Run a sweepstake on paper.
There are offices where a sweepstake isn't real until it's sellotaped to the kitchen wall, and we respect that deeply. Here's how to run a proper paper tennis sweepstake - the fully manual ceremony, the shortcuts that save your lunch break, and the wall chart that keeps it alive for a fortnight.
When paper beats the app
Digital is faster and fairer, but paper wins in three situations: the pub (phones down, someone's actual hat on the table), the workplace where half the group won't click a link (schools, wards, building sites), and anywhere the theatre matters more than the efficiency. A name pulled from a hat to a chorus of groans is a moment; a tap on a screen is not. The good news: you don't have to choose - most groups now draw digitally and display on paper.
The fully manual version
- Get the player names. For a Grand Slam that's 128 per singles draw - which is why paper sweeps usually use the 32 seeds instead. Write each name on a strip; fold twice.
- Collect stakes and write the participant list on a master sheet - name, ticket count, amount paid.
- Draw in public. Each person pulls their strip from the hat (or one neutral person draws for everyone, reading each name aloud - slower, better theatre).
- Record every pairing on the master sheet immediately. Disputes die when the sheet is filled in live.
- Pin the sheet somewhere everyone passes. The kettle is traditional.
Budget 20-30 minutes for a 32-name draw, and cut the strips before people arrive - scissors admin in front of an audience kills the mood. And write the rules on the sheet itself (stake, payout split, withdrawal rule) - see our rules guide for the standard set.
The hybrid: draw digitally, display on paper
This is what most groups actually want. Add everyone to the SlamSweep generator, pull the draw live with the screen visible - it's randomly drawn, so nobody can accuse the organiser of stitching it up - then hit print. You get a clean sheet with every person and their players, ready for the wall, and the share link goes in the group chat for people who want the digital copy too. Two minutes, zero scissors, full ceremony preserved if you scroll the reveal slowly and read the names out.
Making the wall chart work
- Cross out the fallen daily. A thick red line through eliminated players is the whole point of the wall chart. Assign the job to whoever drew the first player out - it keeps them involved.
- Mark the seeds.Circle or star the seeded names so passers-by can see at a glance who's holding gold and who's holding hope.
- Leave a margin for trash talk. Genuinely. A biro-graffiti column turns a results sheet into the most-read document in the building.
- Keep the money off the wall.Who paid what lives on the organiser's copy, not the public one.
The one rule paper can't bend
Whatever medium you use, the draw must be visibly random and recorded immediately. Paper's weakness is the quiet redraw - the strip that goes back in the hat, the sheet rewritten at a desk. If your group has history, draw digitally where the result is locked into the link, then print. Trust is the whole product of a sweepstake; the tennis is just the delivery mechanism.