Calculators
50/50 draw odds: your chance at hockey and charity draws
Enter how many tickets were sold and how many you hold. The calculator shows your chance of winning a 50/50 draw and what each dollar returns on average.
Each dot is 60 tickets. Yours fill 17% of one dot.
At a prize of $60,000, your tickets are worth $10.00 on average for the $20.00 you paid: about $0.50 back per dollar. The rest is not lost: a 50/50 splits the money between the winner and the cause it raises funds for.
| Bundle | Per ticket | Chance | Per $1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 for $10 | $3.33 | 1 in 20,000 | $0.30 |
| 10 for $20 | $2.00 | 1 in 6,000 | $0.50 |
| 50 for $50 | $1.00 | 1 in 1,200 | $1.00 |
Bigger bundles buy more chance per dollar, but every dollar still has the same split. The prize grows until the draw, so these numbers change as sales go on.
Ticket bundles to compare
How it is calculated
Every ticket in the drum has the same chance, so with k of N tickets your chance is k ÷ N – «1 in N ÷ k».
Average value of your tickets = prize × k ÷ N. When all tickets cost the same, this is the prize share of what you paid – half, in a 50/50 that pays out half of sales.
Chance of winning a 50/50 draw
Chance = your tickets ÷ total tickets sold
Example: 5 tickets out of 10,000 sold = 0.05%, or 1 in 2,000.
One draw, worked through
Your chance
1 in 2,000You hold 5 tickets at $10 each ($50 in total) out of 10,000 sold. That is 0.05%.
The prize
$50,000Sales reach $100,000. In this example the prize is 50% of sales. The organiser keeps the rest, and the split depends on the draw's rules.
Expected prize
$25.000.05% × $50,000. If you played this same draw many times with 5 tickets, you would win $25.00 per draw on average, for $50 spent each time.
Return per dollar
$0.50Each dollar returns this on average. The total sold does not change it, because the prize is a share of sales.
One ticket vs a bundle
One ticket
- Chance: 0.01% with 10,000 sold
- Costs $10
- Returns $0.50 per dollar on average
Bundle of tickets
- Chance: 0.05% with 5 tickets
- Costs $50
- Same price per ticket: still $0.50 per dollar
- Cheaper per ticket: more tickets per dollar, average return above $0.50 per dollar
Words on the ticket
- Tickets sold
- All tickets in the draw, including yours. You know the final number only when sales close.
- Prize share
- The part of total sales paid to the winner. In this example it is 50%.
- Expected value
- Average result over many draws: chance × prize. Try the expected value calculator.
Questions
What are the odds of winning a 50/50 draw?
Divide your tickets by the total tickets sold. With 5 tickets out of 10,000, the chance is 0.05%, or 1 in 2,000. The final odds are known only when sales close.
Do more tickets improve my 50/50 odds?
Each ticket adds to your chance, and each ticket adds to your cost. At the same price per ticket, the average return stays $0.50 per dollar.
Why do my odds drop as the game goes on?
Every ticket sold after yours adds to the total, so your share gets smaller while the prize grows. The average return per dollar stays the same.
Are 50/50 winnings taxable in Canada?
See our taxes page for the general rules on gambling and lottery winnings. This page is not tax advice. Check with a tax professional for your own case.
Is a 50/50 draw like a football squares pool?
No. In a 50/50 draw every ticket has an equal chance. In squares, your chance depends on the digits of your squares, because some final score digits come up more often. See squares odds.