By 1news.co.nz and is republished with permission

Seven tickets have shared Lotto’s $50 million must-win Powerball jackpot tonight – each ticket taking home just over $7.1 million.

$50 million Lotto draw takes place. (Source: 1News)

The winning numbers were: 22, 35, 10, 30, 21, 37 Bonus 05 Powerball 02.

The Powerball prize rolled down to Division 2, with no tickets getting all the numbers needed for Division 1.

“It’s amazing that Powerball rolled down to Second Division and was shared between seven players – it’s fantastic to see more of our lucky players get to experience what it’s like to win,” said Lotto NZ CEO Jason Delamore.

“This is going to be life-changing, and not only for the lucky winner themselves, as we know winning big has a huge ripple effect. Most of our big winners share their prize with others, including family, friends, communities, and charities.”

The winning Strike numbers are: 22, 35, 10, 30.

One ticket won Strike’s jackpot, taking home $600,000.

Due to the exceptionally high interest in the draw, Lotto earlier advised people who bought tickets online to take a screenshot before it took place so they could manually check them and avoid crashing the Lotto website.

While the results will be revealed as normal tonight, Lotto will only reveal where the winning tickets were sold tomorrow. MyLotto will also open later for login at 10am on Sunday.

Since Powerball began in 2001, there have been 10 “must be won” draws. Two of those have been draws of $50 million.

Two players split the $50 million prize in March 2020, each winning Powerball First Division. The two lucky players took home $25.1 million – $111,111 each from Lotto First Division and the $25 million share of the Powerball jackpot.

Later that year, another $50 million “must be won” draw rolled down to Second Division, meaning the jackpot was shared between 10 winners.

Last year, a Christchurch winner won a $33.5 million Lotto jackpot in June. The prize was made up of $33 million from Powerball and $500,000 from Lotto.

That ticket was sold at Fresh Choice Merivale.

The biggest Powerball prize won in 2023 was $37.125 million won by a Paraparaumu couple.