Prizes for bingo, a raffle or a wheel of fortune: how to set up your table
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
7 min reading time
Here's how to build a prize table that matches your number of raffle tickets: three prize tiers, a calculation example for 200 tickets, and the displays and boxes that make your prizes visible.
The prize table at a club night usually looks like this: three great prizes at the front that everyone comes for, and behind them thirty things nobody wants. At the end of the evening, the main prizes go home, and the rest goes back into the same box that will come out of the closet again next year. That's a waste of money and a waste of space in the clubhouse.
Autumn is the season when these evenings begin again: bingo at the sports club, a raffle for the youth section, a wheel of fortune at the autumn market, a pub quiz with the team. Below, we explain how to set up your prize table so that your purchases match the number of participants, and how to avoid being left with leftovers.
Start with the number of tickets, not the prizes
The most common mistake is to buy attractive prizes first and then see how many tickets you sell. Reverse it. You need three numbers before you order anything:
How many tickets or rounds you expect to sell or play.
What proportion of those are prizes. With a wheel of fortune and bingo, almost every round someone wins; with a raffle, you choose the prize chance yourself. One in five is common and feels like a realistic chance for participants.
What you can spend per prize. Divide the expected revenue by the number of prizes and keep at least half if your goal is to raise money.
An example. You sell 200 tickets for €1.00 each, which is €200.00 in revenue. You want 40 prizes (one in five) and a maximum expenditure of €80.00. That's an average of €2.00 per prize. That seems little, but you won't do it on average: you'll split the table into layers.
Three layers on the table: grand prize, mid-range, and consolation
A prize table that works has three distinctly different layers. Participants should see at a glance that there is something worthwhile to win, and at the same time feel that they won't leave empty-handed.
Layer 1 — two to four grand prizes
These are the prizes you put on the announcement and that are prominently displayed on the table. Expect to spend €10.00 to €35.00 each. Something in a box works better here than something loose, as it looks bigger and more valuable on the table. The 99-in-1 Game Set with Dice, Checkerboard, and Scorepad (€14.95) works well as a grand prize for a family audience. For a sports club or corporate event, the Gold Award Trophy 15x5 cm (€12.95) is a prize people will actually compete for, precisely because it's not practical.
Layer 2 — eight to twelve mid-range prizes
Prizes between €5.00 and €10.00. This is the layer that determines whether people buy a second ticket. Choose items that you can display on the table so they are visible from two meters away.
Where it usually goes wrong: buying by taste instead of quantity
One of everything. Twenty different prizes look messy and make distributing slow, as someone has to choose. Five types in larger quantities look fuller and are faster.
Prizes that no one can take home. Something glass or something large is difficult to transport by bike. Keep the mid-range and consolation prizes small enough for a jacket pocket or bag.
Not considering the audience. At a family bingo, you don't want prizes suitable only for adults. Review your list with the question: if an eight-year-old wins this, is that fine?
Too large a gap in the mid-range. Keep the jump between layers around a factor of two, otherwise the second prize feels like a consolation prize.
The table itself: height, boxes, and sightlines
A prize table sells by sight. Small prizes lying flat on a cloth disappear; the same prizes elevated draw attention. An acrylic stair display with 6 steps (€34.95) or the 6-layer variant (€29.95) visibly presents thirty small prizes on half a meter of table. If you mainly have keyrings, the metal display holder for keyrings (€17.95) hangs them at eye level instead of in a bin.
That comes to around €225.00 for 43 prizes. With 200 tickets at €2.50, you'll have over €250.00 left for the club fund, and you can reuse the display next year. It's better to adjust the ticket price than to skimp on the grand prizes — attendance depends on them.
What to do with leftovers
You will always have some leftovers, and that's fine as long as it's intentional. Buy consolation prizes in types you can use again next season — rather twenty identical keyrings than twenty different items. Store the leftovers in one box with a list of its contents on the lid, not scattered across three cupboards; then you won't buy what you already have again next year. Leftovers from the mid-range can be used as a thank-you gift for volunteers or as a prize at the next quiz night. Only for grand prizes does it pay to buy exactly what you need.
Not sure if a prize will arrive in time for your event, or want to know the stock level of an item you wish to order in bulk? Email your date and quantities to info@verpakkingdeals.nl, and we'll help you out.
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