.png)
An on-line lottery for sports teams, clubs and leagues called Give and Win has been set up by the Sport & Recreation Alliance, and softball and baseball are two of a small number of sports currently piloting the scheme.
The concept is simple. Teams, clubs or leagues register on the Give and Win website (address at the end of this story) and then encourage their players, relatives, friends etc to purchase on-line lottery tickets for a weekly draw by going to their Give and Win website page and buying them.
The ideal situation is where people set up a weekly purchase via direct debit, but every one-off ticket sale helps. Tickets cost £2, and of this £1 goes directly back to the club, with the remaining £1 split as follows:
- 6p to the associated organisation (BSUK)
- 40p to prizes
- 30p to the company managing the service (CIC)
- 24p to the company running the service (Capen)
The one condition is that money raised be spent directly on the development of the registered team, club or league, who will be asked periodically (either every six months or annually) to provide a breakdown of how income received has been used.
While prizes are significantly lower than the National Lottery – the maximum prize is £25,000 -- the odds are significantly better, particularly now when the pool of participants is relatively small, which is a message that can be used to encourage ticket sales.
How it works
Players enter weekly draws that are based on their ticket number matching the correct order of a six-number winning sequence.
- For a Six-Number Match, the ticket-holder wins a jackpot prize of £25,000 and your club will also receive a £25,000 windfall!
- For a Five-Number Match the prize will be £1,000.
- For a Four-Number Match the prize will be £100.
- For a Three-Number Match the prize will be three free tickets into the next available draw.
The more tickets that are purchased by club players, friends, relatives etc, the more that the club is able to automatically fundraise – it really is that simple!
Background
The background to the Give and Win Lottery is that there are more than 150,000 sports clubs in England, but 24% of them are in deficit, and the average surplus made by sports clubs has declined by almost £1200 a year since 2007.
Many clubs have attempted to set up their own lotteries to raise funds, but this can be expensive and full of bureaucratic hassles. Give and Win takes those problems away from clubs while still conferring the benefits.
Emma Boggis, Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, said: "We know from our survey of sports clubs that it is getting harder and harder to generate money to cover their costs ... so we are delighted to be able to launch the Give and Win Sport Lottery to make a real difference to grassroots clubs."
Other benefits
Teams, clubs or leagues that sign up for Give and Win can get a number of additional benefits beyond fundraising:
- Increased brand awareness via an individually-branded club webpage with a personalised URL – e.g. www.sport.giveandwin.co.uk/hampsteadcricketclub.
- A Marketing toolkit to include a Promotions and Marketing Guide and downloadable materials – e.g. posters, template emails and a step-by-step Sign-up Guide.
- Increased levels of membership recruitment and retention through offering ‘access to the Give and Win lottery scheme’ as an exclusive benefit to local club membership.
One of the most attractive benefits is that there is little administration for the club to actually do as all ‘backroom functions’ – e.g. payment processing, ticketing, licensing, reporting and management of players – are performed by an External Lottery Manager.
Next steps
If anyone has any questions about this opportunity, or how to sign up and get started, please email Jenny Fromer.
Or, log on to http://sport.giveandwin.co.uk/ to register your team, club or league NOW!