Powerball Lottery

Complete Odds &
Return to Players

Analysis of January 2014 Changes
           

New Oct 2015 Powerball Analysis

View our Previous 2012 Powerball Analysis

The purpose of this page is to provide Powerball Lottery players with the supplemental information that is not readily available on the sponsored lottery site.



Powerball
Highlights 		Jumbo replace 2 replace 3 replace 4 replace 7 replace 7 replace 7
Class Winners Losers Overall Odds Overall Return Return Sensitivity Payout per $

We believe this is important because most lotteries only provide players with minimal amount of information: the odds of each winning combination occurring; the overall probability of having a winning ticket; the price of each ticket; the game format; the total number of combinations; and a few other items.

However, this page fills in the missing blanks. Included here are the complete odds and probabilities of every winning and losing ticket. It provides you with a comparison of winners to losers, the monies collected, the monies distributed back to players, and more.

Lottery Power Picks has taken every effort to ensure that this summary information is correct by reading and bookmarking all information provided by the organizing lottery body. But, in certain instances, clearly defined rules are not written. In those instances, we made assumptions that are linguistically consistent with the rules. Should any information be incorrect, please inform us so that we may correct it. We hope you find this information useful in understanding the lottery you play.

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Table PB7: US Powerball Expanded Odds Calculations
About Powerball a US Multi-State lottery that is played in 42 states, Washington DC, and the Virgin Islands. It is governed by the Multi-State Lottery Association, MUSL. This is a non-profit government benefit association owned and operated by the 44 member lotteries.

Format Powerball requires a player to make 2 choices: (1) Pick 5 numbers out of a set of 59 white balls; and (2) Pick 1 Powerball from a set of 35 red balls. If the player picks the same numbers as those that are drawn in the next drawing, the player wins the Jackpot prize. Smaller prizes are awarded for other combinations.

Class Powerball is a Jumbo Lottery. We classify it as such because its Jackpot Parity is approximately $287 million, which is over $100 million.

Prizes The minimum Powerball jackpot prize is replace 1, which may be paid as either a annuity or as a discounted cash value. All other cash prizes are predefined as well and are summarized in the table above. If no one wins the jackpot amount, a portion of the proceeds is rolled forward to the next drawing, allowing the jackpot to grow. All other prizes are established as a fixed amount, and do not vary.

Combinations In the Powerball lottery, there are a total of replace 1 combinations.

Winners Of these, there are replace 8 winning combinations. This represents replace 2 of the combinations. The overall odds of having a winning combination is replace 4 to 1 (the lower the better).

Losers There are replace 9 losing Powerball combinations. This is replace 3 of the combinations. The overall odds of having a losing combination is replace 4 to 1 (the higher the better; because as this number gets closer to 1, nearly every ticket is a loser.

Price  Each Powerball ticket costs replace 9

Money Raised  Assuming all tickets are sold and there are no duplicates, a total of replace 10 will be raised.


Table PB-4: Powerball Lottery Summary
Format 5/59+1/35
Class Jumbo
Min Jackpot replace 8
Jackpot Type Annuity
Combos replace 1
Total Winners replace 8
Total Losers replace 9
Overall Winners replace 4
Overall Losers replace 4
Pct Winners replace 2
Pct Losers replace 3
Price replace 9
Amount Raised replace 10
Tot Payout replace 11
Avg Ticket Payout replace 7
Normalized Payout/$ replace 7
ReturnOn$ replace 7
Jackpot/Odds replace 7
Return Sensitivity replace 7
Jackpot Parity replace 7


Prize Pool  Of this, replace 11 will be allocated to the prize pool to be paid back to the players when the jackpot is set to replace 8

Average Winning Ticket Payout  On the average, each winning ticket will pay replace 7 to the players. Since a ticket costs replace 9, the normalized payout per Dollar spent is replace 7

Income Returned to Players  Based on this information, replace 7 of each $ raised will be returned to the players.

Return Sensitivity  If the Powerball Jackpot changes by $1.0 million, the above Income Returned to Players will change by replace 7 (up or down).

Jackpot Parity  In order for Powerball to return $1.00 of each dollar raised, the Jackpot must be equal to replace 7 		       
References
You can learn more about the Powerball Lottery and verify our findings by visiting our references.