“Youtube of Raffles” – Jason Calacanis

Incredibly overdue (was still in drafts??), but this is a video of me, pitching in front of the Future of Web Apps audience in October. An amazing opportunity that opened many doors (we’ve been keeping ourselves very busy jumping in and out of these doors ever since).

Luckily for me, Carsonified (the organisers of the event) recorded everything (!) so here it is (I’m up second):

I’ll hold my hands up first and say it wasn’t my finest minute, I’d used a couple of words on paper to point me in the right direction but hadn’t anticipated such a large crowd. It messed me up a little. Luckily the panel were really supportive  

Thanks again to Ryan and Carsonified oh and Mike Butcher, Jason Calacanis and Brent Hoberman

Thinking of entering a house raffle? STOP read this first!

The credit crunch is biting hard now but also has the possibility of creating great opportunities. Our goal at Raffle.it is to help make everything affordable to everyone and it’s never been more necessary than now. House raffles are springing up all over the web and I’m sure all with genuine intent. However, many are being rushed, effectively just copying the couple in Devon that successfully sold 46,000 £25 tickets, gaining an enviable amount of free press coverage along the way.

In almost all cases these raffles are flawed and will be stopped by the Gambling Commission in due course.

The Devon couple are battling to convince the authorities that testing their participants’ ability to use Google was a sufficient test of skill. A test of skill is required to prevent a random draw being viewed as an illegal lottery. Other recent raffle operators are asking questions where they have given the answers in bold on the same page! One I’ve seem will rely on the National Lottery results some time in the future. These are all examples of illegal lotteries and will not be allowed to be drawn by the Gambling Commission. 

This is all very disappointing to us as it will no doubt damage the acceptance of raffles as an acceptable method of trade. The Raffle.it team have spent a long time creating a platform that is both legal and rewarding to all. We have a win all ways solution and we are very proud of it. We worked hard with the Gambling Commission from the outset to ensure that we didn’t fall foul of any legislation and didn’t accidently run illegal lotteries. Our raffles are based on a game of skill and do not rely on a random draw. Only one person can be right when using our Winner Identification Process. We also work with Retailers and Brands to ensure that everyone playing a raffle we host receives something worth, or potentially worth, more than the cost of the ticket itself. In the case of our first house raffle we have a nationwide removals firm giving every ticket holder a 15% discount saving between £30 and £115, and Firebox.com have kindly donated £115,000 in Gift Vouchers meaning every ticket holder will receive a no strings attached Firebox.com £5 gift voucher!!

So enter with confidence. The second the last ticket is sold, the winner is identified, no delays, no excuses and every single person that enters is informed via email. You get to see how many times each ticket number was chosen and can see with your own eyes how the winner was identified. Completely transparent, completely fair, completely safe.

We want to host your raffles and help you promote them. We take a small share of the ticket revenue in exchange for all banking, accounting, admin, hosting and marketing costs. It’s a win-win deal for everyone involved and takes us one step closer to our goal of making everything affordable to everyone.

What do you think? Have you had any experience of any of these other house raffles?

UPDATE (Thanks Jeff!): Here’s the link to our first house raffle .. http://www.raffle.it/raffle/10128

A local winner for the Playstation 3 bundle

Tim, left, is feeling pretty pleased with getting his Playstation 3 for £2.50.

I was almost as happy as Tim to get the opportunity of personally delivering this fantastic prize. Of course he had to wrestle it off me but that’s beside the point.

Congratulations Tim, I hope it doesn’t distract you too much!

Check out how the ticket numbers worked out by visiting the raffle here.