Nineteen days after an online raffle created a ticket-buying frenzy that resulted in a myriad of problems, the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation will finally draw the winning ticket Wednesday.
The winning ticket from the Friday, Aug. 7 online 50/50 raffle will be drawn at 4 p.m. MT (6 p.m. ET) at the Oilers Entertainment Group headquarters in Edmonton, the foundation announced Tuesday.
The winning number will be posted on Twitter and at EdmontonOilers.com/5050.
🚨 50/50 UPDATE 🚨<br><br>The winning ticket for the Friday, Aug. 7 <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oilers?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Oilers</a> online 50/50 raffle will be drawn at 4pm MDT on Wednesday, Aug. 26 at OEG headquarters.<br><br>We will post the winning number right here on Twitter as well as on <a href=”https://t.co/RB9s6fMDKT”>https://t.co/RB9s6fMDKT</a>. <a href=”https://t.co/FwJYYUzX7x”>pic.twitter.com/FwJYYUzX7x</a>
—@Oil_Foundation
The 50/50 was scheduled for the Aug. 7 matchup between the Oilers and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Oilers lost and were eliminated from the series.
Online sales quickly grew to $15.2 million — a world record for sports 50/50 draws — but the servers were overwhelmed by purchase requests.
Buyers were met with slow loading times, geo-location issues and error messages. Many who tried to repurchase tickets reported being charged multiple times for the subsequent attempts.
Last week, the foundation said the final pot for the record-setting raffle will be $14.3 million. The organization refunded about $900,000 to make up for technical glitches during the sales.
Wednesday’s winner will walk away with half the pot. The rest will go to organizations in the community.
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