Lottery rewards and draw mechanics

See how a lottery game turns players into entrants and how you pick the winners.

3 min read

Understand how a lottery game works so you know when winners appear and how to pick them. A player becomes an entrant during the campaign, then you draw the winners yourself from Participants.

You run the draw yourself

Lottery winners are picked from Participants with Declare Lottery Winners. The draw does not run on its own from the game screen.

What happens, in order

  1. A player plays the lottery game.
  2. If the setup is valid, the player becomes Eligible instead of an immediate winner.
  3. Your team opens Participants and uses Declare Lottery Winners.
  4. The draw picks the final winners and updates the reward status.

Where you control the draw

You set up the draw in the New Draw window inside Participants. Each setting has its own job.

  • Reward — picks which lottery reward you're resolving. Use this when several delayed rewards exist in one campaign.
  • Number of Winners — sets how many winners to pick now. Use this for a final draw or a draw in stages.
  • Winner Eligibility — switches between All Participants and By Timeframe. Use All Participants for a full-campaign draw, or By Timeframe to limit the window.
  • Winner Restrictions — lets you Include Everyone or Exclude Previous Winners. Use Exclude Previous Winners to stop the same person winning across rewards.
  • Draw Method — switches between Equal Chance and Weighted Chance. Use Weighted Chance when valid touchpoint activity should improve a player's odds.

For a straightforward draw, pick All Participants, Include Everyone, and Equal Chance.

Blacklisted contacts are excluded automatically

Whatever settings you pick, OmniLab leaves any blacklisted contact out of the draw's candidate pool and keeps drawing from the rest until Number of Winners is filled. If excluding blacklisted contacts leaves too few eligible participants, the draw fails outright rather than returning a partial set of winners.

Common questions

Before you run the draw

  • the lottery reward is linked to the correct game
  • the eligible message and winner message are ready
  • enough reward quantity remains for the number of winners you want
  • you know whether to use Equal Chance or Weighted Chance
  • you know whether to include All Participants or only a timeframe

If publishing is blocked

A few common reasons and how to fix them:

  • The eligible message is missing — open the lottery reward and add the text participants see after they enter the draw. Without it, the game can't publish.
  • The participation message is missing — a lottery game needs the on-screen message that confirms entry filled in before it can publish.
  • No lottery reward is linked — a lottery game needs at least one dedicated lottery reward attached. Create the reward in Rewards and link it to the game.
  • The draw itself fails to run — this usually means there aren't enough eligible, non-blacklisted contacts left to fill Number of Winners. Lower the number of winners or wait for more entries, then try the draw again.
RewardsLottery rewardsReview how delayed reward logic is configured before you troubleshoot the draw.NotificationsNotification types referencePlan the Eligible, Winner, and Reward Redeemed messages around the draw flow.MeasureReward attribution trackingFollow eligibles and winners across Analytics, Participants, and rewards.TroubleshootWhy didn't my reward distribute?Troubleshoot when the player outcome does not match the expected reward state.

On this page

What happens, in orderWhere you control the drawCommon questionsBefore you run the drawIf publishing is blockedRelated