South Africa

PowerBall (South Africa) odds — every division, derived

Every figure on this page is calculated from the game's published rules. The operator's own odds page is linked below as verification — but the working is here, on this page.

The combinatorics

A standard entry picks 5 numbers from 50 plus 1 from a separate pool of 16. The number of possible combinations is:

C(50, 5) = 2,118,760 × C(16, 1) = 33,900,160

Division odds

DivisionMatchWinning combinationsDerived oddsProbabilityPrizeOperator says
Division 1 (5 + PowerBall)5 main + 1 Powerball11 in 33,900,1602.950e-8Jackpot pool share1 in 33,900,160
Division 2 (5 numbers)5 main + 0 Powerball151 in 2,260,0114.425e-7Pool share1 in 2,260,011
Division 3 (4 + PowerBall)4 main + 1 Powerball2251 in 150,6676.637e-6Pool share1 in 150,667
Division 4 (4 numbers)4 main + 0 Powerball3,3751 in 10,0449.956e-5Fixed prize1 in 10,044
Division 5 (3 + PowerBall)3 main + 1 Powerball9,9001 in 3,4240.0292%Fixed prize1 in 3,424
Division 6 (3 numbers)3 main + 0 Powerball148,5001 in 2280.4381%Fixed prize1 in 228
Division 7 (2 + PowerBall)2 main + 1 Powerball141,9001 in 2390.4186%Fixed prize1 in 239
Division 8 (1 + PowerBall)1 main + 1 Powerball744,9751 in 45.512.20%Fixed prize1 in 46
Division 9 (PowerBall only)0 main + 1 Powerball1,221,7591 in 27.753.60%Fixed prize1 in 28

"Winning combinations" counts how many of the possible outcomes land in that division. "Operator says" is the operator's published figure — shown so you can check us against them (small differences are their rounding).

Odds of winning any prize

1 in 14.93

Sum of all division probabilities — usually the number the ads quote.

Odds of the top prize

1 in 33,900,160

One standard game. Two games doubles it — and it's still tiny.

How long are these odds? Winning the top prize is about as likely as calling 25 coin flips in a row correctly (225 33,900,160). If you bought one line every draw, at two draws a week you would expect one top-prize win roughly every 325,963 years.

Sources

Last verified: 2026-08-29