How to Run a Sweepstake

Ask ten people what a sweepstake is and you’ll get the same picture: a fiver in an envelope, a mug full of folded paper, and someone in accounts suddenly very invested in Ecuador. That’s it, really. Everyone pays the same, everyone gets a team or a horse at random, and whoever’s holding the winner at the end takes the pot. No knowledge required, which is exactly why the quiet person by the printer wins it half the time.

What is a sweepstake, in practice?

Picture a World Cup with 48 teams and 16 people in the office. Charge £3 a head and there’s £48 in the pot, so everybody walks away from the draw with three teams. Whoever gets the champions collects most of the money, the person with the beaten finalist usually gets their stake back with a bit on top, and plenty of offices throw in a small prize for the team that concedes the most goals. That last one sounds daft, but it keeps the person who drew three minnows cheering until the final whistle of the group stage.

Horse racing sweeps run the same way, just with fewer entries per person. The Grand National has up to 34 runners, so at £2 a horse a full sweep makes £68 and most people get one horse each. Golf is the awkward one: a major can have 150 players, and unless you’ve got a very big office, everyone ends up with a handful of golfers they’ve never heard of.

How to run a sweepstake without anyone sulking

The order matters more than people think. Work out the number of entries first, because that tells you whether everyone gets one, three or eleven. Then pick a price that’s small enough nobody minds losing it, somewhere between a pound and a fiver, and that splits neatly into the prizes you have in mind. Get the money in before the draw, not after; it’s remarkable how slowly people pay once they’ve pulled out a 200/1 shot.

Do the draw where everyone can see it. Names out of a hat is fine, and so is the CasinoCalcs sweepstake generator on the meeting room screen, which shuffles the entries and deals them out one at a time like cards. Then write the result down somewhere permanent, because in three weeks someone will swear they had Morocco.

Splitting the pot

Most arguments come from a split that was never agreed. Here’s how a £68 pot looks under three common ones, which you can copy straight onto the sheet:

We’re fans of the “last” prize, for the first team out or the horse that trails in at the back. It costs the winner a little and it keeps everyone else interested for far longer.

The rules people argue about

Uneven numbers come up every time. With 48 teams and 10 people you get four each and eight left over, and there are two honest ways to handle it. Either deal out every team, so eight people get a fifth (which is fine as long as who gets the extras is random), or give everyone four and leave the rest out, accepting that nobody collects if a spare team wins. A lot of offices quietly sell the spares for an extra pound each, which solves it.

Non-runners are the racing version of the same headache. If a horse is withdrawn on the morning of the race, the fairest fix is a redraw from any horses nobody had, or a refund, but whichever you choose has to be said out loud before the draw. Ties happen too, in golf playoffs and photo finishes, and splitting the prize between the people involved is the only answer that doesn’t end in a sulk. Finally, name one person as the holder of the money. It sounds obvious until two colleagues each assume the other has the envelope.

Keep it small and friendly

A sweepstake is a bit of fun around a big event, and every penny that goes in should come back out as prizes; nobody running a friendly sweep should be keeping a cut. If the aim is to raise money for a cause, a raffle or a football card suits that far better. For the big April race there’s a ready-made Grand National sweepstake kit, and if you want something that lasts the whole season, a last man standing competition is the natural next step.