Powerball Australia draws every Thursday night. Each entry picks 7 main numbers from 1–35 plus a single Powerball from 1–20. Division 1 — all 7 mains plus the Powerball — is roughly 1 in 134.5 million per entry. Because the prize is uncapped and rolls every week without a winner, it commonly climbs into nine figures; A$200 million nights have happened multiple times since the format was reset to 7+1 in 2018.
Powerball New Zealand is different. It isn't its own draw — it's a NZ$1 add-on to a regular NZ Lotto ticket (Wednesday + Saturday draws). Your 6 NZ Lotto numbers plus a single Powerball number from 1–10 give you a chance at the Powerball Division 1 prize. To win, you need all 6 Lotto mains plus the matching Powerball. Combined Division 1 odds are around 1 in 38.4 million per line.
On the prize side: NZ Powerball caps at NZ$50 million. When the cap is hit and rolls one more week without a winner, a Must-Be-Won draw is forced — the entire jackpot must be paid out, sliding to the highest division with winners if no one matches outright. AU Powerball has no such mechanic; it just keeps rolling until someone wins.
Practical implication: NZ Powerball offers a higher per-line probability of Division 1 (because the Lotto pool is smaller), but the headline numbers are smaller too. AU Powerball is the rare-but-massive game; NZ Powerball is the steady-but-still-life-changing game.
Both share one thing: as a Division 1 winner you're sharing the prize pool with anyone else who also matched. AU's Division 1 has produced 2- and 3-way ties on several A$80M+ nights; NZ's Must-Be-Won mechanic means the entire pool is divided among all qualifying entries (including non-Division 1 if no Division 1 winner exists).