Fairness & Draw Verification

This page explains how Raffio draws winners — and, crucially, how anyone can independently check that a draw was fair, without having to trust us. The randomness for competition draws comes from RANDOM.ORG, an independent third-party service. Raffio uses RANDOM.ORG's Third-Party Draw Service: RANDOM.ORG itself selects the winning ticket from the full entry list and publishes an official public record of the draw on its own site. Each competition's own verification page states the exact mechanism used for its draw.

Draw Process

When a competition closes, the draw runs automatically after the closing date and time, over all valid entries received before closure. At draw time Raffio uploads the complete list of ticket numbers to RANDOM.ORG, which selects the winning ticket itself — Raffio does not generate the random result at all. RANDOM.ORG publishes an official public record of the draw showing the full entry list and the winning number, and the record's title names the competition's draw reference together with a fingerprint (hash) of the exact entry pool, so the record is bound to the precise set of tickets it was held over.

The result is that:

• Every valid ticket has an equal chance in the draw
• The randomness comes from an independent source Raffio cannot control or re-roll
• The result can be independently checked against RANDOM.ORG's official draw record
• Draws occur only after entry closure, not before

Every competition has its own dedicated verification page showing the evidence for its draw: it explains the mechanism before the draw and, for a draw conducted by RANDOM.ORG's Third-Party Draw Service, links the official RANDOM.ORG record after it. You can see all past draws, each linking to its evidence, on the Results page.

Platform Control

Raffio operates draw systems independently from hosts. Hosts cannot:

• Select winners or influence the outcome
• Control draw timing or access draw mechanisms
• View or modify the selection process

All draw processes are platform-controlled and transparent. These processes are designed so that outcomes are determined fairly and are not influenced by hosts or any third party.

Verification and Records

Each competition's verification page publishes everything needed to check the draw independently. A verifier can confirm:

• The official record — the verification page links to RANDOM.ORG's own public record of the draw, hosted on their site, showing the entry list and the winning ticket number. That record's availability and retention are governed by RANDOM.ORG; Raffio's own verification page and stored evidence do not depend on it.
• Pool binding — the record's title embeds the competition's draw reference and a fingerprint (hash) of the exact entry pool, so RANDOM.ORG's record itself names the set of tickets the draw was held over.
• The result — the winning ticket number on RANDOM.ORG's record can be compared directly against the number Raffio publishes.

For every completed draw Raffio also records the competition ID, the exact draw timestamp, the number of valid entries, the winning ticket, and the full evidence for the mechanism used — for a Third-Party Draw Service draw, that includes the official record reference. A machine-readable copy of the proof can be downloaded from each verification page. These records are retained securely and can be reviewed in the event of a dispute or audit.

Each competition's verification page always shows the exact randomness source used for that specific draw. If RANDOM.ORG is temporarily unavailable, Raffio does not switch to a different source of randomness to get the draw finished: the draw stays pending and is retried, and no winner exists until RANDOM.ORG's result arrives. A delay after closing never reopens entry or extends the competition. That page is where the draw's current status — and, once it completes, the evidence above — is published.

Raffio's own generator is limited to development and testing, and to any legacy record predating the RANDOM.ORG integration. If a draw was made with it, that competition's verification page says so plainly and never presents the result as third-party-verified.

Valid Entries

Paid entries and free postal entries go into the same draw pool, and every valid ticket has an equal chance in the draw. An entry is included in the draw when it meets the criteria for its route:

• Paid entries — payment was confirmed and tickets were allocated, and the entrant correctly answered the qualifying question before the competition closed.
• Free postal entries — the entry was received by the published postal deadline, contained the required details with a correct answer to the qualifying question, and was accepted into the draw pool. No account or purchase is required to enter by post.

Invalid entries, such as those with incorrect qualifying question answers, are excluded from the draw. This process is designed so that only legitimate entries participate in the selection process.