Sweepstake

Updated by Darryl Waterhouse on 3 November 2026 8 min read

Run an office, pub or club sweepstake on your website: the World Cup, the Euros, the Grand National, Eurovision, a due date - anything with a list of things to draw. You list the picks, set the entry fee and the prizes, people enter with their name, and the website makes the draw once, fairly and on the record. Sweepstake is a Pro Tool, and can be gifted to a site.

What it does

Picks are what is drawn: teams, horses, acts, numbers. Each can have a group, odds and an icon (an emoji flag) or a picture.
People enter with their name on the page (names are checked for rude words, and each must be different), or you add them yourself.
Money is shown, never taken. The entry fee, the pot and what each prize is worth are worked out for you. You collect the money your usual way and tick people off as paid.
The draw is made by the website, once. It uses a random number from the server's cryptographic random source (the "seed") and keeps a record of everything that went into it, so anyone can check it. Nobody - you included - can see who has what before it is made.
The reveal. On the page, the draw is revealed a row at a time, then stays as the table of who has what. Anyone with the page open when you make the draw sees it happen.
Results. As the event goes on you mark picks out and choose which pick won each prize. The page shows the winners and the money straight away.

Getting started

Switch Sweepstake on in Tools.
Open Tools > Games > Sweepstake and choose New sweepstake.
Give it a title and an introduction (what it is for, how to pay you).
Add the picks: Paste a list… takes them all at once, one a line, or start from a ready-made list.
Set the entry fee and the prizes.
Press Practice draw to see what the page will look like after the draw.
Set the status to Live, Save, and put it on a page:

[sweepstake id="world-cup" /]

The sweepstake

Setting	What it does
Title, Short name	The short name is used in the shortcode; it is made from the title when empty.
Status	Draft: not shown anywhere (the practice draw still works). Live: on the page, taking entries while they are open, and the draw can be made. Finished: everything stays up; nobody can enter.
Introduction	Shown at the top of the page.
Entries open / Entries close	Optional, in your site's time. Nobody can enter on the page outside these times. Entries also close the moment the draw is made.
Most entrants	0 = no limit. It stops people entering on the page; you can still add people yourself.
People can enter on the page	Off: you add everyone on the Entrants screen, and the page just shows who is in.
Show who has paid	A "paid" or "not paid yet" beside each name on the page.
Animations	The draw is revealed a row at a time. Visitors who asked their device for less motion see it all at once.

Money and prizes

Entry fee and Currency. 0 makes it free.
The pot counts everyone entered, or only those ticked as paid.
Added to the pot: money from a sponsor, the boss, or last year's rollover.
Prizes (up to 10): each has a name (Winner, Runner-up, Last place, First red card...) and is either a % of the pot, a fixed amount, or not money ("A bottle of wine", "The wooden spoon"). The percentages can add up to 100% at most; anything less stays with you. Use a ready-made split fills in a common one (winner takes all; 60/30/10; 70/30; 50/30/20).
Amounts are rounded down to the penny. A prize won by a pick that two people share is split equally between them.

Picks

+ Pick adds one; click one to change it; right-click it (or its ⋮) to move or delete it.
Paste a list… takes one pick a line. Add a group, odds and an icon after a | if you like:

Brazil | Group A | 5/1 | 🇧🇷
France | Group A | 6/1 | 🇫🇷
England | Group B

Ready-made lists: the Six Nations, runners 1 to 40 (a horse race by number), letters A to Z, days 1 to 31 (a due date, the first snow), minutes 1 to 90 (the first goal), numbers 1 to 100. Load one, change what you need, then Add.
A picture is an image from the Media library (its address starts with /) or an https:// address. It shows instead of the icon.
Up to 300 picks. Once the draw is made, picks cannot be added or taken away. Groups and icons can still change, and so can names, but a renamed pick is shown with its name at the draw and the rename is listed on the page.

When the number of people and the number of picks do not match, these decide what happens. The editor and the Draw screen tell you, in plain words, what the draw will do with the people entered so far.

Setting	What it does
Picks each	How many picks each person draws. 0 shares them out evenly (12 picks between 5 people: 2 each).
Picks left over	When they do not divide evenly: leave them undrawn, or deal them out in a second round, so some people get one more.
More people than picks	Share picks: the picks are dealt out again (a fresh shuffle each time round), so some are held by two people and their prize is split. A waiting list: as many as fit get picks, and the rest wait in the order they were drawn.

Entrants

Entrants lists everyone in the order they entered (the order the draw starts from).

Add people… takes one name a line, with a tick if they have already paid.
Click Paid / Not paid on a row to tick someone off. Everyone paid ticks them all.
Right-click a row (or its ⋮) to rename or remove someone.
Once the draw is made nobody can be added or removed (reset the draw first). Paid ticks and names can still change; a rename after the draw is shown on the page beside the name in the draw.

The draw

Open Draw (on each sweepstake in the list, or from the banner).

It shows how many people and picks there are and exactly what the draw will do. Press Make the draw and confirm.
The draw can be made once. Entries close the moment it is made.
The record shows the seed, the method, the rules, and the entrants and picks in order, and says Checked when running the draw again from its seed gives the same answer (it is checked every time the screen opens). The page shows the same under How this draw was made.
Reset the draw… asks for a reason. The undone draw is kept whole and shown on the page under How this draw was made ("Draw 1 ... was reset: ", with its seed and who had what), so every earlier draw stays checkable. The screen also shows who reset it. Results marked against that draw are cleared, and entries open again (if the closing time has not passed). Make the draw again when ready.
Names after the draw. The draw keeps the names of the entrants and picks as they were when it was made. You can still put a typo right, but the page then shows both ("Wales (now Wales (WAL))") and lists every rename under How this draw was made, so nobody can move a pick by renaming.

How the draw works (for the curious)

The seed is 32 random bytes from the server's cryptographic random source. Random numbers come from SHA-256 of seed:0, seed:1... read four bytes at a time. The entrants (in the order they entered) are shuffled, then the picks (in their listed order) are shuffled, and the picks are dealt one at a time round the shuffled entrants. Anyone with the record can repeat it.

Results

Open Results once the draw is made.

Prizes: choose which pick won each one (drawn picks are listed first, with who holds them). The page shows the winner and the money at once.
Picks: mark a pick Out when it is knocked out. It is crossed out on the page.
Save results (or Ctrl+S). Who wins what shows each winner and their total.
A prize given to a pick nobody drew is shown as "nobody drew it".

Practice draw

Practice draw shows the page as it will look after the draw, using the real draw with a fresh seed, on the people entered so far (or made-up names, when fewer than two have entered). Practice draw again makes another. A practice draw is never kept and nobody else sees it.

Settings (the cog)

The cog in the banner opens the Tool's settings: the entry fee, currency, prize split, sharing rules and entering options every new sweepstake starts with. Changing them does not change sweepstakes already made.

Shortcodes

[sweepstake id="world-cup" /]

The whole sweepstake: the prizes, entering, who has entered, the picks, and after the draw the reveal and who has what. Add board="only" to show just the table.

[sweepstake-table id="world-cup" /]
[sweepstake-table id="world-cup" title="Who has what" /]

The table of who has what on its own (with no reveal), for a second page or a sidebar. title changes its heading.

Moving sweepstakes between sites

Export a sweepstake from its menu in the list, or the download button in its editor; Export all puts every one in one file. A file holds the settings, picks and prizes only - never the entrants, the draw or the results.

Import… adds the sweepstakes in such a file as drafts. One whose short name is taken gets one of its own (world-cup-2). Up to 20 at a time.

The badge counts entrants not yet ticked as paid (in live sweepstakes with an entry fee). When everyone has paid, it counts the sweepstakes taking entries instead.

Notifications

Sweepstake draws made: a draw has been made.
Sweepstake winners: a prize has been given to a pick - who wins it and how much.
Sweepstakes ready to draw (checked hourly): entries to a live sweepstake have closed and its draw has not been made yet.

Choose who gets them in Notifications > Settings.

Gifting

Sweepstake is a Pro Tool. It can also be gifted to a site, for good or for a number of days.