One winning ticket has been sold in Indiana in the Mega Millions lottery, earning the jackpot worth US$540 million (NZ$739 million), the seventh largest in US lottery history, lottery officials say.
The winning numbers - 8, 19, 20, 55, 73 with the Mega Ball 5 - were selected at 11pm local time on Friday and were matched by one ticket, Mega Millions said on its website.
The Mega Millions game is played in 44 states, Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands.
The odds of winning the jackpot were one in nearly 259 million, as of Friday's drawing.
Sales of the $1 tickets fund the hefty prize, which was worth $US380 million on Friday evening if a winner chooses an immediate cash payout instead of payments over 30 years.
The Mega Millions jackpot has been growing since early March, when a Washington state man snagged $US157 million with a winning ticket bought in Seattle.
The current prize is the game's biggest since December 2013, when holders of two tickets sold in California and Georgia shared a US$648 million jackpot.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot, worth US$656 million, was sold the prior year.
Reuters
