How to run a sweepstake for World Cup 2023

World Cup 2022 is right around the corner and there’s no better way to get people into the spirit of the world’s biggest tournament and have some fun than through a sweepstake. Throw all 32 teams in a hat and let fate run its course. Who knows - you could be the lucky winner this December!

Sweepstake generator

So first things first - a sweepstake generator for you. Simply pop in the team names, then the names of the participants (it doesn't matter how many) and you're ready to go!

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When and where is the World Cup 2022?‍

The 2022 World Cup will be the 22nd edition of the tournament, the first of which was held all the way back in 1930. World Cup 2022 will be held in Qatar, with the first game kicking off on November 20 and the Final set to be played on Sunday December 18 *makes note in calendar*.

I know what you’re thinking though and the answer is no, the team here at Collctiv haven’t completely abandoned the notion of the calendar and jumped the gun 6 months early. Due to the soaring summer heat in Qatar, this will be the first World Cup to not be held in May, June or July, instead this year's tournament is being held in November and December.

‍How do I set up a sweepstake?

Firstly, let’s take a look at what a sweepstake is;

A sweepstake is a contest usually based on major sporting events, the World Cup being a perfect example, where entrants pay an equal stake before choosing a team at random. In most scenarios, the name of every team involved is placed in a hat before being pulled out blindly to ensure a random selection. The ‘hat’ can be very literally a physical hat, but there are handy tools online for sweepstake generation that you can enter all 32 teams into.

This creates a ‘pot’ with the final amount up for grabs and for World Cup 2022 there are 32 teams involved, so there’s the opportunity for 32 entry fees to be contributed to the pot. Don’t worry if you don’t have exactly 32 people to get involved though - you could offer everyone 2 picks for their entry fee for example, or if you have more than 32 people, don’t be shy about running more than one sweepstake simultaneously.

Following the event, the entrant who has picked the winning team takes home the winnings (sometimes, the 2nd and 3rd place teams may also win a lesser amount of the total pot - depending how generous you want to be!). 

Here’s a full list of the 32 countries that will be involved this year that will need to be in your hat:

‍Group A‍

Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal and Netherlands

‍Group B

England, Iran, USA and Wales

‍Group C

Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Poland

‍Group D

France, Australia, Denmark and Tunisia

‍Group E

Spain, Costa Rica, Germany and Japan

‍Group F

Belgium, Canada, Morocco and Croatia

‍Group G

Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon

‍Group H

Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay and Korea Republic‍

‍How do I collect the money for a sweepstake?

So you’ve got commitment from everyone, the teams are all ready to be selected from your physical/virtual hat, but before you go any further you need people to chip in their entry fee. None of this works without the prize money, right?

This is the part where you may be scratching your head or preparing yourself for the dread that comes with chasing people up every single day for the entirety of the tournament to pay the entry fee you were promised days/weeks ago. It’s a surefire way to take the enjoyment out of something so fun. No matter how many reminders you send by WhatsApp, Slack, Teams, carrier pigeon, people still aren’t paying up. Especially if they get a team that is highly unlikely to win! Suddenly it become like getting blood out of a stone.

The next problem comes in the slightly unusual form of actually receiving the money (yes, receiving money can actually cause a problem), as you receive 32 different payments to your personal bank account on different days and at different times. All of a sudden you’re losing track of who has and hasn’t paid and the admin to keep up with has become a full-time job. You may also have a hybrid way of working which means a number of people want to give you cash in the office instead.

Now you’ve got a mixture of random coins/notes in your hand that need to be cashed into your bank, payments in your bank account hidden amongst your personal transactions and the ongoing problem of some people who haven’t got around to paying you because setting up someone new to pay on their online banking and actually paying you has become a job for later, and then for tomorrow, and then for the day after…… (you get the point).

The easy way to collect money from a group of people

We’ve made it easy for you as an organiser to collect money and we’ve also made it super simple for contributors to pay into your pot. Setting up a Collctiv pot can be done in less than a minute and sharing the payment link or QR code with your group is even easier, no matter the channel you use to communicate.

People use the link/QR code to access the payment screen and then tap to pay into your pot using their desired payment method, including ApplePay and GooglePay. They don’t need to download an app, sign up to anything or do any banking. Within a couple of taps and 10 seconds later you’ve got your money. It really is that simple.

The money sits in the pot you’ve created for the specific event and can then be withdrawn to your bank account in a lump sum so it all remains ring fenced until you have the final amount in advance. Say goodbye to the time and effort that comes with scrolling through pages of lunch meal deals and morning coffees to find out if Paul from IT has actually paid the money he owes. Instead, you can track the total amount you’ve received along with the names of the people who have paid you. 

Take back control of your time. Take away the friction of payment. Take away the excuses. Get paid what you’re owed.

Download Collctiv today to get started.

‍Since 2019 Collctiv has helped over 400,000 people from 88 countries come together by making it simple for Organisers to collect money from groups. Whether it's gifts for teachers, group holidays or grassroots sports teams - download our free app today and start bringing people together!