Banking app Quick Pick helps KZN man win R153m PowerBall Plus

One lucky PowerBall Plus player has stepped forward to claim his grand prize of R153 million for the 10 July draw.

According to National Lottery operator Ithuba, this is the largest PowerBall Plus payout to date, as well as the largest payout for an online player.

Ithuba has located the winner, a KwaZulu-Natal based professional who played via the Standard Bank app.

“My partner and I are not regular lottery players, but my in-laws keep track of all lottery jackpots and always encourage us to play,” said the cheerful winner.

“My in-laws basically sold us the idea of being millionaires, telling us about the attractive jackpot. We decided to play on my Standard Bank banking app, using a Quick Pick selection method and playing for 10 draws with R300.”

The lucky winner, whose name is being withheld, said in the first draw, he won less than R10, and R28 on the second draw.

“On the third draw, I did not receive a notification [from Standard Bank] so I concluded I had not won anything. Little did I know that third time was the charm for us!

Mixed emotions

“I then received a call from Standard Bank, notifying me that I was the winner of the PowerBall Plus jackpot. I could not believe it!”

The winner said he needed time to take in the news before speaking to Ithuba.

“I had mixed emotions. At some point I was calm, the next I was nervous, it was really a lot of mixed emotions.”

Ithuba offered trauma counselling and financial advice to the winner as part of its “Winner Services” package, that comes at no cost to winners of R50 000 and above.

Asked how he broke the news to his zealous in-laws, the winner had a good chuckle and replied: “My partner and I called them and asked them if they had the winning numbers from the Friday 10 July PowerBall draw – we were not surprised that they did.

“Before they could call out the numbers for us, I offered to call out the numbers that we played and asked them to tell us if we had the winning ticket or not. As I was calling out the numbers, which I knew were winning numbers, I could hear the nervousness in my father in-law’s voice, with each number he confirms.

“After calling out the PowerBall, he became silent. I had to take him out of his misery and confirm to him that his daughter and I are now multimillionaires.”

‘Set for life’

The winner says the magnitude of his winnings is just unbelievable.

“We are financially cautious people. We have calculated how long this money will last us, taking into consideration inflation rates at worst-case scenarios – we realise that we really are set for life. This windfall is a massive gift to us. It has fast-forwarded our investment plans to a point that was beyond our imagination.”

Both the winner and his partner will not quit their jobs. “We are now under no pressure and do not have to worry about our financial future even when we decide to retire.”

Ithuba says this winner becomes the biggest PowerBall Plus and online winner.

“We are so ecstatic that we have yet another major jackpot winner in a space of five weeks. In the past four months, our biggest winners have been using their banking apps to play their favourite games. This indicates that our strategy of driving our players to play their favourite games using digital platforms is working, which is crucial during the Covid-19 pandemic. This winner becomes the biggest PowerBall PLUS winner in the history of the National Lottery, and certainly the biggest winner we have had on digital platforms,” said Busisiwe Msizi, head of corporate relations at Ithuba.

Standard Bank congratulated its newest millionaire client.

“We are delighted that the winner of the PowerBall Plus jackpot is a Standard Bank customer. We celebrate this momentous occasion with our customer and we will continue to walk the journey with them.

“As a Standard Bank Wealth customer, the winner can rest assured that they will have access to the best possible financial guidance on how to manage his windfall and to avoid the pitfalls that often come with such an immense change in your financial circumstances,” says Tshiamo Molanda, head: everyday banking for individuals at Standard Bank South Africa.

The winning numbers for Friday 10 July were 07, 13, 23, 37, 39 and the PowerBall, 07.

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