Awesome Prize Ideas for ALL Your Football Contests

by Julie Foley Second Street

Prizes for Football Pick’ems

Your season-long football pick’em is a big deal, and the value your prizes should reflect that. While football tickets are a great option for weekly prizes, there are plenty of alternatives. Just remember – you can’t go wrong with food and entertainment. Restaurant gift cards and other event or movie theater tickets make perfect weekly prizes. A season grand prize winner could receive electronics or a high-value gift card.

You can either use a percentage of the revenue from the contest to purchase prizes or, depending on who your sponsors are, have them donate prizes as part of the deal.

Prizes for Football Submission Contests

Prizes for submission contests should always reflect the contest’s theme. If you run a tailgate photo contest, offer a gift card to a local grocery store, meat market, or offer a set of tailgate supplies (tent, lawn chairs, coolers, etc.) If its a biggest fan contest, game tickets would be a good fit. You could, of course, also offer prizes from the contest sponsors.

Prizes for Football Sweepstakes

When running a sweepstakes to supplement your season-long pick’em, you should offer a smaller version of the grand prize or weekly prizes. If your weekly prize is a gift card from a sponsoring restaurant, make one available to win in the sweepstakes. This gives complacent pickers a reason to re-engage with your promotions.

Other great prizes are VISA gift cards, gas cards, grocery store gift cards, electronics, game tickets (especially VIP tickets or sideline passes), and food, like a tailgate package for 4. Remember, the better the prize, the more entrants you’ll receive!

No matter what type of contest you are running, consider offering each entrant a free coupon for the sponsor (or sponsors) that expires at the end of the season. This will help drive foot traffic to your sponsor, thereby increasing the value of their return on investment.

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