Work out your chance of winning a raffle in seconds. Enter how many tickets were sold, how many you hold and how many prizes will be drawn. The calculator shows your chance of winning at least one prize, the odds as “1 in”, how likely you are to win 1, 2 or more prizes, and how many tickets you would need for a given chance. Running the raffle yourself? You can also draw the winning ticket numbers here.
Raffle odds calculator
| You win | Chance |
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How many tickets do I need?
Draw the winners
Running the raffle? Draw winning ticket numbers from 1 to the number of tickets sold. Each number is picked with your browser’s secure random generator, and no ticket wins twice.
How the raffle odds are calculated
With one prize, your chance is simply your tickets divided by the tickets sold. Hold 5 of 200 tickets and your chance is 5 ÷ 200 = 2.5%, or 1 in 40.
With several prizes, the calculator first works out the chance that none of your tickets is drawn, then takes that away from 100%. In most raffles a winning ticket is set aside, so each draw has one ticket fewer. For 200 tickets, 5 yours and 3 prizes, the chance that every draw misses you is 195/200 × 194/199 × 193/198 ≈ 92.6%, so your chance of winning at least one prize is about 7.4%.
If winning tickets go back in (tick the box), each draw is independent and the chance of missing every time is (1 − your share)prizes. That gives a very slightly lower chance of winning at least once, because one ticket can win twice.
The “prizes you can expect to win” figure is prizes × your share of the tickets. It is an average over many raffles, not a promise for this one.
Raffle odds at a glance
| Tickets sold | Your tickets | Prizes | Chance of winning at least one | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 1 | 1 | 1.0% | 1 in 100 |
| 100 | 5 | 1 | 5.0% | 1 in 20 |
| 100 | 5 | 3 | 14.4% | 1 in 7 |
| 200 | 5 | 3 | 7.4% | 1 in 14 |
| 500 | 10 | 1 | 2.0% | 1 in 50 |
| 500 | 10 | 5 | 9.7% | 1 in 10 |
| 1,000 | 20 | 10 | 18.4% | 1 in 5 |
A handy shortcut: when you hold only a small share of the tickets, your chance is roughly your share × the number of prizes. For 2.5% of the tickets and 3 prizes that gives 7.5%, close to the exact 7.4%.
Tips for running a fair raffle
- Number every ticket and keep a list of who bought which numbers.
- Draw in front of everyone. Use the winner draw above, put the numbers on a number wheel, or enter buyers’ names in the random name picker and show it on a screen.
- Decide the rules before you sell: how many prizes, the order they are drawn in, and whether one ticket can win twice.
- Draw the smallest prize first to build suspense, and the main prize last.
- Check local rules. In many places a raffle that sells tickets for money needs a licence or permit, even for charity, and some limit how prizes and proceeds are handled.
Frequently asked questions
Does buying more tickets help?
Yes, in a straight line for a single prize: 10 tickets give twice the chance of 5. With several prizes the gain is slightly less than double, because two of your own tickets can be drawn for different prizes.
Does it matter when I buy my ticket?
No. In a fair draw every ticket has the same chance, whether it was bought first or last.
Are raffle odds better than lottery odds?
Almost always. A raffle with 500 tickets gives each ticket a 1 in 500 chance per prize. A national lottery jackpot is usually 1 in many millions.
How do I work out raffle odds without a calculator?
For one prize, divide your tickets by the tickets sold. For several prizes where winners are set aside, multiply the chances of missing on each draw and subtract the result from 1, as in the example above.
Is the winner draw on this page random?
Yes. Ticket numbers are picked with your browser’s cryptographically secure random generator, every number has the same chance, and a ticket that has already won is skipped. Nothing is sent to our server.
Want the full explanation with more worked examples? Read raffle odds explained.