Raffles seem to be the “in thing” of the moment. We already know about the win a house competitions and the multitude of car raffle and watch raffle sites but there’s more. In recent times, especially over lockdown, we’ve seen a number of people doing their own pay to enter giveaways on Facebook. Whilst these may seem like fun they are actually illegal to run if there’s no free entry route or element of skill involved. In theory Facebook should shut them down, but then again it’s Facebook!
Win A House On Raffall
Joining this abundance of pay to enter giveaways is Raffall. This is a competition app or platform that allows users to run their own giveaways. We have heard of it before but it’s come back on our radar as they’re now hosting their first win a house competition. For just £1 you could become the owner of 4 bedroomed detached property in West Yorkshire. As well as the house there’s a 2017 Volvo in the prize package too. The format for entry is the same as all other house raffles although in this case the cash prize if insufficient tickets are sold is guaranteed by Raffall and not the seller.
But should you be looking at Raffall for more chances to win prizes? When we logged in we discovered 21 pages of prizes. On each pages there’s up to 9 different giveaways alongside the featured raffles and top fundraisers. The prizes vary as do the hosts! There’s the house prize as mentioned above plus vouchers, gadgets, jewellery and a racehorse for a year. You don’t seem to be able to sort the raffles by prize which is frustrating although you can find out the top performers of the day, week, month and year.
How To Enter Raffalls
To take part in one of the giveaways you need to register and purchase credits. Then you simply find a competition you’d like to take part in, answer a “skill question” and purchase tickets. As with car raffles the promoter has set a closing date and a fixed number of tickets that need to be sold. There’s no indication of how many tickets have sold for a particular giveaway unless you purchase a ticket. You can however see the closing date.
If a competition doesn’t reach it’s ticket allocation then a cash prize is awarded. The winner will receive a share of the compensation amounting to 75% of all ticket sales. The remainder ends up with Raffall whilst the promoter ends up with the prize they couldn’t give away. There’s nothing to stop them setting up another giveaway though. If the raffle does conclude then the promoter gets 90% of the ticket sales, Raffall gets 10% and a lucky winner gets the prize.
Run Your Own Raffall
Anyone can set up their own Raffall. It’s free and seems relatively easy. You simply follow the instructions: add details about the prize you’re offering, upload some pictures, set the ticket price (minimum 50p), number of tickets to be sold (minimum 200), end date and a question. This question is the skill element and to be blunt it’s a bit of a joke as they tend to be simple multiple choice. If the competition concludes then Raffall automates the winner selection and then the promoter has to arrange prize delivery. Once that has been completed the promoter receives their cash. Each winner is also required to rate and review the promoter based on their experience in getting their prize. This system helps to maintain the quality on the platform.
Our Verdict
What is unclear is how many of these giveaways actually conclude with the prize on offer being won. It’d be nice to have a winners section that shows the prizes that have been won and who ran the giveaway. Additionally it’d be nice to filter raffles by prize and tickets sold. There seems to be a lot of Raffalls set to end when sold (i.e. when all tickets have sold) but there’s no indication how long they’ve been running. In short we’d like a higher level of transparency and an easier journey around the competitions. The idea of Raffall is good for people who are happy to gamble on these kind of competitions. In our view it is a gamble and should be covered by The UKGC. Given the increase in raffles there does need to be more scrutiny of the sector. Anyway, the prizes on offer at Raffall are varied and it does seem to be a successful platform for fundraising. It’s actually used by the likes of Sheffield Steelers and Cardiff Devils who have run a number of competitions. A few giveaways that are being run are also making charitable donations. The site however is not the most functional on a desktop, maybe the app is a lot better?