How to Run a 50/50 Draw for Your Sports Club (UK Guide)

A 50/50 draw is one of the simplest, most effective ways to raise money for a grassroots club: supporters buy tickets, one winner is drawn, and the pot is shared between the winner and your club (on Play Fund Win our 15% standard fee comes off the top, then the rest splits 50/50). The easiest way to run one properly in the UK is through a compliant digital platform like Play Fund Win, which handles ticket sales, the random draw and the legal side for you, so your volunteers can focus on your members rather than paperwork. There's nothing to pay up front and it takes about ten minutes.

What exactly is a 50/50 draw?

The concept is in the name. Everyone who enters pays for a ticket, all the entry money goes into a single prize pot, and when the draw closes one ticket is picked at random. After the platform fee, the pot splits 50/50: the winner takes one half and your club keeps the other. Because the prize grows as more people play, a 50/50 draw builds its own momentum — the bigger the crowd, the bigger the prize, the more people want in.

It works brilliantly on matchday, but it doesn't have to stop there. Plenty of clubs run a rolling weekly or monthly online 50/50 that ticks over in the background all season long.

Is a 50/50 draw legal in the UK?

Yes — but it's important to get the framework right, because a 50/50 draw is a form of lottery under the Gambling Act 2005, and lotteries are regulated. The good news is that grassroots clubs have clear, well-trodden routes to run one compliantly:

• Incidental lottery: if you sell and draw the tickets at the same one-off event (a match, a fun day, a dinner), you generally don't need to register, provided you follow the rules on how proceeds and expenses are handled.
• Small society lottery: if you want to sell tickets in advance, online, or across multiple events, your club registers as a non-commercial society with your local licensing authority (usually your district or borough council). There's a modest registration fee and some straightforward reporting after each draw.
• Use a licensed platform: running your draw through a provider that operates under the appropriate Gambling Commission and local-authority permissions keeps you on the right side of the rules without becoming an expert yourself.

Whichever route you take, a few principles always apply: players must be 18 or over, the money you raise must genuinely go towards your club's purposes, and you should be clear and honest with supporters about how the pot is split. If you're unsure which category your draw falls into, check with your local authority's licensing team — they're used to the question.

How to set your 50/50 draw up for success

The mechanics are easy; getting people to actually take part is where the thought goes. A few things that consistently help:

• Pick a sensible ticket price. Low enough that anyone can join in on impulse — many clubs land somewhere around a pound or two per entry — but offer bundles so keen supporters can buy several at once.
• Set a clear draw date. A fixed, repeating slot (every home game, or the last Friday of the month) trains people to expect it and come back.
• Make buying effortless. Online entry with a card or phone removes the "I've no cash on me" problem that kills paper raffles. A simple link or QR code that supporters can share does a lot of the work.
• Show where the money goes. "This month's pot is helping fund the under-12s' new kit" turns a flutter into a genuine contribution to something people care about.
• Announce the winner properly. A quick shout-out on social media or in your group chat proves it's real, celebrates the winner and pulls more people into the next draw.

Paper tickets or a digital platform?

You can absolutely run a 50/50 with a cash bucket and a book of cloakroom tickets, and for a single event that's perfectly fine. But it means counting cash, doing the maths on the split by hand, chasing people who left their wallet at home, and keeping your own records. Once you're running draws regularly, that admin adds up fast.

A digital platform removes almost all of that work. Tickets sell online, the pot and the 50/50 split are calculated automatically, the draw is random and transparent, and your records are kept for you — which also makes any reporting to your council far simpler. It also opens your draw up beyond the people physically at the ground: parents, former players and supporters anywhere can join in with a tap.

Ready to start your club's 50/50 draw?

A well-run 50/50 draw is one of the most reliable earners a grassroots club can have — low effort, genuinely fun, and it grows with your community. If you'd like to launch one the compliant, hassle-free way, you can set your club up in about ten minutes at playfundwin.com. There's nothing to pay up front, and your club keeps its share of every ticket sold.