Raffles and prize draws for football clubs
Grassroots and non-league clubs run more draws than almost anybody: the matchday 50/50, the Christmas raffle, the end of season awards night, a fundraiser for the tour. Most of it is straightforward. The bit that goes wrong is nearly always the same bit, and it is about when the tickets were sold.
The one rule that decides everything
Sell tickets at the ground on the day and draw before everybody goes home, and you are inside the exemption for raffles held at an event. No registration, no council form, provided the club is not being run for private profit and you stay inside the limits on what may be spent on prizes and expenses.
Sell a single ticket before the day, in the WhatsApp group, on Facebook or through a link, and it becomes a small society lottery. That has to be registered with the council for the area where the club is based before any ticket is sold. The full conditions and the fees are in the guide to raffle rules.
The 50/50 draw
Splitting the pot with the winner does not turn a lottery into something else. People pay, chance decides, somebody wins: that is a lottery, and it needs to sit under one of the exemptions like any other.
Sold and drawn in the ground on the day
Runs as an incidental non-commercial lottery. No registration. Draw at half time or before the final whistle, and announce the winning number in the ground.
Sold in advance, or through an app
A small society lottery. Register with the council first, price every ticket the same, and send the return afterwards. This is why the clubs with a season-long 50/50 all hold a registration.
A club run as a business for private gain cannot use the non-commercial exemptions at all, and cannot register a small society lottery either. If the club is a limited company operating for profit rather than a members' club or a community organisation, take advice before running anything paid.
What clubs actually draw for
- Matchday 50/50 or ticket raffle. Sold at the turnstile and around the ground, drawn at half time.
- End of season awards night. The big one: a room full of people, a table of donated prizes and an auction alongside.
- Christmas draw. Sold through the parents of the junior sections, which is where the advance-sale problem usually appears.
- Tour and tournament fundraising. A squad selling tickets to family and friends over several weeks. Registered lottery territory.
- Free prize draws for sponsors. Nobody pays, so no registration at all. Good for building a mailing list and for giving a sponsor something visible.
Prizes that cost the club nothing
The best football club prizes are things the club owns rather than things it buys: a signed shirt, a matchball sponsorship, mascot for a junior, the clubhouse for a birthday, a place on the team coach to an away game, training with the first team, hospitality for two. Local sponsors will usually add vouchers on top, and they cost a phone call.
One strong headline prize sells more tickets than fifteen small ones. Put the small ones in the draw as well, though, because a long list of prizes is what makes people feel they have a chance.
Collecting entries when everything is in a group chat
Most clubs already have the distribution: a WhatsApp group per team, a supporters' group, a Facebook page. That is an advantage, as long as you remember that selling into it before the day changes which rules apply.
For a free draw, or for collecting names where the money is handled separately, one entry link posted into the group does the job and saves somebody typing out a list of a hundred and forty names from a thread. Entries land in one place, and duplicate entries are picked up automatically.
The awards night problem
The end of season do is where the prize logistics bite. Thirty prizes, thirty winners, half of them at the bar and a few who left at nine. Drawing prize by prize in front of the room works beautifully while everyone is there, and falls apart for the winners who are not.
For those, the tidiest answer is to draw the names on the night and let each winner pick their own prize afterwards from what is still available, first come first served. Nobody has to ring round on Sunday, and the same shirt cannot be promised to two people. There is more on how that works and on the alternatives.
Where Prize Desk fits
Prize Desk never sells tickets and never handles money, so it does not change which rules apply to your draw. It gives you one link to collect entries, draws the winners on a wheel with a certificate recording how it was done, and then lets each winner choose their own prize from what is left. It is free, and there is no account to create.
Sources: the Gambling Commission guidance on running a fundraiser with lotteries or raffles at events and on small society lotteries. Registration fees vary by council, so confirm yours with them.