Powerball's Newest Game Has No Numbers On It - Just Eight NFL Logos

Powerball Xs & Os asks for something no Powerball game has asked for before: instead of choosing numbers, you choose eight NFL team logos from all 32 in the league. A play costs $5. If you have no strong opinions about which eight, you can ask for a Quick Pick at the counter, exactly as you would with a normal Powerball slip, or build one in a participating lottery's app before you go.

This is not sports betting and it is not a prediction game. Eight winning team logos are drawn at random every Sunday night. Powerball is explicit that results are not based on, determined by, or dependent on what happens in NFL games, and the Minnesota Lottery puts it more plainly still: every team has an equal shot at helping you win, regardless of scores or standings.

Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, and the first drawing follows on Sunday, 13 September, at 10 p.m. Eastern Time - 9 p.m. Central - with drawings every Sunday thereafter through the year. At launch the game is live in 24 lottery jurisdictions: Arizona, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia. Powerball says more US lotteries plan to join later in the year.

Match all eight logos and you take the rolling jackpot, which starts at $1 million and grows every week it goes unwon. Below that: seven of eight pays $20,000, six of eight pays $500, five of eight pays $40 and four of eight pays $7. The odds of the grand prize are 1 in 10,518,300, and overall odds of winning something are roughly 1 in 12.16 on a $5 play. Powerball notes that lower-tier prizes may become pari-mutuel in some circumstances.

Alongside the cash game sits a national promotional prize program - the first in Powerball's history, according to the game's own announcement. Every eligible ticket, winning or not, can be entered at PowerballOfficial.com as soon as it is bought. Entries earn points, and players allocate those points as entries into whichever prize drawings they actually want, rather than being pooled into one pot. The prize calendar includes a trip to Super Bowl LXI, NFL Shop gift cards, team merchandise and NFL experiences, with new prizes added over the season. There is no cost to take part beyond buying an eligible ticket, and where a jurisdiction offers iLottery, players can link their account so online purchases are counted automatically.

"Powerball Xs & Os is more than a game launch - it's the debut of the first national promotional prize program in Powerball history," said Jay Finks, the game's product group chair and executive director of the Oklahoma Lottery. He argued the national scale is what makes the prize tier possible: NFL prizes and experiences "on a scale never before possible through a Powerball promotion."

Participation is governed by the official game rules and by the laws and requirements of each participating lottery jurisdiction, and purchase options, entry methods and promotional participation can vary from one state to the next. Prize availability and fulfilment are subject to those official rules. Lottery games are for adults who meet the applicable age, residency and eligibility requirements. 18+. Play responsibly.