National Lottery makes major change to its main draw for first time in 32 years

UK players will compete with those in the US for a shared jackpot (Picture: Shutterstock)

The National Lottery will soon give players two chances to win in its main draw for the first time and offer a new mega jackpot game.

Operator Allwyn is set to unveil the first new game in the National Lottery’s history later this summer,with the launch of the UK-specific version of the world’s biggest jackpot game,Powerball.

It will see UK players pay £4 per line to compete with their US counterparts to win the shared jackpot of over £1 billion,which will be paid out over 30 years to UK winners.

Allwyn reached an agreement with the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) in the US to bring Powerball to the UK,although an exact launch date is yet to be set.

The move comes as The National Lottery also allows players two chances to win, which will mark the biggest overhaul to the National Lottery’s draw-based game Lotto since 1994.

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Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.The change will be rolled out from June 7 and is expected to more than double the number of Lotto millionaires – from around 140 a year to about 345.Players will soon have two chances to win (Picture: Shutterstock)The first two-round draw will take place on Wednesday,June 10,with Lotto draws continuing to take place at around 8 pm every Saturday and Wednesday.The lottery firm also recently completed a £450 million major tech upgrade,which involved moving 18 million player records and more than three billion historical transactions from old platforms to new ones,and transforming the technology used by retail partners.Allwyn chief executive Andria Vidler said: ‘We are delivering on our promise to bring more games,more entertainment and more innovation to The National Lottery.‘With extensive upgrades to our digital and retail channels now complete,we have a fantastic summer lined up,as we are now able to bring these exciting new games to our players.’The group said the new games will boost returns for good causes,with the new Powerball draw set to see over 30% of ticket prices going to good causes,meaning it will deliver around £1 billion extra over the first five years.Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at .