The Raffle Ticket type lets you sell a raffle ticket online and TicketSpice will generate a raffle number on each individual ticket. Then export all the raffle numbers and host your own drawing and you can alert the winner. This is a great feature for any event that is looking to raise money for a cause or campaign. We'll show you how to set up raffles and the attendee experience below.
Important: Before using the raffle ticket type feature in TicketSpice, please consult your local and state laws surrounding online raffle tickets. While many states allow it, some have specific restrictions and rules. Be sure to review your terms of service with your merchant processor which may prohibit online payments involving raffles. Anyone using Wepay may safely use this feature as it is no longer a prohibited use.
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Raffle Ticket Video Demo
If you would rather see it in action than read the help article, watch the following video which shows setup settings, purchasing, editing, and exporting.
How to Setup Raffle Tickets
Navigate to edit your tickets
From the Pages screen, click the pencil icon on the page you'd like to add a Raffle Ticket to
Then edit the Ticket Information
Add a new ticket level
Next, scroll to the bottom of your ticket list and click the Add Ticket Level button and choose Raffle as the type
The ticket level name will auto-fill with Raffle Ticket. Click into that field to customize the label to be whatever you prefer
The Start at # will auto-fill to be 1. This field is where you can customize the first number that will be issued when someone selects a Raffle Ticket.
NOTE: The raffle ticket type won't by default appear on the existing ticket levels on your page. You will need to add a new ticket level in order to customize a ticket level to be a raffle ticket.
Limited Supply
If you'd like to limit the total number of Raffle Tickets that can be sold, toggle the Limited Supply to Yes and enter the desired limit.
Sample use case: If you would like your starting raffle ticket number to be 1,000 and you would like to sell up to 5,000 raffle tickets, you would set the following:
Start At #: 1,000
Limited Supply: 5,000
This would create a raffle ticket number range from 1,000 to 6,000.
Note: If an order is canceled that had raffle tickets on it, those raffle numbers would be removed from the sequence in the exports and the raffle sequence range will increase.
For example, if an order was cancelled that included two raffle tickets (numbers 1007 and 1008), those two raffle ticket numbers would be removed from the range and from the export and the new raffle ticket number range would now be, 1000-1006, 1009-6002. So the system would remove the two raffle ticket numbers and expand the range by two in order to maintain your 5,000 available raffle tickets.
Exclude from event capacity
If you happen to be selling raffle tickets in addition to an admission ticket and you have an overall event capacity set, you may consider excluding raffle tickets from the overall event capacity.
Use case example: Who loves word problems?😊
Let's say your venue only holds up to 250 people. But you want to allow attendees to purchase up to 10 raffle tickets each. You would set your overall capacity to be 250. But you would want to set your raffle ticket limited supply to be 2,500 (250x10).
If you did not exclude the raffle tickets from the event capacity, then your event would show sold out once 250 raffle tickets were sold, and we wouldn't want that. So in this case you would want to check the box to Exclude from Event Capacity.
Note: if you don't have a limited supply on your raffle ticket, then you won't need to worry about this. This only becomes pertinent if you set a Limited Supply on your raffle ticket level.
When you are ready, you can Save and Publish your changes to go live with your Raffle Ticket sales!
Select your raffle winner
We leave selecting the winner up to you. TicketSpice will not randomly select the winner for you. If you would like a simple online tool to do the picking for you, here is a free resource. Just enter your raffle number range and have it do the picking for you. You can even have it select multiple winners.
Note: If you cancelled any orders that had raffle tickets on them, you'll want to double check that whatever raffle ticket number winner you select is an active ticket number and wasn't removed from the sequence.
Export raffle numbers
You also can manually select a raffle ticket winner by exporting all of your raffle ticket numbers and making a selection however you see fit.
To export all of your active raffle ticket numbers, follow these steps:
From the Pages screen, hover over Reports at the top of your screen
Select Exporter from the dropdown list
Choose the Tickets export
Select the page you would like to export the raffle numbers for
Select your raffle ticket level from the Ticket Level dropdown
Select the Raffle Number field
If you'd like to export any other fields associated with the raffle number, such as the first and last name on the associated order, hold the cmd button down on your keyboard (for mac users) and select the other fields
Click the right arrow to move the fields to the box on the right
Click the Download button
NOTE: This will download all of the active raffle numbers. If you'd like to see a list of any cancelled raffle numbers, you can change the Status to be Canceled.
Attendee experience
Locating raffle numbers
Your attendees will see the raffle numbers issued to them on the confirmation page, in their confirmation email and on the tickets themselves.
View of raffle number on the confirmation page
View of raffle number on the ticket
Is selling raffle tickets allowed and legal?
Before you go on sale selling raffle tickets to win an all-expenses paid trip to see the world's largest collection of belly button lint, you should be sure to check 2 important things.
1: Check State and Local Rules for Online Raffles
The first thing to research is making sure your state or city allows you to sell raffles online. Some states allow you sell raffle tickets, but not online. Other states allow you to sell raffle tickets online but you must be a federally recognized charity. Yet others require you to get authorization to engage in raffles. Bottom line, do your research before going on sale and determine if you can sell raffle tickets at all, and if so, if they can be sold online.
2: Check Your Payment Processor Terms of Service
The second important aspect in determining if you can sell raffle tickets online is to check with your payment processor. The various payment processors have specific rules and regulations against certain activities and rules so be sure to check their terms of service and look for raffles. If you are using Wepay, our preferred payment processor, selling raffle tickets are not prohibited from their terms of service.
Clear those two hurdles by contacting local authorities and your payment processor and then you should be good to go using raffles safely and legally with TicketSpice. Good luck!
FAQ's
Q: What page types are raffle tickets available on?
A: Raffle tickets are available on standard, multi-event, multi-day, timed-entry, and virtual events. Raffles are not available on reserved seating ticket pages.
Q: How are raffle numbers allocated when using multi-day, multi-event or even time slots?
A: The raffle number limit and range will apply uniquely to each day, event or time slot listed on your page. So if you set the starting ticket number to be 1 and sell up to 500 tickets, that will uniquely apply to each available day, event, time slot. Our system would assume you are desiring to run a unique raffle for each day, event or time slot.
Q: What is the pricing to sell raffle tickets?
A: There are no unique fees for raffle tickets. They are just the regular TicketSpice pricing.
Q: Can I sell raffle tickets on-site with the box office app?
A: Yes, you can sell raffle tickets on-site using the TicketSpice Box Office 2.0 app. You can even set custom on-site box office pricing as well.
Q: Are raffle tickets able to be scanned by the TicketSpice ticket scanning app?
A: Yes, the TicketSpice scanning app is able to scan raffle tickets. If you wish to disallow the scanning app from being able to scan raffle tickets, you can disallow it during the setup of your app key.
Q: Can someone purchase a raffle via an offline payment?
A: Yes, raffle tickets can be sold with an offline payment. The raffle number will be issued immediately on the ticket buyer's confirmation. It is not required that the offline payment be completed in order for the raffle ticket number to be issued.
Q: Can someone select raffle tickets when pre-registering?
A: Yes, you can allow ticket buyers to select raffle tickets when pre-registering with a card on file. The raffle numbers will display as TBD until the card on file is charged and the order status is Completed. When the card is charged, the ticket(s) and raffle number(s) will be sent to the ticket buyer on their confirmation email.
Q: What happens to the raffle numbers if I edit and order and change the date or time slot of the ticket?
A: If you edit an order and change the date or time slot of a ticket, the original raffle numbers will be removed from the sequence and new raffle numbers will be issued.
If you have any questions on raffles, please reach out to our team. We are happy to help!