Popular win a house prize draw platform Tramway Path have concluded their latest giveaway and created another winner. On 25th April 2024, Jade from London discovered that they’d won £500,000 to purchase a property of their choosing. However the draw has led to more controversy for the platform due to it not being drawn live. In previous draws Daniel, Jay and Will Twenefour have be seen online with computers generating the winning number and then calling the lucky winner to deliver the good news. For their latest draw the brothers appeared live to announce the winner but instead were handed an envelope containing the winner’s details. From there they then went on to deliver Jade the good news. This change in format naturally upset many followers who felt that this approach lack transparency. Entrants have also taken to social media and Trustpilot to register their disappointment. The backlash has led to Tramway Path issuing a statement about the selection process.
Civica Election Services
The emailed starts by explaining that at “Tramway Path, transparency and integrity are at the core of everything we do. We do understand that some of you may have questions or doubts about the recent change in our draw process, and I want to assure you that your concerns are being taken seriously”. They then go on to explain that based on feedback from previous draws that they “wanted to take ourselves completely out of the process and hire a third party to do it on our behalf”. Therefore instead of using random.org as a way of generating a winner Tramway Path instead turned to Civica Election Services to assist them. Civica are described in the email as “The UK’s leading provider of election services with over 100 years’ experience in managing elections voting”. Tramway “believed that partnering with Civica would add an extra layer of professionalism to the process”. That’s all well and good but the result has been more upset and annoyance rather than a smoother process. You’d have thought that it might have been wiser to explain all this before the draw started!
How The Draw Took Place
Tramway Path issued the following to help entrants understand just how the winner selection process takes place:
- After ending the competition entry phase, we [TP] provided Civica with a CSV file with all the ticket numbers through their secure upload platform. This can be compared to uploading the CSV with all the ticket numbers to random.org – just as you know it from previous draws.
- After confirming the number of unique tickets uploaded, Civica undertook the draw, utilizing their systems and tools they have in place to select the winning ticket.
- Ciciva prepared a sealed envelope with the randomly picked winning ticket number and the name of the winner.
The boys then went on to reveal that all of the above “happened behind the scenes – even for us – to ensure the maximum of security and impartiality”. To make things appear fair and live the brothers visited Civica and revealed the contents of the envelope, that contained Civica’s draw, to the public.
It’s Not A “Live Draw”!
No matter how much Tramway Path explain the selection process or their reasoning, this wasn’t a live draw. A live draw is one where the winner selection process is show live. All this was was a winner reveal and we fully understand why entrants aren’t happy. They’ve not got what was advertised and all that does is paint question marks on the trustworthiness of the process. The average punter won’t know who Civica are or what they do! All they want is to see that fair play is taking place and that they can see it. As one poster commented that envelope could have been filled weeks ago! Now we’re not saying Tramway Path have done anything untoward but that they’ve made a bit of a fudge up of the process. The fact that they’ve reached out to users indicates that they realise this and will need to do better next time round. The biggest issue with property prize draws and win a house competitions is transaprency and trustworthiness. Omaze doesn’t do live draws but they have reputation and regularly show their winners picking up the keys. Everyone else though can’t afford to be tardy with transparency! What we don’t understand is if Civica are a leading service then why didn’t they film the process or even advise on how to make things live?
Transparency Is Key
For win a house competitions – or indeed any pay to enter prize draw site – to work they need to establish trust and transparency. The best way to do that is be clear with your winners. Show how they are selected, show that the prizes are won and show the people who’ve won them. People are spending their hard earned cash and therefore become more invested in a promotion then perhaps they would over a free entry giveaway. No one wants to feel scammed! So if a win a house competition or pay to enter prize draw runs smoothly this makes everyone happy. The winner is happy, entrants are happy for the winner and we’ll all have another go next time round. Bounty Competitions is a perfect example of this approach. If there’s no transparency then questions start to be asked. The bad reviews start to roll in and integrity starts to erode. Sites may be able to roll through a few bad rounds but it’s often harder to regain trust with established users than bring in new ones. Tramway Path have had a couple of bad rounds – and personally we’re not impressed with how they treated us as affiliates either, not a biggie in the grand scheme, but our belief in TP is down because of it. Tramway Path need to look at the likes of Bounty Competitions, put together a fun and transparent live winner selection set-up and get everyone back on side. Otherwise every subsequent draw will be met with question marks. On the plus side the email sent out suggests Tramway Path may well put better systems in place for their giveaway.