Raffles / Contests our thoughts.
I have a love hate relationship with raffles, done wrong they can lead to confusion, unfairness and bad feelings, we do our differently to try and make them as transparent, fair as possible for the guests and to also get as much awareness for the sponsors.
Please treat all donations to raffles as a donation with a low / no expectation win 
Please only spend what you can afford.
Here is what we do
Play to win, contests with no money required to enter, just play the game. This also ensures you play the sponsors games. We are increasing our number of Play to wins this year to 9 maybe 10 thats double last year!
One things that makes our convention special is the number of game teachers and volunteers on hand to help you find games. We love having games set up to play so as soon as you enter the convention you can game and if you play all of our set up games that could cover your first few hours at our events. Why not be able to win them!
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Transparency.
We want you to know your odds at the time of adding to the raffle, in person we use clear jars, online we’ve moved to a host which shows how many tickets have been purchased without need to buy a ticket.
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Choose your own prizes always.
Our main raffle which is about half the prizes are choose your own prizes, that way you have a higher chance to get what you want, more excitement and you are more likely to research the prizes.
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Separate raffles, with one or two prizes.
We break single large prizes or groups of similar prizes, historically up to 13 games into a single bundle, one ticket wins everything, This does mean we have around 15 raffles but it also means if you really want to win the big RPG set you can put your money towards it specifically.
This year we have 17 online raffles, up from 9 last year, lots more choice.
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Minimum reserves:
Online we have a minimum reserve (winner takes a cash prize instead). In person we reserve the right to close the raffle early.
We publicize this heavily so it does not come as a surprise, with the main raffle will count down to the final draw. We draw a certain number of prizes based on the total tickets purchased, we then roll over the prizes to other events. Our raffle is huge £7,500 last year and we don’t expect to make £7,500 but we also don’t want to give them away for £2,000.
With the online raffles we set a public minimum amount for the same reason, if the target is not met the winner is drawn and wins most of the money and we keep the prizes. We also make sure to announce this but it’s win win and it’s better than £400 of prizes going for £20.
Our online raffles have fees, the senior committee plans to cover these so every penny goes to Mind.
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Win lots, good! We won’t put your tickets back.
We’ve been to events where if you win multiple prizes you are redrawn even if you have put in 50% of the pot. We will never do this, you can chose to be withdrawn or pick a prize later but there is no expectation to.
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We hope our way of doing it gives the most choice and transparency possible and gives you the most value and excitement. We have a huge range of prizes and not everything things suits everyone.
Top tip!
Please browse, so when / if you win you can pick quickly.
Other tip, we make the raffle go as quick as we can, no long speeches other than a quick thank you.
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IMAGES ARE LAST YEARS RAFFLES, so you can see how we set them up.