Powerball Xs & Os Turns NFL Logos Into a $1 Million Lottery Game
Minnesota is about to launch a lottery game that looks more like a football pool than a conventional draw ticket. Powerball Xs & Os goes on sale September 8, asking players to choose eight NFL team logos instead of numbers. The first drawing is September 13, with a starting jackpot of $1 million.
The branding is unusual, but the result is still decided by a random draw. Sunday scores, standings, injuries, and expert picks have no influence on which logos appear. That distinction is the most important fact to understand before kickoff.
Eight logos come from a field of 32
Each $5 play contains eight NFL team logos selected from all 32 teams. Players can choose the teams themselves or take a Quick Pick. A ticket wins a cash prize by matching at least four of the eight logos drawn; matching all eight wins the jackpot.
There are 10,518,300 possible groups of eight teams within a 32-team field. Assuming the published choose-eight format and no repeated team in a line, that makes the chance of matching all eight exactly 1 in 10,518,300. The Minnesota Lottery reports overall odds of winning any cash prize of approximately 1 in 12.16.
Those two figures describe very different outcomes. The overall number includes every winning tier from four matches upward. It should never be read as the chance of collecting the $1 million jackpot.
The jackpot grows when nobody matches all eight. Drawings are scheduled every Sunday at approximately 9 p.m. Central, so this is a weekly game—not a wager on the football games played that day.
Your favorite teams do not have better odds
Choosing the reigning champion, a division leader, or eight teams favored by sportsbooks does not improve a ticket. The lottery says every team has an equal chance in the random drawing, and the selected logos are not tied to real NFL results.
That makes a personal selection and a Quick Pick mathematically equivalent under the game rules. One may be more entertaining; neither can predict the draw. LuckMaker's Lucky Number Generator is built for number-based games, so it does not generate Xs & Os logo cards. For this game, use the official Quick Pick if you want an unbiased lineup.
The $5 price also deserves attention. One ticket every week is $260 over 52 drawings. A four-ticket Sunday habit becomes $1,040 a year. Decide on an entertainment budget before the season starts rather than letting a favorite-logo routine quietly grow.
Every ticket also carries promotional entries
Minnesota's announcement says every Xs & Os ticket—winning or losing—can be entered into separate promotional drawings. Players receive one entry per dollar played, meaning a $5 ticket provides five entries.
Promotional prizes are expected to include NFL Shop gift cards, merchandise, game tickets, football trips, special-event access, and Super Bowl experiences. The lottery says more entry instructions are still coming, so keep the ticket and follow the official process once full rules are published. Promotional entries are an extra feature, not cash-prize matches, and they do not change the random logo drawing.
Track the logos and the correct Sunday
Save the eight teams, purchase amount, and draw date in Ticket Vault, then keep the physical ticket secure. A football-themed ticket can be easy to mistake for a game-day promotion, but it still has a specific lottery drawing and claim process.
After each Sunday draw, compare all eight logos through LuckMaker's latest lottery results. Check for four-, five-, six-, and seven-logo matches instead of looking only for the jackpot.
Large prizes also arrive with tax consequences. A $1 million advertised prize is not the same as the amount available after federal and Minnesota obligations. LuckMaker's Lottery Tax Calculator offers an initial estimate; a jackpot winner should confirm the current rules with qualified tax and legal professionals before making major decisions.
The bottom line
Powerball Xs & Os is genuinely different: eight NFL logos, a $5 ticket, weekly Sunday drawings, approximate overall odds of 1 in 12.16, and a jackpot beginning at $1 million. What it is not is a test of football knowledge.
Compare its price, odds, jackpot, and prize structure with other available draw games. Check the LuckMaker Score at luckmaker3000.com/games—our proprietary 0–100 game rating. LuckMaker covers 98 games across 25 U.S. states and 9 international markets.
Use the official Quick Pick for a random logo lineup, save the entry in Ticket Vault, and treat the $5 ticket as entertainment—not a Sunday prediction market.