Online Duck Race
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What is an Online Duck Race?

A virtual duck race runs on the internet, no plastic ducks are required therefore it’s environmentally friendly and sustainable. It costs £39 to setup which includes a unique webpage and an easy to understand admin area that controls the race.

The Duck Race runs on The Balloon Race platform, there are some references to balloons but we’re slowly working on making it mostly ducks.

When setting up a race you’ll be asked for a start and finish date, most races run for 7 days. Plan your start date at least 3 or 4 weeks into the future to allow time to sell your balloons. You can start selling ducks immediately after setup. Ducks are usually sold for between £3-£5. As your sales build, ducks are added to your leaderboard but remain on 0km. When the race starts the ducks move a random distance every hour until the finish date. The movement is calculated by an algorithm which guarantees a close finish with no runaway leader.

What to Offer for Prizes

Your prizes will be the greatest expense, Amazon vouchers work well as they can be emailed to winners. The race is online so you can have entries nationally therefore being able to email prizes keeps costs down. A £30 voucher for 1st prize is most popular but this will depend on the number of balloons you’re expecting to sell.

Your Admin Area

The admin area controls your race and is password protected. Features include:

Payment Options for your balloons

1) Intergrated Card Payments

Your admin area has card payments activated by default. With this option sales are taken care of automatically for a 12% fee. Everything is automated, share your homepage URL and sales will take care of themselves. The sales total displays via a dashboard in admin. The race offers free postal entry. This is clear and easy to find and a legal requirement for every race. If you sell balloons from other locations you’ll need to advertise that free postal entry is available.

If a balloon is setup and payment fails the balloon will display as inactive in your admin area.

2) Cash Payments

Take face to face cash payments and add the balloons manually or by CSV upload. There’s no limit to the number of balloons you can add.

3) Your Website

Use your own platform and upload entries with a CSV. Again unlimited balloons available but it does take time to build a form to collect the correct data.

Data required:

3) Donation Websites

Donation websites are amazing, especially if they include gift aid. The pitfalls are their limited customisation, usually they only allow a DONATE button. Take advantage of your balloon registration page by changing your balloon price to £0 then request payment with a donation link from your text area. This option clearly displays free postal entry which is a legal requirement.