Setting up a sweepstake: featured events, sports and your own

Everything starts from Competitions → New competition. The dialog has three tabs.

Featured events

These are events we've set up for you — at the moment that includes Strictly Come Dancing 2026. Each card shows the dates and one of three labels:

• Field ready — the competitors are published and will be added automatically.
• Draw due shortly — the field is about to be confirmed.
• Field confirmed nearer the time — you can create the competition now and the competitors will appear on their own once they're announced.

Pick one and the name, sport and format are filled in. You can rename it afterwards.

Find by sport

Choose a Sport, then search for the Event. Sports are grouped into Live results (football and tennis, where scores and knockouts update automatically) and Manual scoring (everything else — you enter results yourself on the Results tab). Where the provider has the teams or players, we pre-fill the name and the field for you.

Something else

For anything that isn't a listed tournament: a works darts night, a fantasy league, the office bake-off. Choose a sport (or Other and type what it is), then a format.

Choosing a format

The format decides the rounds a competitor can be knocked out in, and so how points are scored. You can't change it later, so it's worth a moment:

Entry fee

Entry fee (£) is tracked only — SweepSquad never handles the money.

Leave it at 0 for a free sweepstake. Free entry means remote and multi-site colleagues can join.

If you set a fee, you'll be asked to confirm three things: that everyone paying works at the same premises and is 18 or over, that no profit is taken, and that you'll collect and hold the pot yourself. Those reflect the UK rules for sweepstakes at work — here's the plain-English version.

After you press Create competition

Linked competitions open on the Live tab; others stay on your list. If the field isn't published yet you'll see a note saying we'll import it automatically, and a Check now button on the competition.

We'll also email you a short guide for the type of sweepstake you've just made, and add it to your notifications. You can turn those guide emails off if you'd rather not have them.

The sport and format are fixed once the competition exists. The name isn't — use Rename on the Overview tab.