Omaze, win a house??

[Unreal]

DanL said:

Someone with 2.5M to spend on a house and who likes it enough to try and build flood defences to sort it out.

Exactly this. Some very strange ideas here about winning a multi million pound property and worrying about the running costs. They would probably be less than many mortgages or you'd just knock it out to the highest bidder. By the way, Omaze award all their houses. I've been involved in a number of house raffles. Happy to answer any questions about how they work.

[fourstardan]

Unreal said:

Exactly this. Some very strange ideas here about winning a multi million pound property and worrying about the running costs. They would probably be less than many mortgages or you'd just knock it out to the highest bidder. By the way, Omaze award all their houses. I've been involved in a number of house raffles. Happy to answer any questions about how they work.

How many entries do they have?

[Unreal]

fourstardan said:

Unreal said:

Exactly this. Some very strange ideas here about winning a multi million pound property and worrying about the running costs. They would probably be less than many mortgages or you'd just knock it out to the highest bidder. By the way, Omaze award all their houses. I've been involved in a number of house raffles. Happy to answer any questions about how they work.

How many entries do they have?

Some operators will tell you and some won't. There is no legal obligation to publish that information.

However there are two main types of draw (raffle is an incorrect term). One is where the prize is guaranteed irrespective of ticket sales. That's the Omaze model. It is the equivalent of a no reserve auction and they have the resources to accept that risk.

The majority use the second model where a minimum number of tickets are required before the prize is awarded. This number will be set out in the terms and conditions.

[TonyRPH]

I'm of the opinion that to stand any chance of winning, you need to sink quite a large sum of money into your entry.

It's a high risk IMHO.

[Unreal]

TonyRPH said:

I'm of the opinion that to stand any chance of winning, you need to sink quite a large sum of money into your entry.

It's a high risk IMHO.

No different to things like the lottery. If you don't buy a ticket you can't win. It's a complete gamble not some sort of calculated investment.

[Ouroboros]

Unreal said:

No different to things like the lottery. If you don't buy a ticket you can't win. It's a complete gamble not some sort of calculated investment.

lottery you know the odds clearly.

Prize draw you don't.

You can enter for free, but I guess using the charity side guilt trips people into buying tickets. 15 quid a ticket lot, what ends up at the charity, 10p?

I think omaze should have more clarity, I actually entered on the US site before, they have more interesting prizes.

Edited by Ouroboros on Sunday 13th March 13:21

[Unreal]

Ouroboros said:

Unreal said:

No different to things like the lottery. If you don't buy a ticket you can't win. It's a complete gamble not some sort of calculated investment.

lottery you know the odds clearly.

Prize draw you don't.

You can enter for free, but I guess using the charity side guilt trips people into buying tickets. 15 quid a ticket lot, what ends up at the charity, 10p?

I think omaze should have more clarity, I actually entered on the US site before, they have more interesting prizes.

Edited by Ouroboros on Sunday 13th March 13:21

If you don't like it, don't enter.

The charity percentage will be clearly stated in the terms and conditions, the ones you agree to before purchasing a ticket.

[KingNothing]

Ouroboros said:

lottery you know the odds clearly.

Prize draw you don't.

You can enter for free, but I guess using the charity side guilt trips people into buying tickets. 15 quid a ticket lot, what ends up at the charity, 10p?

I think omaze should have more clarity, I actually entered on the US site before, they have more interesting prizes.

Edited by Ouroboros on Sunday 13th March 13:21

What they've donated is on their website, over the past 6 houses they've raffled off, they've donated about £3.75 million to the charities.

[Ouroboros]

KingNothing said:

What they've donated is on their website, over the past 6 houses they've raffled off, they've donated about £3.75 million to the charities.

How much taken , that was the point really as the rest is meaningless.

35 million sales for example, 3.75 million given out, that is about 10p per 1.00 entry.

[Unreal]

Ouroboros said:

KingNothing said:

What they've donated is on their website, over the past 6 houses they've raffled off, they've donated about £3.75 million to the charities.

How much taken , that was the point really as the rest is meaningless.

35 million sales for example, 3.75 million given out, that is about 10p per 1.00 entry.

Five people have also won houses worth small fortunes. These draws are clearly not for you. It appears you have some sort of moral objection so that's unlikely to change. I can only help with providing the facts about how they run.

[ApexCult]

KingNothing said:

What they've donated is on their website, over the past 6 houses they've raffled off, they've donated about £3.75 million to the charities.

£3.75 million is way better than £0.00 million...sure they are making money too but fair enough - doesn't appear they are scamming anyone.

[talksthetorque]

Unreal said:

Ouroboros said:

KingNothing said:

What they've donated is on their website, over the past 6 houses they've raffled off, they've donated about £3.75 million to the charities.

How much taken , that was the point really as the rest is meaningless.

35 million sales for example, 3.75 million given out, that is about 10p per 1.00 entry.

Five people have also won houses worth small fortunes. These draws are clearly not for you. It appears you have some sort of moral objection so that's unlikely to change. I can only help with providing the facts about how they run.

I'm guessing that Ouroboros is trying to work out what the chances are of winning, which seems fair enough.

But as you say the company is under no legal obligation to say how many £10 sales they generate for a £2million house.

I'm guessing that Omaze make about double in ticket sales what the house is worth, the rest goes on operational costs, marketing, profit and charity donations.

Edited by talksthetorque on Sunday 13th March 18:37

[Gooose]

The chances of winning are so small it’s not worth worrying about, you either take a mega small chance then omaze makes money and omaze gives some to charity or don’t enter.

I enter the odd rev comps prizes, one in 7000 is common odds. Which is freakishly small odds and I bet omaze have way way higher odds than that

[Ouroboros]

ApexCult said:

£3.75 million is way better than £0.00 million...sure they are making money too but fair enough - doesn't appear they are scamming anyone.

I never said it was a scam, just clarity.

[Gareth79]

ApexCult said:

KingNothing said:

What they've donated is on their website, over the past 6 houses they've raffled off, they've donated about £3.75 million to the charities.

£3.75 million is way better than £0.00 million...sure they are making money too but fair enough - doesn't appear they are scamming anyone.

The objection by some to this sort of thing is that people spend (say) £50 and then think that they have "done their bit", and probably thinking that a a greater amount makes it to charity. This means they feel less inclined to donate to other charities since they have mentally allocated £50 to charitable donations.

[Ouroboros]

Gareth79 said:

The objection by some to this sort of thing is that people spend (say) £50 and then think that they have "done their bit", and probably thinking that a a greater amount makes it to charity. This means they feel less inclined to donate to other charities since they have mentally allocated £50 to charitable donations.

yes.

[Unreal]

Gareth79 said:

ApexCult said:

KingNothing said:

What they've donated is on their website, over the past 6 houses they've raffled off, they've donated about £3.75 million to the charities.

£3.75 million is way better than £0.00 million...sure they are making money too but fair enough - doesn't appear they are scamming anyone.

The objection by some to this sort of thing is that people spend (say) £50 and then think that they have "done their bit", and probably thinking that a a greater amount makes it to charity. This means they feel less inclined to donate to other charities since they have mentally allocated £50 to charitable donations.

What's your evidence for that?

Does it also apply to the National Lottery?

[fourstardan]

The latest winners

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershi...

"Given 50k to settle in".....or more be ready to take a hit on running the place for a year.

[DonkeyApple]

By donating a percentage to charity and by offering free entry you bypass the need for a gaming license and regulation.

I set up the structure for this in the U.K. in 2008. The problem back then was payment processing. You could get a legitimate gateway to take the payments.

[Unreal]

DonkeyApple said:

By donating a percentage to charity and by offering free entry you bypass the need for a gaming license and regulation.

I set up the structure for this in the U.K. in 2008. The problem back then was payment processing. You could get a legitimate gateway to take the payments.

There is no requirement to make a donate a percentage to charity to ensure the draw is not classed as a lottery and would therefore come under scrutiny by the Gambling Commission. The charity donation element is a mix of marketing as well as the simple fact of helping a good cause.

You still can still use legitimate gateways. Stripe are commonly used. PayPal won't play. Edit - you may have meant you couldn't get a legitimate payment gateway back then.

As I said earlier in this thread, I know all about running house prize draws and I'm happy to share that information. The biggest problem is that a significant number of people have some kind of negative agenda and simply won't listen to those answers. If you look at the social media comments Omaze receive, you'll see hundreds of people claiming the properties don't exist, they are only won by mates of Omaze, people should donate direct to the charity, etc, etc. Omaze are quite good in challenging misinformation but these people simply won't listen to the facts.

Edited by Unreal on Saturday 13th August 07:07

Edited by Unreal on Saturday 13th August 07:11