New Powerball Format NZ: The First Two Draws Under 14 Balls

The new Powerball is no longer a rumour — it has actually run. From Wednesday 16 September 2026 the game moved from a 10-ball pool to 14 balls, and the odds of the top prize stretched from 1 in 38.4 million to 1 in 53.7 million. Two draws have now landed under the new rules. I pulled both results from the official data and walked through what they actually show, because the headlines about "harder odds" mean very little until you see real numbers next to them.

A quick refresher on what changed

If you missed the build-up, here is the short version — the full Powerball changes guide has every detail:

• The Powerball pool went from 1–10 to 1–14 — four new balls added.
• Division 1 odds went from 1 in 38,383,800 to 1 in 53,737,320 per line.
• The starting jackpot rose from $4 million to $5 million, and the cap from $50m to $60m.
• A brand-new Division 8 pays a fixed $12 for matching two main numbers, the bonus ball and the Powerball.
• The price stayed at $0.80 per line, and the Must Be Won mechanic carried over.

So the trade-off was always clear: the same spend buys a slightly longer shot at the top prize, in exchange for more — and bigger — wins further down the table. Two draws in, we can see that trade-off in the raw numbers.

Draw 2621 — Wednesday 16 September (the first one)

The first draw under the new format started the jackpot at $5 million. The six main balls were 1, 10, 20, 25, 29, 30 with the bonus ball 35, and the Powerball was 11 — one of the four new balls.

Here is how the Powerball divisions paid out:

The headline: nobody matched Powerball Division 1, so the $5 million jackpot rolled over. But look at the bottom two rows — Division 8, the brand-new tier, paid 5,720 people $12 in its very first outing. That is the "more winners" promise showing up on day one.

Draw 2622 — Saturday 19 September

A week later the jackpot had grown to $6 million. The main balls were 7, 10, 11, 28, 35, 37, bonus 12, and the Powerball was 14 — again one of the new balls, this time the very top of the pool.

Same story at the top — no Division 1 winner, so the jackpot keeps climbing (it heads to around $7 million for the next draw). But the lower tiers did exactly what the modelling predicted: Division 8 paid 7,825 people $12, and Division 7's fixed prize had already stepped up from $15 to $20. Between the two draws, around 15,000 then 20,000 players collected a Powerball prize below Division 3 — a visible lift in the "something most weeks" part of the game.

One small observation, not a pattern

Two draws is a tiny sample, so I'll say this carefully: the Powerball in both first draws — 11 and 14 — landed in the new 11–14 range. It is a tidy coincidence that the first two Powerballs were both "new" numbers, but it means nothing for the next draw. Every Powerball is drawn independently from all 14 balls, and the machine has no memory of which ones came up last time.

What it means if you play

The new format is doing precisely what Lotto NZ said it would. The jackpot is rolling because the top prize is harder to hit, which is exactly why bigger amounts build up — and when it does land, the average share will be larger. Meanwhile the new Division 8 and the bumped Division 7 prize mean more players see a return most weeks, even if it is a modest one.

None of this changes the one thing I always come back to: no number is ever "due," and no way of choosing your lines shifts the odds of any division. The 14-ball change made the maths a little longer at the top and a little warmer at the bottom. That is the whole update — a rulebook tweak, not a new way to win.

If you want to see how any draw broke down, the Lotto results history lists every draw's full prize split. And if the bigger jackpots ever tempt you to stretch your usual spend, the Gambling Helpline NZ is there on 0800 654 655.

Frequently asked

When did the new 14-ball Powerball start? The first draw under the new rules was Wednesday 16 September 2026 (draw 2621), starting at a $5 million jackpot, right after the final 10-ball Must Be Won draw on 12 September.

What is Powerball Division 8? It is the new lowest Powerball tier: a fixed $12 prize for matching two main numbers, the bonus ball and the Powerball on one line. In its first two draws it paid 5,720 and then 7,825 players.

Did anyone win the Powerball jackpot in the first two draws? No. Division 1 (six numbers plus the Powerball) had zero winners in both draw 2621 and draw 2622, so the jackpot rolled from $5 million to $6 million and beyond.

Are the odds of winning Powerball harder now? Yes, for Division 1 — they went from 1 in 38,383,800 to 1 in 53,737,320 per line because the Powerball pool grew from 10 to 14 balls. The lower divisions, though, pay more often and slightly more per win.