raffleWP v1.3.0 is now available, bringing new tools for planning, launching and running a WordPress competition website—from checking your first competition to collecting winner details and preparing your next campaign.
If you are launching your first competition site, there is plenty to organise around the tickets themselves. You need to understand the costs, test the customer journey, prepare promotional material and decide how prizes will reach their winners. This release brings more of that work into raffleWP.
Included with your existing licence. The new launch, planning, starter-kit, claims, results and promotion tools are included in both Single Site and Unlimited Sites licences. There is no separate feature tier to purchase.
1. A clearer route to your first launch
The new Launch checklist sits on the raffleWP dashboard. Select a competition to see its readiness checks alongside the site settings that matter before opening entries, with direct links to outstanding actions.
It checks entry settings, ticket limits, bundles, dates, timezone, terms links, email configuration and recent successful scheduled maintenance. A task being scheduled is no longer enough to show that it is healthy.
You can preview the actual competition page at mobile, tablet and desktop sizes, then send labelled sample ticket and winner emails. The samples do not create orders, allocate tickets or issue credit. You confirm inbox receipt and a gateway test purchase yourself; relevant settings changes invalidate earlier confirmations.
Follow the Launch checklist guide.
2. Plan prize costs and break-even before selling tickets
The competition cost and profit planner helps you assess a competition before committing to its launch. Enter the actual prize purchase cost, instant-prize budget, delivery, advertising and other costs privately for that competition. Advertised RRP stays separate from what you actually paid.
Compare projected revenue, estimated fees and profit at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of saleable capacity, or enter your own percentage. Confirmed postal entries reduce the capacity available for paid sales.
Set an expected mix of valid order quantities and configured bundles to see how discounts and fixed payment fees affect the forecast. The planner shows the tickets and percentage sold needed to break even—and says when that target cannot be reached within capacity. These are estimates based on your inputs, not guaranteed returns.
Explore the competition cost planner.
3. Starter pages and reusable competition presets
The optional Clean and Bold starter packs provide Home, How to Enter and Winners and Results layouts using native WordPress and raffleWP blocks. Preview each layout and create only the pages you want as drafts.
The pages inherit your theme’s branding. Existing pages, menus, homepage settings and global styles stay in place, and repeating the action opens the page you already created.
For repeat competitions, save a preset or choose Create another like this. Reuse content, images, pricing, bundles, entry settings, instant prizes, fulfilment choices and planning inputs. Every copy starts as a draft with dates cleared and ticket availability reset. Entries, orders, awards, winners, claims and campaign links are excluded. WooCommerce’s standard raffle duplication receives the same cleanup.
See the starter page options or learn about competition presets.
4. Keep winner claims and prize fulfilment organised
The new Claims and fulfilment area in Prize Awards gives you a place to collect winner details and track outstanding work. Registered winners can use My Account; guest and postal winners can claim through secure email links.
Automatic claim invitations are opt-in for each competition, and administrators can invite existing pending winners. Links expire after seven days and are replaced on resend. An expired link does not cancel the prize.
Physical-prize claims collect delivery details. Track progress through Awaiting details → Submitted → Dispatched → Completed, with dispatch reserved for physical prizes. Record tracking information and let winners confirm receipt. Claims awaiting details after 14 days are flagged for attention.
Cash payouts and voucher delivery remain manual. Existing automatic site credit continues through its own workflow.
Read the winner claims and fulfilment guide.
5. Publish approved results and winner stories
A manual or random draw now prepares a draft detailed result for review. Approve it to publish a permanent page showing the competition and prize, closing and selection dates, confirmed entry total, winning tickets and masked winner names.
Add an optional replay link and use the new Draw Results block to display approved results. Selection methods are recorded per winner, including mixed manual and random draws. Winner changes return the affected detailed result to review.
Winner testimonials and photos need recorded consent and publication approval. Their consent choices are separate and unchecked by default; administrators add photos they have permission to use. Withdrawal removes the story or photo from raffleWP displays and future artwork exports. Existing basic winner displays keep their behaviour.
See how results and winner stories are approved.
6. Prepare branded competition promotion
Open Promote to create launch, closing-soon or approved-winner artwork using your product imagery, logo, brand colours, ticket price and draw date. Edit the headline, preview the result and download a PNG:
- Square: 1080 × 1080 pixels.
- Portrait: 1080 × 1350 pixels.
- Story: 1080 × 1920 pixels.
Graphics are generated in your browser, with text fitting and readable fallbacks for unavailable images or fonts. No external image-generation subscription is required. The kit also provides editable announcement copy and named campaign links; you choose when and where to post.
Campaign reports use WooCommerce order attribution to show attributed paid orders, net tickets and refund-adjusted raffle revenue excluding tax. They respect attribution and consent settings and label missing data. These are order reports, not visitor or click analytics. Winner artwork uses only approved results and consented story content.
Explore the competition promotion kit.
Smaller changes that help day to day
- Entrant exports for draws: export names, order numbers and ticket numbers from the dashboard. The filename includes the competition name and draw date.
- Manual winner search: start typing a name to find someone who entered the completed competition and record the selected winning entry.
- Improved responsive entry panels: bundle cards stay centred, desktop cards are more compact, mobile text is smaller and the draw countdown fits smaller spaces better.
- Clearer reporting: refunds are deducted, tax is separated from revenue and estimated transaction fees are allocated proportionally across mixed orders. Original-payment fee estimates remain after refunds.
Updating to raffleWP v1.3.0
Back up your site and database, then test the update on staging where possible. With an active, activated licence, use the normal WordPress plugin update controls. You can also download the package from your raffleWP account and replace the existing plugin through the WordPress uploader.
Updating does not create starter pages, invite historical winners or publish old results automatically. Choose the new tools when you are ready to use them. Start with one competition, enter its costs and work through the Launch checklist before your next promotion.
Do I need to change my theme or buy another plan?
No. The new tools are included in the existing raffleWP licence, and starter pages are optional. Use your current theme and the features that suit your site. Compare Single Site and Unlimited Sites if you are choosing a licence for the first time.
Explore the complete raffleWP feature set or follow the first-competition setup guide to get started.