We built a 500-person sweepstake in an afternoon.
A fully branded World Cup sweepstake for The HoLT, Lea Turner's 500-member business community. Password gate, instant draws, confetti, live leaderboards, cheat detection with a sense of humour. One session from brief to launch. Now you can build your own, free, in minutes.
One brief. One afternoon. 29 entries before the takeaway turned up.
Lea Turner runs The HoLT, a 500-member business community. She wanted a World Cup sweepstake her members would actually talk about. UK gambling law makes paid sweepstakes a legal minefield, so we flipped the model: free entry, no money anywhere, and the prize is glory. The winner gets a post about them and their business from Lea's LinkedIn.
We built the whole thing in a single afternoon session. Password gate, instant team draw with confetti, downloadable share cards sized for LinkedIn, live leaderboards, automatic eliminations and a cheat-detection system fronted by the community's favourite in-joke.
Lea entered first. 29 members followed in the first three hours, each one posting their team card to LinkedIn as they went. The sweepstake markets itself.
Lea's verdict, on camera, once the trophy has been lifted.
Lea Turner · Founder, The HoLTSeventy seconds, start to finish
The whole thing in one sitting: the draw, the cards, the leaderboards, the Rickroll, and the precise moment a cheat stops celebrating.
One sweepstake, four jobs
The HoLT ran theirs for member engagement. Yours can earn its keep however you like.
Your community
Engagement that runs itself. Members draw a team, post their card, rib each other on the leaderboards for a month. You post one password and take the credit.
Inside your business
Internal team competition, department versus department. Sales drew Brazil, accounts drew San Marino, and suddenly the whole company is watching the group stages.
For your audience
Run it for your clients or members as a value-add. Your brand on every card they share, a reason to open your emails, and a month of you being the fun one.
As a lead magnet
Collect entries as warm, fun leads for your business. People hand over their details for a team draw far faster than for a PDF, and they arrive smiling.
From password to podium
Five stages, all automated. The host posts one password and watches it run.
The password gate
Members only. The password lives inside your community, so anyone who wants in has to be in. Branded top to bottom: your logo, your colours, a flag wall and a live ticker selling the prize before anyone types a thing.
A thirty-second entry
Name, business, done. No accounts, no app, no faff. The form talks like your community talks ("Right then. Who's playing?") because the copy is part of the build, not an afterthought.
The draw, with theatre
Team revealed instantly, confetti in flight, and a share card rendered at 1080 by 1350, sized for LinkedIn. One click to post, with 200 pre-written variations so no two members' posts read the same. Every entry becomes an advert for the next one.
Leaderboards that run themselves
Live standings pulled from FIFA match data every three hours, no human required. The Main Race podium, the Wooden Spoon race for the worst team, Brick Wall and Sieve for best and worst defence, the Naughty Step for discipline, and Golden Boot Watch. Eliminations happen automatically.
Seven boards and every group table, on one page. This screenshot keeps going for quite a while.
Winners crowned
Daily recaps written in your community's voice, fixtures for every member's team, and a final podium when the whistle goes. Results automation runs through to the end of the event, so the host never has to update a spreadsheet at midnight.
Built-in mischief
None of this was in the brief. It's what an afternoon with us looks like.
The VAR Review
Every entry gets checked. Try drawing a second team and you land on a public board of shame, fronted by Backdoor Barry, the community's in-joke mascot, holding a red card with zero remorse. Cheat detection as entertainment.
Cheater theatre
Caught cheats don't get an error message. They get a fake Spain draw, a moment to celebrate, then the card tears in half under a red DISQUALIFIED stamp. Their original team still stands. The shame is the punishment.
The wrong-password Rickroll
Guess the password wrong and you're escorted to a fully branded "VAR Evidence Review" page, where Rick Astley handles proceedings. People got the password wrong on purpose just to see it.
The free version is the whole thing
Build it yourself at the builder, free, fully featured, hosted by us. Want it on your own server with the entrant data entirely yours? That is a bespoke build, just ask.
Free and fully featured
The self-serve builder gives you the full HoLT treatment: gate, draws, share cards, leaderboards, cheat theatre, the lot. No payment, no catch. Build it in minutes and launch.
Hosted by us
The free sweepstake runs on our infrastructure, so the entrant data sits with us. That is the deal for a free, hosted, zero-setup tool. No fiddling with servers, no DNS, no maintenance.
Want it fully yours?
If you need it built and hosted on your own server, with the entrant data held entirely by you, we do bespoke. Tell us what you need and we will scope it. Get in touch or email hello@notluck.co.uk.
No mystery, no scoping call
Here is the whole process and the whole package. The builder does the lot, free.
The how
- 1
Open the builder and answer the personalisation questions. They take about five minutes and there is no discovery call.
- 2
Make it yours. Your logo, your colours, your competition, your community's in-jokes if you fancy.
- 3
Hit publish and you get your live link and your password, hosted by us, in minutes.
- 4
Launch it. Draws, share cards, leaderboards and results automation run themselves, and cheats are handled with a sense of humour.
The what
- A fully branded sweepstake site on its own web address, hosted by us for free
- A password gate, so entry stays members-only
- Instant draws with downloadable, shareable cards
- Live leaderboards updated from real match data
- The wooden-spoon race, for the connoisseurs of failure
- Automatic eliminations as teams crash out
- Cheat detection plus a public VAR board
- Your entrants, your competition, all built and run by you
- Free to use, with the option of a bespoke self-hosted build if you want the data fully yours
Yes, it is probably the weekend. What do you think we built this whole system for? Build yours now, live in minutes.
Got a competition in mind?
World Cup, Euros, Wimbledon, the village bake-off. Any competition, any community, any customer base. Build yours free and it's live in minutes, well before kick-off.
The fine print
Is a sweepstake like this legal in the UK?
Yes, the way we build it. Entry is free and no money changes hands, which keeps it outside UK gambling licensing. The prize is whatever you want it to be: recognition, a shout-out, a hamper. For The HoLT, the winner gets a LinkedIn post from the founder about them and their business.
How fast can you build one?
Minutes. The builder walks you through the personalisation in about five minutes, then you publish and it's live, hosted by us. The HoLT build went from brief to live entries in one afternoon, and the self-serve builder is faster still.
Do I need a call before I can build it?
No. The builder asks everything it needs: your brand, your competition, your prize and your password. No discovery call, no waiting on us. Build yours now.
Does it only work for football?
No. Anything with entrants and an outcome works: World Cup, Euros, Grand National, Eurovision, awards night, charity fundraiser, internal sales competition. The draw, share cards, leaderboards and automation adapt to whatever you're running.
Where does the entry data go?
The free sweepstake is hosted by us, so the entrant data sits with us. That is the trade for a free, zero-setup tool. If you want it built and hosted on your own server with the data held entirely by you, we do bespoke. Get in touch or email hello@notluck.co.uk.
What does it cost?
The self-serve builder is free. You get the full branded sweepstake, gate, draws, share cards, leaderboards, cheat theatre and results automation, hosted by us at no charge. A bespoke self-hosted build, with the entrant data fully yours, is a paid option, just ask us for a quote. Build your free one now.