Powerball tickets are now available in the U.K., with tickets sold across the pond feeding into the same jackpot as U.S. tickets.
Wednesday’s drawing, which will be early in the morning Thursday U.K. time, will be the first in which British players and American players can try to win the shared jackpot, worth around $567 million in the U.S. and 300 million pounds in the U.K., according to a release from Allwyn, which operates and administers the U.K.’s National Lottery.
The country’s first Powerball ticket was sold at around 5 a.m. local time Wednesday in York, 174 miles northwest of London, Allwyn said.
There are some differences between U.S. and U.K. tickets. American tickets, Powerball explains on its “frequently asked questions” page, will remain $2, whereas the British tickets cost 4 pounds, equal to about $5.35.
Lower-level prizes will also be drawn from a different pool in the U.K. and administered independently by the National Lottery.
American winners also have the option to pick the cash option, currently worth around $251.8 million, as opposed to the annuitized option that provides an initial lump sum followed by 29 annual payments, each 5% larger than the last.
British jackpot winners, on the other hand, will automatically receive their prize from the National Lottery over the course of 30 years.
For U.K. players, Powerball will also be the first uncapped lottery available for them to buy tickets, according to Casino.org.
“When people start imagining jackpots in the hundreds of millions of pounds, the conversation changes. … Powerball Money brings a whole new level of possibility to U.K. players. It’s a chance to win the biggest jackpot ever offered through The National Lottery,” Allwyn Senior Winners’ Advisor Andy Carter said in the company’s release.
Powerball had not added a new lottery market since Mississippi starting selling the tickets in 2020. In addition to the U.K., Powerball tickets are sold in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and every U.S. state other than Alaska, Alabama, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.
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