How to Set Up a 100 Club Draw for Your UK Club or Charity

A 100 Club is one of the simplest recurring fundraisers a UK club can run: supporters buy a numbered share for a small amount each month, one number is drawn monthly, the holder wins a prize and the rest stays with your club. The quickest way to run one properly is on a compliant digital platform like Play Fund Win, which handles sign-ups, recurring payments, the draw and winner notifications — no chasing cash in an envelope. There's nothing to pay up front, it's live in about ten minutes, and your club keeps its share of every entry.

What a 100 Club actually is

The format is old, unglamorous and quietly brilliant. You offer a fixed set of numbers — 100 of them, hence the name, though plenty of clubs run a 200 Club or a 50 Club depending on their supporter base. Each number is held by someone paying a set amount monthly. Once a month you draw a number at random, and whoever holds it wins.

Why it tends to beat one-off raffles:

• It's predictable income. You know roughly what's arriving each month, which makes budgeting for kit, pitch hire and coaching courses far easier.
• The ask is small. A few pounds a month is an easy yes, even for people who never come to a game.
• It reaches beyond the squad. Parents, grandparents and local businesses will all take a number.

The legal bit: yes, it counts as a lottery

This is where clubs get caught out. In Great Britain a 100 Club is a lottery under the Gambling Act 2005 — you're charging for a chance to win a prize decided by chance. It must run under one of the permitted lottery types, and which one applies depends on who you sell numbers to.

• Private society lottery. Sell only to genuine members of your club and don't promote it publicly, and this route needs no registration. It's the tighter option — nothing on public social media, no selling at the gate.
• Small society lottery. To sell into the wider community — as most clubs want to — you register with your local council's licensing team. Expect a registration fee, annual renewal, limits on ticket price and total proceeds, a minimum share of proceeds that must go to your club's purposes, and a return after each draw.

Fees and thresholds are reviewed periodically, so check current figures with the Gambling Commission and your own council rather than relying on what a neighbouring club said two seasons ago. Northern Ireland sits under separate legislation, so speak to your council there first. Wherever you are, three things are non-negotiable: enforce a minimum age, keep clean records of who holds which number, and be honest about where the money goes.

A compliant platform handles much of the rest — age checks, participant records, payments and a properly random, auditable draw — but registration remains your club's responsibility.

Setting one up, step by step

• Decide the size. A well-filled 50 Club beats a half-empty 200 Club, and you can add numbers later.
• Pick a monthly price. Low enough that nobody thinks twice, high enough to justify the admin.
• Decide the prize split. Fixed monthly prizes, or a percentage of what comes in. A straight split between prize pot and club funds is easiest to explain — and clarity is what gets people to join.
• Sort registration early. Council licensing teams work to their own timescales. Start weeks before your first draw, not days.
• Choose the payment method. Recurring card payments beat standing orders, which quietly lapse, and cash, which quietly vanishes.
• Fix the draw date. The same day every month. Publish it and don't move it.
• Write the rules on one page. Price, prizes, draw date, how winners are paid, what happens if someone stops paying.

Filling the numbers

Don't launch quietly and hope. Treat it like a short campaign with a deadline.

• Start with the committee and coaches. If the people running the club haven't taken a number, nobody else will.
• Go to the WhatsApp groups. Team and parents' groups convert far better than a public post, because the ask comes from someone the reader knows.
• Use one link everywhere. A single sign-up link in every group, email and pinned message removes the friction that kills paper schemes.
• Ask the diaspora. Former players and families who've moved away are often the most willing supporters — a digital draw is the only practical way to include them.

Keeping it alive

Most 100 Clubs don't fail at launch; they fade. The fix is unspectacular and it works: draw on time, every time, and tell people about it. Announce the winning number the same day, thank the holder if they're happy to be named, and say what the money did — "this month's draw paid for two new match balls and the juniors' training tops" beats any promotional graphic.

Review it once a season. If numbers sit unsold, shrink the scheme rather than limping on. If it's full, expand it, or run a bigger 50/50 draw alongside it for one-off pushes like a clubhouse repair or a tour. The 100 Club covers baseline costs; the bigger draws fund the projects.

The simplest way to run it

You can run a 100 Club on a spreadsheet and a folder of standing orders — clubs did it for decades. But the admin lands on one volunteer, records get messy and lapsed payments are spotted too late. A platform built for compliant club draws looks after sign-ups, payments, records and the draw itself.

To get your club's draw live this week, set it up at playfundwin.com — nothing up front, about ten minutes, and your club keeps its share of every entry.