How to run a split the pot for your club

A split the pot is the simplest fundraiser a club can run. Supporters buy entries, the pot is split in half on draw night, and whoever wins takes one half while the club keeps the other. There is no jackpot to build up and nothing rolls over, so your club is paid every single draw.

It also costs the club nothing to put up. The prize comes out of ticket sales, so a quiet week is a smaller prize rather than a loss.

Before you start

A split the pot is a lottery, so your club needs a lottery permit or licence before you can publish one. Bluefundr will not let you go live without confirming you have one. If you are not sure what your club needs, read how to get a club lotto licence or permit first. The same permit covers a split the pot.

You will also need your club set up and taking payments. If you have not done that yet, start with setting up your club.

Step 1: Decide how it runs

Choose how often the draw happens, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, then the day and time it takes place. Weekly is the most common and the easiest for supporters to remember.

Online entries close at the draw time. Anyone whose payment finishes after that goes into the next draw.

Step 2: Set your price and deals

Set your price per entry. Two euro is the usual starting point.

They can enter a single draw, or stay in every draw on a saved card and cancel whenever they like. Deals let them buy more than one entry at a time. You can pick from a ready-made list of deals or build your own.

Step 3: Choose who gets the draw pack

Add the email addresses that should get the draw pack, usually your treasurer and yourself. Once entries close, they get a stub sheet to print and cut up for the hat, and the entrants list as a spreadsheet.

Step 4: Publish it

Publishing puts your draw on your club page and gives you a link to share. Share it wherever your supporters already are, your club WhatsApp groups, your Facebook page and your team group chats.

Draw night

Hold your draw from the hat, with the online stubs in alongside your paper entries, and enter the winning number. The two halves are worked out for you, an online winner is emailed automatically, and you send the result to everyone else from the results screen. The winner's name and number go on your club's public results page.

If you also sell tickets at the gate

Most clubs sell some tickets in person as well as online. Those go into the same hat and the same draw. Bluefundr counts and splits the entries bought online, and the tickets you sold yourself stay yours to record. Your own total is the online pot plus whatever you took at the gate.

Paying the prize

Your club pays the winner directly, the same as your lotto. Bluefundr never holds the prize money. Everything supporters pay lands in your club's own account, minus our fee.