SAIL Amsterdam launches first digital lottery with Lotify

SAIL Amsterdam is the largest free-to-attend event in the Netherlands. Every five years, it attracts over 2.5 million visitors to the capital. Guests can enjoy more than 10,000 ships, including the world-famous tall ships. To keep the event accessible and to support the projects of the SAIL Foundation, the SAIL Lottery was organized for the first time in 2025—fully facilitated by Lotify

The challenge

How do you ensure that visitors can contribute to the event in a low-threshold way, without making participation too demanding? And how do you combine fundraising, experience, and engagement in one single action?

The solution: the SAIL Lottery powered by Lotify

With the help of Lotify, the very first official SAIL Lottery was launched. Visitors could easily purchase a ticket for just €2.50 via their phone or computer. Each ticket supported the SAIL Foundation and gave participants the chance to win unique prizes.

To further boost ticket sales, a reward mechanism was introduced: participants who bought multiple tickets received exclusive merchandise, such as a keychain or cap. This significantly increased the average number of tickets per participant.

Extra incentive: prize draws within the lottery

In addition to the main draw, SAIL also organized interim sweepstakes through Lotify. Participants who purchased a ticket within a specific period had the chance to win extra prizes. Adding these additional prize draws proved to be an effective promotional tool: they increased urgency and created clear peaks in ticket sales. Lotify made it easy to integrate these actions seamlessly within the same platform—fully compliant.

Unique prizes in the SAIL Lottery

The prizes were not just attractive—they were fully aligned with the spirit of the event. By tapping into the unique atmosphere of SAIL and offering rewards that couldn’t be found anywhere else, participants felt even more connected to the experience. Among the prizes were:

• Adventurous sailing expeditions on tall ships

• Luxury dining experiences with a harbor view

• Exclusive SAIL merchandise and limited editions

• Souvenirs available nowhere else

Promoting the SAIL Lottery across multiple channels

The SAIL Lottery was promoted through several channels:

• On-site visibility: Signs, banners, and QR codes were placed throughout the event grounds.

• On-site sales: Volunteers and staff engaged visitors directly to sell tickets.

• SAIL app integration: A countdown to the lottery draw was added to the official SAIL app. This created a strong sense of urgency—people could see they were almost running out of time and didn’t want to miss their chance. In the final 48 hours, this drove tens of thousands of additional ticket sales.

"The countdown in the SAIL app gave a huge boost to sales. Of the 33,376 tickets sold, over 58% were purchased in the final days. This highlights just how effective digital activation can be." – SAIL Amsterdam

The result: a successful first edition

The first SAIL Lottery demonstrates that a digital lottery is a powerful tool for fundraising and increasing engagement during an event. The numbers speak for themselves:

• Over 33,000 tickets sold in the first edition

• An average of 5.3 tickets per participant, thanks to the reward mechanism

• 58% additional ticket sales in the final 48 hours, driven by the countdown to the draw in the SAIL app

Why the SAIL Lottery is a prime example

The organizers of SAIL deliberately chose Lotify to run their lottery, as we provide a platform that fully complies with the guidelines of the Dutch Gambling Authority. Thanks to our proven processes, the SAIL Lottery was conducted in a transparent and responsible manner, ensuring everything remained within legal boundaries. This made the lottery not only a success for the SAIL Foundation but also demonstrated that Lotify is a reliable partner for organizations looking to run a compliant digital lottery for fundraising and engagement.

Do you want to organize a fully compliant lottery that also makes an impact? Schedule a free demo and discover how easy it is to run a digital lottery with Lotify.