RANDOM.ORG is a true random number service that generates
randomness via atmospheric noise. One of the most popular uses of
the service is to hold drawings and lotteries.
Using RANDOM.ORG, you can hold drawings in a
manner that is fair, unbiased and in a way where entrants can easily
convince themselves that you had no influence over who was picked as
winner. This page explains how to do that.
Blog and Business Giveaways
New! → Check out Video Tutorial #1 to see how the Third-Party Draw
Service works.
If you are a blogger or a business who uses random drawings for promotional giveaways, then you probably
have the entrants' email addresses. (You can also use Twitter IDs,
if that is how you identify your entrants.) In this case, the best
way to hold drawings is as follows:
Register for a RANDOM.ORG account with at least $4.95 worth of credit. This is enough for
one drawing with up to 500 entrants and multiple
winners, and you can always top up later if you like.
When the service asks you to upload your entrant list, use the
email addresses for your entrants. RANDOM.ORG will keep these
addresses confidential and never send emails to them.
When the draw is completed, you receive a link to a record of
the drawing, which you can post on your blog or
web site. Someone who participated in the drawing can go to this record and enter their email address to confirm
that they really were entered into the drawing and
whether they won.
This approach lets the entrants in your drawing verify that the drawing was held as you promised
(e.g., on a particular date), whether they were included as entrants
and whether they were picked as winners.
If you are a PR company, a media company, a charity or a
professional lottery operator, you may not want your drawings to be publically visible, but you do want the
records to be available to your auditors. In this case, the best
way to hold random drawings is as follows:
Estimate the number of entrants in your drawing and use the Price Calculator to
see how much it will cost. For large individual drawings or many drawings over a
period of time, you can inquire for a quote on
a flat fee pricing or bulk discount.
Register for a RANDOM.ORG account with sufficient credit to cover your draw. If you end up
having more entrants than expected, you can add the remaining
credit later.
When the service asks you to upload your entrant list, your
can use entrant names, database identifiers, email addresses,
phone numbers or any other alphanumeric string that identifies the
entrants uniquely. These identifiers will remain completely
confidential, available only to you and any auditors that you
give access to your account.
When the draw is completed, you receive a link to a record of
the drawing. The record is private, meaning that
the details are only visible when you are logged in. To
facilitate auditing, you will need to provide your auditors with
your RANDOM.ORG login and password, so they can review your
records.
Please see the description of
the Third-Party Draw Service for further details.