First Powerball Xs & Os drawing used variable lower-tier payouts

Powerball’s first Xs & Os drawing is notable for more than its opening-week prize count. According to Powerball, the Sunday, Sept. 13 debut produced more than 39,000 winners across the country, and the lower-tier prizes for that draw were not paid at standard set values. Instead, they were determined on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning the amount available at each affected prize level depended on sales and on how many tickets won there. For players, that is the key takeaway: this game can look fixed-prize on the surface, but actual non-jackpot payouts can vary in specific circumstances.

That matters because Xs & Os is structured differently from the main Powerball draw many readers already follow on our Powerball results page. It costs $5 per play, is drawn every Sunday at 10 p.m. ET, and asks players to choose eight NFL team logos from a field of 32. Matching all eight logos wins the rolling cash jackpot, while smaller matches can return lower-tier cash prizes.

Verified facts from the launch drawing

• The first Powerball Xs & Os drawing took place on Sunday, Sept. 13.
• Powerball reported more than 39,000 winning tickets nationwide.
• For that inaugural drawing, lower-tier prize payouts were determined on a pari-mutuel basis.
• The eight logos drawn were the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
• Powerball states the logos are drawn randomly and are not tied to NFL game outcomes.
• There were 19 Match 7/8 winning tickets sold across 10 participating jurisdictions.
• Tickets can be entered at PowerballOfficial.com for promotional prize opportunities, including a chance to win a trip to Super Bowl LXI.

Why the lower-tier payout rule deserves attention

The phrase pari-mutuel can sound technical, but the practical effect is straightforward. In a set-prize game, a given match level always pays the same published amount. In a pari-mutuel structure, the money allocated to a prize level is shared among the winners in that tier. That means the per-ticket amount may end up lower or higher than a player expected from promotional material that emphasizes standard prizes.

Powerball says Xs & Os generally offers set amounts for lower-tier wins, but also states that these can be recalculated on a pari-mutuel basis in certain situations. That is exactly what happened in the Sept. 13 drawing. The official explanation is available from Powerball here.

What remains unknown from the published notes is the exact trigger behind the adjustment in the first drawing and the precise payout table for every affected tier. Powerball has confirmed the method used, but the summary provided publicly does not spell out every distribution figure in the material supplied for this story. Readers should therefore distinguish between the verified rule change for that draw and any broader assumptions about how often it may happen in future weeks.

The opening draw produced 19 near-top winners across 10 jurisdictions

Powerball identified 19 tickets that matched 7 of the 8 logos in the launch drawing. Those tickets were sold in Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, with Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina each recording multiple winners. That geographic spread is useful because Xs & Os is not a full-national game at this stage. It is currently offered in 23 lottery jurisdictions rather than everywhere Powerball is sold.

The participating jurisdictions listed by Powerball are Arizona, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia.

For players outside those areas, standard multi-state games remain the better-known option. Readers comparing draw-based games can also review our Mega Millions results and broader lottery guides for game rules and ticket-checking basics.

The logos drawn were random, not tied to football scores

One point Powerball has taken care to clarify is that the selected teams are not chosen based on what happened on the field. The inaugural logos were the Bears, Cowboys, Packers, Chiefs, Eagles, Steelers, 49ers and Buccaneers, but those names appeared because of a random drawing process, not because of NFL results.

That distinction matters because sports branding can easily lead new buyers to assume game outcomes or team performance somehow influence the draw. Powerball’s position is clear: the logos function as symbols in a lottery drawing, not as proxies for live sports results. Anyone evaluating a ticket should therefore focus only on the official draw outcome published by Powerball and participating lotteries.

Extra promotions add value, but they are separate from the draw prize

Powerball also says both winning and non-winning Xs & Os tickets can be entered at PowerballOfficial.com for additional promotional chances. Each ticket earns points that can be used as entries in drawings under a new promotional prize program, including the chance to win a trip to Super Bowl LXI.

That promotion is worth noting, but players should treat it as a separate benefit rather than as part of the draw payout itself. A non-winning ticket in the main draw can still have value for promotional entry purposes, while a winning ticket should be checked for both its cash prize and any entry eligibility rules. As always, promotion terms, deadlines and jurisdiction-specific restrictions may apply through the participating lotteries and the official promotional platform.

A practical checklist for players holding a Sept. 13 ticket

If you bought into the first Xs & Os drawing, use this short checklist:

• Confirm that your ticket was purchased in one of the 23 participating jurisdictions.
• Check whether your eight selected logos match the official eight-logo result.
• Do not assume a lower-tier prize is the standard advertised amount; Powerball says the Sept. 13 draw used pari-mutuel calculations for those tiers.
• If you matched 7 of 8 logos, note that 19 such tickets were sold nationwide, so your prize is one of multiple wins in that tier, not a sole top-level result.
• Keep non-winning tickets as well as winning ones until you have checked whether they can be entered into the promotional program.
• Use official results sources when verifying symbols and prize status.

The broader significance of this launch is not that Xs & Os attracted winners; many new games do. It is that the debut immediately demonstrated a rule that can materially affect what lower-tier winners actually receive. For anyone planning to play again on Sundays, understanding that variable-payout feature is just as important as knowing which logos were drawn.

A couple of useful follow-ups

When was the first Powerball Xs & Os drawing held?

Powerball says the inaugural Xs & Os drawing took place on Sunday, Sept. 13.

Were lower-tier prizes fixed in the first Xs & Os drawing?

No. Powerball states that for the Sept. 13 drawing, lower-tier prize payouts were determined on a pari-mutuel basis, reflecting ticket sales and the number of winners at each prize level.

Which team logos were drawn in the inaugural Xs & Os result?

Powerball lists the eight drawn logos as the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Are Powerball Xs & Os results based on NFL game outcomes?

No. Powerball says Xs & Os results are randomly drawn and are not based on, determined by, or dependent on the outcome of NFL games.