When should you draw: before or after the semi-finals?
Eurovision's only structural wrinkle is that the field shrinks during the week: two semi-finals decide who joins the automatic qualifiers in Saturday's grand final of around 26 countries.
The clean option is to draw after the second semi-final, from the confirmed grand final line-up - every pick performs on the night. The livelier option is to draw the full participant list earlier in the week, so semi-final night matters too; if you do, agree the rule for eliminated countries up front - bad luck is traditional, a token consolation is kinder.
What counts as winning
The official grand final scoreboard settles it - jury points and televote combined, exactly as shown on screen at the end of the night. Whoever holds the winning country takes the pot, and there is never a tiebreak argument because the contest ranks every finalist.
Scoreboard prizes that make the voting watchable
Eurovision's scoring sequence is half the show, and it hands you side prizes no other event can offer:
- The wooden spoon: last on the scoreboard. In a contest this unpredictable, it is a genuine second race.
- First douze points: the holder of the first country to receive the maximum 12 from a national jury wins a token prize minutes into the voting.
- Best of the automatic qualifiers: a bonus for the highest-placed of the pre-qualified countries, which are often mid-table - it keeps their holders invested.
- Televote versus jury: a small prize for the country with the biggest gap between public and jury love. The night's best argument-starter.
Make it a watch party fixture
Eurovision sweepstakes thrive on theatre: announce the draw results at the start of the party, and let each holder champion their country for the evening - flags, snacks and national drinks optional but traditional. It also runs beautifully without money: play for a forfeit or bragging rights, and the draw and rules work exactly the same.
When you do run it with a pot, the usual rules apply - everything paid out, organiser takes nothing. SweepstakeDraw's Eurovision draw assigns every country once in a locked random shuffle: free for up to 3 players, £1.99 one-off for the full field.