Engagement Technique: Sweepstakes
Did someone say there was a World Cup starting soon? Better get your sweepstake started.
Ok, this one isn’t going to take a disengaged team to a high performing highly engaged unit, but it’s a nice way to involve people across the business over a decent period of time, and bring a bit of friendly competition with randomly selected people. Plus it now works for teams of 48!
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How it works
Everyone who wants to take part gets randomly assigned a team in the tournament. You can:
- Charge a small entry fee and create a prize pot
- Run it purely for fun
- Or donate proceeds to charity
Then let the tournament do the work. People suddenly become emotionally invested in countries they’d never normally support, which is half the fun.
This post was created close to the World Cup 2026, however, you can always broaden it beyond football too: Eurovision, Bake Off finals, Formula 1, The Apprentice – Even internal company events.
Easy ways to make it more engaging
You can keep it very simple, or add a few extras:
- Ask people to decorate their desk with their team colours
- Encourage people to bring in snacks or treats connected to their country
- Run themed lunch breaks for major games
- Have prediction contests for big matches
The key is to keep it light-hearted and inclusive.
Avoid leaning too heavily into stereotypes or anything that could drift into cultural appropriation.
The goal is shared fun, not caricatures. Sport naturally creates conversation, shared moments, friendly competition, cross-team interaction. Because sweepstakes are random, they mix people together in unexpected ways. Someone from Finance suddenly celebrating with Marketing because Morocco made it through the group stage is exactly the kind of small connection that improves workplace atmosphere.
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What to watch out for
Not much to worry about other than: Keep gambling elements small and optional, make participation voluntary, be mindful that not everyone follows football or sport, and – unlikely – but don’t let rivalry become exclusionary or overly competitive.
World Cup Sweepstake Kits
You can get a world cup sweepstake kit from one of the following sources (none of these are sponsored, others are readily available online):
- Yahoo / Telegraph (PDF / Printable)
- Online Sweepstake Generator
- Buy one online (links to Amazon search)
- Link below for the wallchart pictured:
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The Takeaway
The Office Sweepstake won’t transform company culture on its own. But engagement is often built through small shared moments.
A reason to talk to someone new, and the collective heartbreak of your randomly assigned team getting knocked out on penalties can go a surprisingly long way.
This post is part of our Engagement Techniques series of practical, low-cost ideas to bring more connection and meaning into work. Find the rest here
👉 Want to explore techniques like this in more depth? I run interactive employee engagement workshops where we bring these ideas to life.