Advertisement

Edmonton Oilers to draw delayed 50/50 number on Wednesday

Click to play video: 'Edmonton Oilers expect to draw delayed 50/50 number next week'
Edmonton Oilers expect to draw delayed 50/50 number next week
WATCH: After being delayed for more than two weeks, the Edmonton Oilers said the winning 50/50 number from the Aug. 7 draw should be drawn next week. Morgan Black has the details. (Aired Aug. 21) – Aug 21, 2020

After being delayed for more than two weeks, the Edmonton Oilers said the winning 50/50 number from the Aug. 7 draw will be drawn on Wednesday.

The draw will happen at 4 p.m. locally, at the Oilers Entertainment Group’s office at Rogers Place.

The numbers will be posted to the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation’s website and to its Twitter account, the organization announced Tuesday afternoon.

The winner will have exactly three business days to present the winning ticket, by contacting the 50/50 office at 5050@edmontonoilers.com and forwarding their purchase e-mail and a copy of their government-issued photo identification and address.

Story continues below advertisement

According to an update on the club’s website last week, the last few weeks has been spent auditing and finalizing the refund and confirmation lists in an effort to make sure the final list of participants in the draw is accurate.

“Although it has been a very time-consuming process, it was very important that we do this to ensure the integrity of the raffle,” Natalie Minkler, executive director of Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation, said on Friday.

Click to play video: 'Oilers 50/50 draw delayed until refunds can be issued'
Oilers 50/50 draw delayed until refunds can be issued

Issues with the draw caused some fans to end up with multiple purchases. A number of fans told Global News they ended up with tickets even though the site crashed before a confirmation screen appeared.

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

On Aug. 10, the Oilers announced it would be offering refunds.

“After refunds are processed and dollars are deposited back into the accounts of those customers who asked for refunds, we will be in a position to draw the winning number, which we expect will happen early to mid-next week,” the club said Friday.

Story continues below advertisement

Ascend Fundraising Solutions is the company that ran the online raffle. Its CEO Daniel Lewis said the process was so time-consuming because each time they identified a fan who wanted a refund, his team would void the tickets and then stop and audit the list again.

Once all the refund requests were filled, Lewis said they audited the list one final time and then instructed their processing agent to refund about 12,800 transactions. That equalled about $800,080 worth of proceeds, he said.

“The delay was necessary to preserve the reputation and integrity of the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation.”

The Aug. 7 draw closed with a jackpot of more than $15 million. After refunds, the club said it expects the raffle to be around $14.3 million. The winner will take home half of the pot while the other half will go to the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation.

Click to play video: 'Edmonton charities benefiting from Oilers 50/50 frenzy'
Edmonton charities benefiting from Oilers 50/50 frenzy

Lewis said the record-breaking jackpot is about 700 per cent bigger than the largest sports raffle in 2019.

Story continues below advertisement

“So we are still at extraordinary numbers.”

The frenzy for the online 50/50 was swift as the first draw reached $762,550. The draw on Aug. 3 broke the record for a sports 50/50 as it hit $3,259,445. That record was broken again on Aug. 5 with a $5,417,130 jackpot.

All in all, the online 50/50 raised more than $23 million. Half of that will go to charities and organizations.

“We do know there’s been many organizations and many groups in our community who have been really impacted negatively by COVID-19 and so, the need is great and we have these dollars available to our community foundation to now reinvest back into northern Alberta,” Minkler said.

It seems this won’t be the last online 50/50 the Oilers will host either, according to Minkler. She said the foundation is planning on adding it to their fundraising toolbox.

“I think people are excited to participate, we’ve seen that across the entire province. We’re just very, very grateful and humbled by the support we have received throughout our online 50/50.”

Lewis said it would take about two to three business days to make sure those who wanted refunds received them on their bank statement.

Story continues below advertisement

After that, they said the AGLC would reviewed Ascend’s process and protocols. Once given the green light, the ECOF would draw the winning number.

— With files from Karen Bartko, Global News

Sponsored content

AdChoices