What Are The Odds? It’s All A Matter Of Probability!

Remember sitting in math class thinking, “This is never going to apply to me!” Well, if you want to beat the odds in sweepstakes, a math lesson is in order. I’m going to teach you how to  find your odds (approximately) in any sweepstakes where the number of entries are visible.

I’ve seen sweepers say many times, “If there is a lot of entries, I just don’t enter and go on to the next sweepstakes with better odds.” There is an error in this logic. Depending on how many entries are available to you, you might have really good odds after all! Here is what I mean:

You see a sweepstakes you’d like to enter. So far, there are 1,000 entries. However, if you look at the number of ways you can enter, you see that there are 100 ways to enter (just an example–I know entering 100 times is A LOT). If you were to do all 100 required entries, your chances would be 100/1,000. Reduce that fraction down, and you actually have a 1 in 10 chance of winning! Not so bad after all, right?

It’s simple, really. Just take the number of entries already received, then divide that number by the number of entries you are qualified to enter into the sweepstakes. Feel free to cut the fraction down to find your approximate odds (people will probably enter after you do and this isn’t taking them into consideration). This is why it totally pays to do all the available entries you can if you really want to win something.

Granted, I have seen people win sweepstakes with only one entry; these people are very lucky!! I have found that if you enter more times in a few sweepstakes you are more likely to win than if you had spent your time entering once in many sweepstakes. Of course, entering a lot of sweepstakes isn’t going to hurt your odds, either.

Another example: A sweepstake has 50 entries. 25 entries are available to you. If you complete all 25 entries, you have a 50/50 chance of winning. That’s a coin toss!

Hope this helps some of you to win more! Good luck!!