The first is to manually choose your numbers + PowerBall which you can do by marking them off on your physical lottery coupon if you purchase them at a physical lottery outlet, or on your virtual coupon if you buy them online.

The second method is to make use of the QuickPick facility (offline or online), where the lottery ticket system picks them for you in an instant, hence the name. Either way, rest assured that the odds of winning a PowerBall jackpot with your own carefully chosen numbers or random computer-generated numbers are virtually identical.

The odds of winning a PowerBall jackpot are approximately 1:24,435,180. As high as this is, always remember that someone always eventually wins.

There are thousands of physical lottery retailers and outlets across South Africa you can buy PowerBall tickets from including post offices, petrol stations, supermarkets, corner cafes, retailers, mini markets, superettes, spaza shops and many more. All you need to is to be 18 or older and have at least R5 for a single Powerball ticket.

Next, fill out your chosen numbers + PowerBall number on the coupon or mark off the QuickPick option, indicate whether you want PowerBall Plus option (for an extra R2.50) for the chance of winning a second jackpot and lastly indicate how many consecutive draws you’d like these numbers (chosen or QuickPick) to be valid for.

Once you’ve handed your coupon to the lottery clerk to process and paid for the tickets, you must keep them safe until the draw date. If after watching the live PowerBall draw on e-TV at 21h00 every Tuesday or Friday and you think you’re a winner, you can take your tickets to any South African lottery outlet to check by scanning.

Alternatively, you can check the results on the National Lottery website or in any South African newspaper the next day. Remember that from the date of any PowerBall draw you only have one year (365 consecutive days) before your winning tickets (as well as any winnings you may have been due) expires, never to be redeemed.

The internet has revolutionised the way we do most things including how we buy lottery tickets. Gone are the days when your only option was to trek to your nearest lottery retailer and stand in a long queue ahead of a particularly big jackpot draw. Now all you need is the internet, a computer and/or smart device and a credit card.

You can sign up for a free account with the official National Lottery website or another safe and secure South African-friendly lottery site like The Lotter. In the case of the latter, all you need to do is sign up for a new account, make a fast and easy deposit with your favorite credit or debit card, and pick your PowerBall draws.

By joining a site where you can play the South African PowerBall online, you can secure your PowerBall tickets anytime you like (except within 30 minutes of any SA PowerBall draw) and even activate SMS alerts so you can receive your results shortly. Any winnings will automatically be deposited into your account, ready to be cashed out.

With regards to South African PowerBall divisions, results and payouts, everything you need to know is listed below. Even if you don’t win the jackpot (Division 1), there are plenty of other prizes (Divisions) that can pay you out if you match the right numbers:

To check your numbers (if you didn’t watch the PowerBall draw live on e-TV), you can check the National Lottery site, read the next day’s paper or what to be texted the result by your online lottery purveyor. If you buy your tickets online, your winnings will be automatically be transferred to your account.

If you’re an offline winner (i.e. you have one or more paper PowerBall tickets), you can go to any South African lottery retailer to be paid out up to R2,000 in cash (subject to your ticket being validated as a winning ticket). Win between R2,000 and R50,000 and you’ll need to visit a post office to be paid out.

Win anything more than R50,000 (including the jackpot) and you’ll have to visit your nearest regional ITHUBA office to verify your ticket and claim your winnings.

There are many theories floating around the world as to how to win a lottery jackpot, most of which are sheer nonsense. In terms of how to win a South African PowerBall jackpot, there is only one sure-fire strategy you need to follow which is to buy lottery tickets. If you don’t buy at least one ticket a week, you’ll have no chance of winning.

In other words, you ‘have to be in it to win.’ Although many South Africans are cynical about the lottery because of the extremely high odds of winning a jackpot, regular PowerBall players in South Africa understand one thing – regardless of their high odds, somebody always eventually wins the lottery jackpot so why shouldn’t it be them?

For just R10 a week any South African over the age of 18 can buy two regular PowerBall tickets (one for each weekly draw). For just R5 more a week they can buy two regular PowerBall tickets with PowerBall Plus. Statistically, you can raise your chances the more tickets you buy, but it only takes one line of winning numbers to snag a jackpot.

In 2009, nine years after the Lotto was launched, the PowerBall lottery made its debut in in South Africa and was an instant success. Unlike the Lotto, with the PowerBall players have to choose 5 numbers from 1 to 45 plus a single PowerBall number from 1 to 20. A few later, the Powerball Plus add-on was launched for an extra R2.50.

The PowerBall was launched in South Africa for many reasons, not least of which is that it provides an extra revenue stream for government. In addition, the PowerBall gave South African lottery fans another exciting and lucrative lottery game to sink their teeth into, one renowned internationally for yielding especially high jackpots.

The South African National Lottery has had three operators in its brief history – Uthingo, Gidani and current operator ITHUBA.