What you can run
- Number draws: customers pick from 1 to 10 numbers in a range you set (1 to 49 unless you change it, anywhere from 0 to 99). The form shows the chance of one ticket matching every number.
- Simple ticket draws: customers buy numbered tickets and the draw picks winning tickets.
- Each draw has its own ticket price in coins, number of tickets, start time and draw time.
- Prizes for each matching rank, as coins or an item, for example one prize for every number matched and a smaller one for three.
- Winners drawn automatically at the draw time, or picked by you.
- A live feed on each draw's page of tickets being bought, and a ticket count that updates by itself.
Where to find it
Switching on the prize draws plugin adds its own group to the admin menu, with the list of all draws, every ticket sold, the winners and the draw categories.
On a store that takes real money, the admin menu and the storefront use the plugin's original name for this section. The pages and what they do are the same.
Create a draw
- Start a new draw
Open the list of all draws in the prize draws group and press the button to add one.
- Name it
A name, a picture and a category. You can add a category on the spot.
- Choose the kind and the tickets
A number draw or a simple ticket draw, then the ticket price in coins and how many tickets are on sale.
- Set the times
The start time, the draw time, and whether winners are drawn automatically or picked by you.
- Add the prizes
Coins or an item, each for a range of matched numbers. Ranges can't overlap.
Once a ticket is sold, the kind of draw, its numbers and its ticket settings are locked. Once winners are declared, the times, the draw method and the prizes are locked too.
If tickets sell slowly
You can let a draw move its end back by itself: after a number of hours you choose, up to a number of times you choose. After that, it either carries on or waits for you to draw it by hand. Verified draws never move their end.
Verified draws
Verified draws are on for a new store. You can switch them in the prize draws plugin's settings on the Plugins page.
- A sealed seed
When you make a draw, it is committed to a secret seed. Only the seed's fingerprint (its SHA-256) is shown.
- Public randomness
After the draw closes, the result comes from that seed, the list of tickets that could win, and public randomness from drand (the League of Entropy) published after the close. While verified draws are on, nobody, the store included, can choose or foresee it.
- Anyone can check
Each draw's page links to its Verify page, which recalculates the result in the browser.
With verified draws on, manual draws, editing winning numbers and moving the end are all off.
A draw waits and keeps trying; it is never drawn another way. After the hours you set, you're alerted on the dashboard, and the draw's winners panel offers only to void it and refund every ticket at what it cost.
After the draw
Automatic draws are closed by a scheduled job every minute, so the scheduled task must be running. For a draw you pick by hand, choose the winners on the winners page of the prize draws group.
How winners' names show to visitors is set in Settings Winner names: full name, initials, or a made-up name that stays the same for each person.
Live purchase feed
The Live Ticker plugin, included with PrizeX Standard, shows a rotating list of recent purchases on a live draw's page. It refreshes every 15 seconds and rotates every 4 seconds. Buyers' names are masked as J*** D***, or shown as Jane D. with one switch. It's for show only and never affects tickets, prices or results.
Add-ons for draws
Sold separately from the add-on store in your admin:
Print Ticket adds a printable receipt with a QR verification code to each ticket, in A4 or 58 and 80 mm thermal layouts, with a public page to verify a ticket. Prize competitions adds a skill question and a free postal entry route.
Whether you may run auctions, prize draws, mystery boxes or prize games where you operate, and any licence you need for them, is yours to check. While any of these is switched on, sign-up requires a minimum age of 18, which you can raise.
Something wrong or unclear on this page? Tell us at [email protected], or see how to get help.