This feature is only available with the following products:
Note: If you would like this feature enabled, please contact support.
For some golf events, there is more demand to play than available slots. This is common for:
"Play days” at associations,
Weekly Events at clubs with limited tee times,
Member/guest and member/member events at clubs.
Other events/leagues with high demand.
To support a lottery for one or more future events, the Multi-Event Series functionality, in conjunction with the Lottery feature, enables organizations to set up and run lotteries for their events/leagues, assign numbers to people who entered the Lottery, draw the winners, and have a touch of control over the priority assigned to golfers, giving golfers who have not yet played in an event preference in each Lottery. The lottery feature can be utilized for many scenarios, but a couple of common ones are:
Several future events with similar settings (Member Play Days): Consider member play days at an association or a club. Creating a multi-event series makes it easy to set up a set of events with just one statement of parameters and create a lottery to provide a fair opportunity for how many of these events any member can participate in, based on the number they have already played in.
Individual events with high demand (Member/Guest Events): Now consider a member/guest, where we want to prioritize members who did not play in the last couple of member/guest event. In this case, the multi-event series has one future entry, and multiple past entries that are utilized to determine priority for the future event.
The Multi-Event Series functionality, in conjunction with the Lottery feature, enables organizations to set up and run lotteries for their events/leagues, assign numbers to people who entered the Lottery, draw the winners, and have a touch of control over the priority assigned to golfers, giving golfers who have not yet played in an event preference in each Lottery.
In this article, we will discuss in great detail how to set up and manage multi-event series utilizing the Lottery feature. You can also check out the following step-by-step guides to setting up these common use cases:
Club Event (e.g., Member/Guest, Member/Member, etc.): A detailed description of creating a lottery for future event(s) based on participation in past events.
(Coming Soon) Play Days (e.g., association "play days" or weekly club events): A detailed description of creating several future events using the Multi-Event Series feature and a lottery to ensure fair playing opportunities for every golfer.
Lottery Entry Eligibility
The players entering the Lottery must be part of the Master Roster, validate registration (if using GGID Login), and meet the eligibility requirements for the event. Allow players to register for events/league part of a lottery using one of the following methods:
Email and Password
GGID
SSO
This ensures that all the Lottery registrants are eligible to participate in the event.
Multi-Event Series Setup:
The Lottery feature is a part of the Multi-Event Series and can only be used with it. To set up your Multi-Series Event, go to Customer Center > Season Management > Multi-Event Series and click "Create New Multi-Event Series" (as shown below).
For complete details on setting up the Multi-Event Series, Click Here.
Multi-Event Series Summary Page
After completing your setup, you will be directed to the Multi-Event Series Summary page, where you can manage the series and access the primary portal, as well as individual events (as shown below). This page can also be accessed from the Customer Center by going to Season Management > Multi-Event Series and selecting the appropriate series.
Everything for a series can be managed from the summary page. Further, the series typically comprises multiple individual events that share similar setting. Several templates allow you to propagate settings for the following section of Lottery Management:
Lottery Entry Setup/Configuration
Registration Setup
Registration Payments
Tournaments
Note: This article discusses the Lottery template in greater detail. For details about the other templates, please review the Multi-Event Series article.
Multi-Event Series Lottery Entry Setup
To utilize the Lottery feature for any future event part of the series, you must first configure the Lottery Entry Setup template from the Multi-Event Series summary page. This setup will propagate into all future events. Note: Editing this later also propagates the changes in future events. Past events part of a Multi-Event Series will not be changed.
To access and set up your Lottery Entry Setup, follow these directions:
If you are not on the series summary page, select the appropriate series by going to Customer Center > Season Management > Multi-Event Series.
Click "Lottery Entry Setup."
Fill in the following details:
Lottery Entry Dates: Set the open date and the closing date of the Lottery.
Lottery Entrants: Set the parameters for the entrants:
Please indicate the number of players the lottery entrant will register, including themselves: How many players per entrant can be entered into the Lottery for a single entry. This includes the registering member, other members, and guests.
Please select custom field in the Master Roster to validate membership: Additionally, you must select a custom field in the Master Roster to validate membership (for those customers using GGID Login). Note: Master Roster validation is used when a player can access the event league via a GGID Link and is not logged in with email and password or via an SSO link. They will be required to select a member from the master roster and validate their membership based on the information in the selected field.
Lottery Invitation Emails: Set the parameters for invitation email, reminder email, and invitation limit.
Invitation Email: If a player wins the Lottery, they will receive an automated event invitation email from the manager. You can define how long a player has to accept or decline the invitation.
Reminder Email: You can set a reminder email to be sent to players at a specific time before the invitation expires.
Invitation Limit: Set the maximum number of active invitations a player can have open at one time (if applicable). Note: This option influences a golfer's priority. Suppose golfers have more active invitations than the allowed maximum. In that case, they will be placed in a lower priority group, which is determined based on this option and the Golfer Priority options.
Golfer Priority: While the Lottery numbers are assigned randomly, some priority criteria can be configured to offer better chances for golfers who haven’t played in a Lottery event before, aren't registered for another event, or have active invitations open. The following criteria are considered to determine the Priority Groups:
Players who have accepted an invitation to a Lottery event in the past "x" timeframe (e.g., 45 days, six weeks, six months).
Players have already registered for another Lottery event that has not yet occurred.
Players who have an open invitation to accept a Lottery position in another event. You may want a player to be able to have more than one active invitation open. However, when one of the invitations is accepted, the other(s) becomes invalid and open spot(s) for the respective events.
Click "Save & Propagate," and the setting will propagate to each event in the series.
Event Level Lottery Setup:
Each event part of a multi-event series has a dedicated page to manage the Lottery. This page is only visible if the Series level Lottery is set. You can find the event level Lottery setup by going to Event/League > Lottery Entry Setup (as shown below). After making any changes to this page, click "Save" to ensure the adjustments are made.
This page is nearly identical to the template from the Multi-Event Series Summary page with a couple of additions:
Open/Close Lottery: Within the event, you can manually open or close the Lottery for that event.
Sign-Up Dates: Next to the "Lottery Open/Close at:" the exact date the Lottery opens or closes is displayed for more detail.
Invitation Limits: This series feature is not available at the event level.
Note: Any edits in the Lottery Entry Setup Template overwrite the setup made on this page.
Registration Setup:
While the Registration Setup is propagated from the Multi-Event Series, you can still change the registration setup from the Registration Center (Event > Registration Center) for a specific event within the series. Note: If further changes are made to the Multi-Event Series Registration Setup, those changes will overwrite any changes made within an event.
When utilizing the Lottery features, the Registration Center has some specific options available that are not typically otherwise available:
Allow players to search other eligible golfers by the GHIN number, or last name and state, in the registration form: In the Registration Setup Tab, you can allow players to search for other golfers by GHIN number by selecting this option. This lookup method will first search the Master Roster and then GHIN. If the golfer is first found in the Master Roster, we will load the data from there. Otherwise, we will perform the GHIN lookup. Eligibility Criteria of Member of Association, Handicap Index, Age, and Gender will still be applied.
Registration Dates: On the Registration Dates Tab, the following options will be available (as shown below):
Registration Opens: The Registration Opens date can factor in the Lottery dates as follows:
"X" days before the first round for each event at a specific time: This option allows you to open registration on a set number of days before the event's first round. Note: If you are using the Lottery, we suggest using the following option ("X" days after the Lottery closes for each event at a specific time), as this option does not consider the Lottery closing date. Therefore, it is up to you to be careful about potential conflicts caused by choosing this option. For example, if your Lottery closes two weeks before the event, set the registration to open no earlier than 13 days before the event's first round. If you choose a number of days before that might conflict with the Lottery, you can make adjustments in the event if necessary.
"X" days after the Lottery closes for each event at a specific time: This considers the Lottery closing date and can be configured to open the registration a certain number of days after the Lottery closes. This option allows you to leave a buffer between the time the Lottery closes and registration opens so you have time to run the Lottery and extract the winners.
When the Lottery closes for each event (This option is selected by default.): This takes into account the Lottery closing date, and it will automatically open the registration for each event as soon as the event’s Lottery closes.
Registration Closes: The Registration Closes date can factor in the Lottery dates as follows:
"X" days before the first round for each event at a specific time: This option does not consider the Lottery but when the event starts. It allows you to leave a buffer between the time the event starts and registration closes so you have time to set up the event.
"X" days after the Lottery closes for each event at a specific time: This considers the Lottery closing date and can be configured to close the registration a certain number of days after the Lottery closes.
Specific Time (This option is selected by default.): Pick a particular time that registration closes for each event. Use caution when choosing this option, as you may want all event registration close dates to differ.
Note: Only Lottery winners can register for the event using the Lottery feature.
Player Lottery Registration:
Players from the Master Roster can register for a Multi-Event Series from the series portal page or the event portal. On the event portal page, they can enter the Lottery for the specific event and access other events in the series to enter lotteries for those events (as shown below).
After selecting the option to enter the Lottery for an event, golfers can choose "New Lottery Entry" to create a new entry or edit existing entries by clicking "Edit Lottery Entry" (as shown below).
For more details about the series portal page, Click Here.
If using GGID Login, an additional validation step is performed before redirecting to the registration form. Upon clicking New/Edit Lottery Entry, the user will be asked to select the member they want to sign up for and validate their membership based on the custom field configured in the Lottery Entry Setup.
Manage Lottery:
As golfers enter the Lottery, they will be displayed on the Manage Lottery page within an event. You can access this page by going to Golfers > Manage Lottery (as shown below). This page allows managers to see Lottery entries, assign Lottery numbers, draw the winners, send invitation and reminder emails, and track the invitation's status.
You will see two tabs on this page (Each tab is discussed in greater detail below):
Lottery: From the Lottery tab, you can see all the golfers who have signed up for the Lottery, assign random Lottery numbers, select winners, and manually move entrants to the Invitation List.
Invitation List: The Invitation List tab shows the golfers who have won the Lottery and allows you to send invitations and reminder emails.
Lottery Tab:
The primary purpose of this tab is to assign random Lottery numbers to entrants, select the winners, and move them to the Invitation List. The following list the details shown and actions that can be taken in the Lottery tab:
Golfers List: A list of all golfers registered to the Lottery will be displayed on the Lottery tab with the following details:
Checkbox: You can select a golfer to be moved to the Invitation List.
Lottery Number: Displayed once a Lottery number has been assigned.
Entrant Name
Email Address
Lottery Entry Date
Reserved Spots: The total number of players per Lottery entry.
Cumulative Spots: The total number of spots added row by row based on the sort order. Note: This list will only be sorted by entry date or Lottery number.
Assign Priority Groups: Once the Lottery has closed, you can assign randomized Lottery numbers to golfers with considerations based on the Golfer Priority rules.
Select Golfers: You can select a specific number of golfers or all. You can also unselect all. This feature is useful when moving winners to the Invitation List.
Golfer(s) Selected: After selecting golfers, this number represents the number of selected golfers calculated based on the "Reserved Spots" for each golfer selected.
Move selected golfers to Invitation List: After choosing the winning golfers, click "Go," and they will be moved to the Invitation List.
Remaining Invitation Spot(s): This is the total number of invitation spots available minus the number of golfers moved to the Invitation List.
Search: Search golfers by name or email address.
Invitation List:
This tab's primary purpose is to send invitations and reminder emails and view a golfer's invitation status (as shown below).
The following list details shown and actions that can be taken in the Invitation List tab:
Golfers List: A list of all golfers on the Invitation List will be displayed on the Invitation List tab with the following details:
Checkbox: You can select a golfer to be moved to the Invitation List.
Lottery Number: Displayed once a Lottery number has been assigned.
Entrant Name
Email Address
Invitation Status: Status of the invitation email (i.e., Not Sent, Sent, Accepted, Declined)
Reserved Spots: The total number of players per Lottery entry.
Spots Accepted: How many players have been registered to the event for the invitation.
Cumulative Spots Accepted: The total number of spots accepted, added row by row based on the sort order.
Invitation Expiration: The date when the golfer's invitation expires. This is computed based on configurations made in the Lottery Entry Setup.
Actions: The following actions can be taken on an entry:
Move to Lottery Tab: Move entry back to the Lottery Tab.
Cancel Invitation: Cancel the entry invitation and move the entry back to the Lottery Tab.
Select Golfers: You can select a specific number of golfers or all golfers. Further, you can unselect all. This feature is useful when selecting entries to send invitations and reminder emails.
Golfer(s) Selected: After selecting golfers, this number represents the number of selected golfers calculated based on the "Reserved Spots" for each golfer selected.
Send Email: After selecting entries, click "Send Email," and an email invitation will be sent. Note: For more details on sending invitation emails, refer to the section later in this article.
Remaining Invitation Spot(s): This is the total number of invitation spots available minus the number of golfers moved to the Invitation List.
Search: Search golfers by name or email address.
Assigning Priority Groups and Lottery Numbers:
Once the Lottery has closed, golfers can no longer enter, and Lottery numbers and priority groups can be assigned.
When assigning Lottery numbers and priority groups, the following will determine the ordering of how priority and Lottery numbers are assigned:
Priority groups will be assigned based on your Golfer Priority setting from the Lottery Entry Setup. They will be numbered and sorted from lowest to highest.
Once priority groups are filled, each player is randomized within their priority group.
Lottery numbers are then assigned in order, with the lowest priority group getting Lottery numbers first. Players in the later priority groups are also given a Lottery number in succeeding order after the last number of the prior priority group.
To assign your priority groups and Lottery numbers, follow these directions:
Within the event, go to Golfers > Manage Lottery.
Click "Assign Priority Groups."
In the pop-up, you will confirm you want to assign priority groups by clicking "Assign Priority Groups." Additionally, you will have the option to "Disable the button after this instance." When checking this option, the "Assign Priority Groups" button will no longer be displayed on the "Manage Lottery" page, and you will not be able to rerun priority group assignments.
Entrants will be grouped according to the Golfer Priority rules set for the series/event and given a Lottery number.
On the "Manager Lottery" page, each entry will be assigned a "Lottery Number" and filled into a Priority Group. Further, entrants will be sorted by Lottery number (as shown below).
Note: Hover your mouse over the info icon to see why a player was placed in a particular priority group (as shown below).
Drawing Lottery Winners:
After the Lottery has been drawn, you can add golfers to your Lottery Invitation List. Note: This Invitation List is not the same as your registration Invitation List. To move golfers to your Lottery Invitation List, follow these directions:
Use the checkboxes or selection feature (as shown below) to select entrants up to your player limit. You can always select more or less than your limit and return later to move more entrants to the Invitation List.
After selecting entrants, click "Go," and the entries are moved to the Invitation List (as shown below).
Sending Registration Invitation Emails to the Invitation List:
After adding entrants to the Invitation List, you will want to send them invitation emails to register for the event. When sending the initial registration email, you can also schedule a reminder email for the recipient. To send a registration email, follow these directions:
Within the event, go to Golfers > Manage Lottery > Invitation List.
Select the golfers you wish to email using the checkboxes or selection feature.
Click "Send Email."
In the pop-up (as shown below), set the following:
Define when the invitation expires: Enter a numerical value and use the drop-down to select the period (e.g., Hours, Days, Weeks, Months).
Set when a Reminder Email should be sent: Enter a numerical value and use the drop-down to select the period (e.g., Hours, Days, Weeks, Months) when the reminder should be sent after the initial invitation.
If you wish to save the selection, check the box for "Save Selections," the selection will override anything set previously (as shown below).
Click "Go," and the emails will be sent. You can also see the status of the invitation on the Invitation List page (as shown below).
Note: If you'd like to customize the messages in these emails, you can do that from the Email Configuration page. For more details on configuring emails, Click Here.
Reminder Emails:
Reminder emails will automatically be sent if enabled when sending the invitation email. You can also manually send a reminder email from the Invitation List. To manually send a reminder email, follow these directions:
Within the event, go to Golfers > Manage Lottery > Invitation List.
Select the golfers to email a reminder using the checkboxes or selection feature.
Click "Send Email."
In the pop-up, take the following actions:
Only selecting entrants that have previously been sent an invitation: Click "Go" (as shown below) and they will receive a reminder email. Note: The expiration date of the initial invitation will not be modified.
Selecting entrants that have and have not previously been sent an invitation: Define the invitation expiration and reminder email for those new entrants (as shown below). Click "Go," and reminder emails will be sent to entrants who have already been invited, and an invitation email will be sent to new entrants.
Event Registration Flows:
When a player receives an event invitation, several scenarios could play out:
They can decline the invitation
They can take no action on the invitation, and the invitation expires
They can accept the invitation. The other scenarios can also happen when accepting an invitation:
If you have enabled the Golfer Priority option, "If players have more than one active invitation open, once one of the invitations has been accepted, the other(s) become invalid." If they accept another open invitation, all other invitations will become invalid.
A golfer only registers for a portion of their reserved spots.
The email includes buttons to accept or decline the invitation (as shown below). It also includes language about when the invitation expires and what happens if the invitation expires.
Declining Invitation:
When a player declines the invitation, the player forfeits the position. After a player clicks decline in the email, they are taken to the portal, where they are asked again to confirm their choice of declining the invitation (as shown below).
After the player declines the invitation, the golfers invitation status will be marked as "Decline" on the Invitation List on the Manage Lottery page (Golfers > Manage Lottery > Invitation List) (as shown below).
Note: You will also notice that the remaining invitation Spot(s) has increased. This indicates that you should add more Lottery winners from the Lottery tab to the Invitation List tab and send new invitation emails.
Invitation Expires:
When a golfer's invitation expires, the player forfeits the position. Also, the golfer's invitation status will be marked as "Expired" on the Invitation List on the Manage Lottery page (Golfers > Manage Lottery > Invitation List) (as shown below).
Note: You will also notice that the remaining invitation Spot(s) has increased. This indicates that you should take one of two actions:
Resend the invitation to the individual; or
Add more Lottery winners from the Lottery tab to the Invitation List tab and send new invitation emails.
Accepting Invitation:
When a player accepts an invitation, they are taken to the registration page for the event (as shown below). They can complete their player information and add additional players if allowed.
After a player completes their registration, their invitation status will be set to "Accepted." The Invitation List tab on the Manage Lottery page displays the total number of spots accepted (as shown below).
Further, these golfers will be added to the event roster, and no additional action can be taken on their Lottery invitation.
Accept Another Open Invitation:
If a player has multiple invitations open for the same series and you have enabled the Golfer Priority option, "If players have more than one active invitation open, once one of the invitations has been accepted, the other(s) becomes invalid." When a player accepts the invitation for one event, the player forfeits the position for the other events.
When a player accepts an invitation to one of the events that has an invitation open, they are taken to the registration page for the event they plan to accept the invitation (as shown below). They are informed that by registering for this event, they will decline the invitation(s) for other events (as shown below).
After a player completes registration for one event, their invitation status will be set to "Accepted. " The Invitation List tab on the Manage Lottery page displays the total number of spots accepted (as shown below).
It should be noted that in the other event(s), their invitation status will be set to "Declined" in the Invitation List on the Manage Lottery page (Golfers > Manage Lottery > Invitation List) (as shown below).
Note: You will also notice that the remaining invitation Spot(s) has increased. This indicates that you should add more Lottery winners from the Lottery tab to the Invitation List tab and send new invitation emails.
Accepting a Portion of the Reserved Spots:
Similar to when a player accepts an invitation, they are taken to the registration page for the event and asked to complete their player information and add additional players, if allowed. If a player enters the Lottery for four players but only registers two players, they forfeit the two unregistered positions. When registering and after filling out player information, they will be informed and asked to confirm they understand that they cannot come back and add additional players to their registration (as shown below).
After a player completes their registration, their invitation status will be set to "Accepted." The Invitation List tab on the Manage Lottery page displays the total number of spots accepted (as shown below). For example, as seen in the graphic below, Patrick accepted only two of the four spots he reserved when signing up for the Lottery.
Note: You will also notice that the remaining invitation Spot(s) has increased. This indicates that you should add more Lottery winners from the Lottery tab to the Invitation List tab and send new invitation emails.
Activity Logs:
Since the activity for a Lottery is scrutinized, you can find a Lottery Log tab in the Activity Log (Event/League > Activity Log). Each log will contain:
Date/Time of the Change
Name of the activity
Who made the change
