Up to a third of Aussie adults are expected to have their hands on an entry into tomorrow night’s $80 million Powerball draw – the second highest jackpot the game has offered in its 23-year history.
The eye-watering $80 million prize comes after the combination of winning numbers needed to win division one eluded players for the past seven weeks.
It’s only the third time in Powerball history an $80 million division one prize has been offered.
Ahead of Thursday’s draw, the Lott can reveal some of Powerball’s division one winning trends from the past financial year.
Winning Powerball states In the 12 months to 30 June 2019, 10 Powerball division one winners across Australia pocketed $398,575,649.10 in prize money.
- This included one Sydney woman who in January scored a Powerball payday of more than $107 million, setting a new record for Australia’s biggest ever individual lottery prize.
- During the 12 months, New South Wales and Victoria were each home to three Powerball division one winners, while Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia each welcomed one winner.
Winning entry types
- Of the 10 division one winning entries during the past 12 months, two-thirds were QuickPick entries, where the numbers were randomly generated by the lottery terminal. The remaining entries were marked entries, where the ticketholders chose the numbers themselves.
- In terms of the size of recent winning entries, a 25-game and 50-game entry each snared division one twice. The smallest winning entry was a 7-game entry, while the biggest was a 50-game entry.
Frequently drawn numbers While every number has an equal chance of being drawn in Powerball, some numbers have been drawn more frequently than others during the past 15 months.
- For the main barrel, where seven winning numbers are drawn from 1 to 35, the ‘hot’ more-frequently-drawn winning numbers are 17 and 2, while the ‘cold’ less-frequently-drawn winning numbers are 12 and 1.
- For the separate Powerball barrel, where a single Powerball number is drawn from 1 to 20, the ‘hot’ more-frequently-drawn Powerball numbers are 3 and 19, while the ‘cold’ less-frequently-drawn Powerball number is 1, which hasn’t made a single appearance during this time.
The Lott spokesperson Matt Hart said players would need to decide whether Powerball division one trends seen during the past year would have any bearing on their entry in Thursday’s draw.
“Will players pick an entry type based on the fact it has delivered a division one win in the past, or will they buck the trend and opt for something entirely different figuring lightning doesn’t strike twice?” he said.
“Can you imagine how your life might change for the rest of 2019 if your bank account ballooned by an $80 million Powerball prize? Would you pursue a long-held passion to explore the beautiful corners of the world, or would you set up home on a tropical island, or both?
“With a multi-million dollar Powerball prize of this scale, it’s fair to say you could well and truly play by your own rules.”
Mr Hart said his best advice for anyone keen for a chance to win Powerball’s $80 million prize was to grab an entry early.
“Leading up to the draw close on Thursday evening, it is going to be frenetic in store and online as Aussies scramble to get their hands on a ticket,” he said.
“The last time we had an $80 million draw, the sales peaked around 5pm on the day of the draw when more than 4,200 entries were sold in 60 seconds. I can’t help but think this was when many people were heading home from work and dreaming about a multi-million dollar payday.
“Remember to register those entries as I’ll be standing by on the night ready to reach out to any division one winner. It’s a phone call you’re going to want to take!”
Powerball draw 1208 closes at 7:30pm AEST on Thursday 11 July 2019.
Tickets can be purchased at any licensed lottery outlet, online from thelott.com or via the Lott mobile app.
The Lott’s division one winning tally across all Australian lottery games has now reached 177 so far this calendar year.
The sign of Australia’s Official Lotteries, the Lott operates and markets Australia’s leading lottery games customers know and love creating everyday winners, winning every day.
In the 12 months to 30 June 2018, 74 million winners took home a total of $2.7 billion in prize money from their favourite games which include Saturday Lotto, Monday and Wednesday Lotto, Powerball, Oz Lotto, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Keno and Instant Scratch-Its.
