Texas 50/50 Raffle Laws for Professional Sports Foundations
Learn how Texas professional sports foundations can conduct game-day 50/50 raffles, sell tickets digitally, award cash prizes, and meet compliance requirements.
Texas 50/50 Raffle Laws: A Guide for Professional Sports Foundations
A packed stadium or arena represents more than a crowd. For a professional sports team's charitable foundation, it can represent thousands of potential supporters gathered in one place, connected by a shared experience and available for only a few hours.
Texas law creates a special fundraising opportunity for certain professional sports team charitable foundations to turn that audience into charitable support. Unlike ordinary Texas charitable raffles, these qualifying foundations can award cash prizes of up to 50% of gross raffle ticket proceeds and conduct a raffle during each qualifying home game or rodeo event. Texas law also expressly accommodates digital raffle technology within the venue.
For sports foundations, that makes the 50/50 raffle more than a game-day promotion. Done correctly, it can become a repeatable fundraising program that engages fans, raises money for charitable programs and introduces thousands of people to the foundation's mission throughout a season.
The rules are specific, however. Texas does not give every sports nonprofit the same 50/50 authority, and the digital sales provisions are tied closely to the team's home venue and the timing of the event.
Quick Answer: Can Professional Sports Foundations Run 50/50 Raffles in Texas?
Yes. Texas law allows qualifying professional sports team charitable foundations to conduct charitable raffles during each preseason, regular-season and postseason game hosted at the team's home venue. Qualifying rodeo foundations can conduct them during rodeo events at the associated rodeo venue.
The foundation may award a cash prize of up to 50% of the gross proceeds from raffle ticket sales. The remaining proceeds, after permitted operating expenses and the cash prize, must be used for the charitable purposes of the professional sports team charitable foundation.
Texas also permits ticket sales through digital interactive media, including the professional sports team's website or mobile application. Under the current law, however, a person purchasing digitally must be physically located inside the team's home venue or rodeo venue when the ticket is sold.
That makes the Texas sports 50/50 model fundamentally different from a statewide online raffle. It is a digitally enabled, venue-based fundraising opportunity designed around the live sports experience.
Why Are Sports 50/50 Raffles Different From Ordinary Texas Raffles?
Texas actually has two significantly different charitable raffle frameworks.
The general Texas Charitable Raffle Enabling Act permits certain qualified nonprofit, religious, volunteer fire and emergency medical organizations to conduct raffles. Those organizations are generally limited to four raffles per calendar year, and cash prizes are prohibited. Texas also places substantial restrictions on statewide promotion and ticket sales under that framework.
Professional sports team charitable foundations operate under a separate law: Chapter 2004 of the Texas Occupations Code, the Professional Sports Team Charitable Foundation Raffle Enabling Act. That law creates a very different fundraising model. Qualifying foundations may conduct raffles during qualifying home games, award cash prizes of up to half of gross ticket proceeds and use technology specifically designed to sell tickets, select winners and continuously calculate raffle activity.
For a professional sports organization evaluating 50/50 fundraising, Chapter 2004 is therefore the critical Texas law to understand.
Which Texas Sports Organizations Can Qualify?
The definition of a professional sports team under Texas law is broader than only the major leagues.
Chapter 2004 currently includes Texas teams that are members of leagues including Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Women's National Basketball Association, National Women's Soccer League, Minor League Baseball, United Soccer League and several other professional leagues identified in the statute.
The law also reaches certain motorsports events, organizations hosting Professional Golf Association events, and organizations sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association or Women's Professional Rodeo Association. Texas voters and lawmakers expanded the framework to include qualifying rodeo organizations beginning in 2021.
This means the potential market extends beyond the professional teams most people immediately associate with stadium 50/50 raffles. Minor-league and other qualifying professional sports organizations should examine the statutory definition carefully rather than assuming the law only applies to the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL or MLS.
What Must the Charitable Foundation Qualify For?
Being connected to sports is not enough. Under Texas Occupations Code § 2004.003, the organization must qualify as a professional sports team charitable foundation and be associated with a professional sports team that has a qualifying home venue or rodeo venue in Texas.
Among the statutory requirements, the foundation must have existed for at least three years and have obtained federal tax exemption as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. It also cannot distribute income to members, officers or its governing body other than reasonable compensation for services.
The foundation must satisfy the complete statutory definition and qualification requirements before relying on the special sports-raffle provisions. This distinction matters because a youth sports nonprofit, amateur club or unrelated charitable organization does not automatically qualify for Chapter 2004 simply because its mission involves athletics.
How Often Can a Texas Sports Foundation Conduct a 50/50 Raffle?
This is one of the biggest advantages of the professional sports framework.
Ordinary qualified organizations operating under Texas's general Charitable Raffle Enabling Act are limited to four raffles per calendar year. A qualifying professional sports team charitable foundation, by contrast, may conduct a raffle during each preseason, regular-season and postseason home game hosted at the associated team's home venue.
For qualifying rodeo organizations, the law similarly allows raffles during rodeo events at the associated rodeo venue. That changes the economics and strategy of charitable raffle fundraising. Instead of planning a raffle as an occasional annual campaign, a professional sports foundation can potentially build 50/50 fundraising into its recurring game-day operation throughout the season.
A successful system can therefore become part of the foundation's fundraising infrastructure rather than another campaign that must be reinvented for every event.
How Does the Texas 50/50 Cash Prize Work?
Texas law permits the foundation to award a cash prize selected by random draw in an amount not exceeding 50% of gross raffle ticket proceeds.
That creates the familiar 50/50 fundraising proposition. As fans participate, the potential cash prize can grow while the raffle simultaneously generates funding for the foundation's charitable purposes. The law also addresses what happens to the remainder. After the cash prize and permitted reasonable operating expenses are deducted, raffle proceeds must be used for the charitable purposes of the professional sports team charitable foundation.
This is important because the Texas sports-raffle framework was built specifically around the relationship between fan participation, a cash jackpot and charitable fundraising. It is not an attempt to force a cash 50/50 model into a general raffle law that was designed only for merchandise prizes.
Can Texas Sports Foundations Sell 50/50 Tickets Digitally?
Yes, but this is where understanding the current law becomes especially important. Texas amended Chapter 2004 in 2023 through House Bill 1759. The law now expressly allows raffle tickets to be sold at the home or rodeo venue or through digital interactive media, including an internet website or mobile application provided by the professional sports team associated with the foundation.
Digital sales are not statewide online sales. The purchaser must be physically located inside the home venue or rodeo venue at the time of the sale. The law also limits ticket sales to the period beginning when the venue opens to attendees and ending when the drawing to determine the raffle winner concludes. For sports organizations, this creates a clearly defined digital opportunity.
The fan is already in the building. The fundraising challenge is making participation as easy and visible as possible while the opportunity exists.
Why Is the In-Venue Audience So Valuable?
Professional sports organizations possess something most nonprofits spend significant amounts of time and money trying to build: a large, concentrated audience. On game day, thousands of people may already be inside the venue. They are engaged with the team, participating in a shared experience and interacting with stadium displays, announcements, mobile devices and other game-day communications.
The 50/50 raffle gives the foundation an opportunity to introduce its charitable mission within that environment. A fan who has never visited the foundation's website or responded to a traditional donation appeal may still participate in a game-day 50/50 raffle. The experience provides another entry point into charitable support. That is where a raffle can become more than a revenue event.
It can become a fan-engagement and supporter-acquisition program.
Texas Law Is Surprisingly Technology-Aware
One of the most interesting parts of Chapter 2004 is how specifically it addresses the technology behind a modern sports raffle. Texas allows qualifying foundations to deduct reasonable operating expenses of conducting the raffle, subject to a cap of 10% of gross raffle ticket proceeds. The statute expressly identifies expenses associated with equipment, hardware and software necessary to sell raffle tickets, conduct random drawings and continuously calculate ticket sales, money collected, the cash prize, charitable proceeds and allowable operating expenses.
That is unusually relevant to modern raffle technology. Rather than treating software as something outside the traditional raffle framework, Texas law specifically anticipates technology performing core operational functions.
For professional sports foundations evaluating digital 50/50 fundraising, that creates an important foundation for building a more efficient game-day program.
How Much Can Be Spent Operating the Raffle?
Texas limits reasonable operating expenses to no more than 10% of gross raffle ticket proceeds for each raffle. Those expenses can include promotion, advertising, fundraising-event costs, equipment and administrative expenses. The law also expressly includes purchase, lease or licensing fees for qualifying raffle equipment, hardware and software.
For sports foundations, this creates a clear financial framework. The technology needs to do more than process transactions. It needs to help the foundation operate efficiently within an expense structure established by law. Raffle technology that reduces staffing burden, centralizes raffle administration and makes participation easier can therefore affect both the supporter experience and the economics of the fundraiser.
Who Can Sell the Tickets?
Texas maintains an important operational restriction even though digital technology is permitted. Only employees or volunteers of the professional sports team charitable foundation or the associated professional sports team may sell raffle tickets under Chapter 2004. The statute also restricts purchases to people who are 18 years of age or older.
Significantly, Texas requires a professional sports team charitable foundation conducting the raffle to contract with a third-party vendor to ensure that only persons age 18 or older purchase raffle tickets. That requirement makes age verification a central technology and compliance issue rather than merely a recommended practice.
For a professional sports foundation selecting raffle technology, the ability to support the legal operating model is therefore just as important as the ability to sell tickets.
What Must Be Disclosed on the Raffle Ticket?
Texas requires each sports raffle ticket to contain specific information. The ticket must identify the raffle and the sales station where it was purchased. It must provide the date of the drawing and explain how the winning ticket will be announced. It also needs to state the procedure and location for claiming the prize and how long the winner has to claim it.
Finally, the ticket must display the logo of the professional sports team charitable foundation, the associated professional sports team or both. These requirements reinforce an important principle for digital raffle systems: convenience cannot come at the expense of required disclosures.
The digital ticket experience needs to be built around the legal raffle rather than merely functioning as a generic payment receipt.
Why Should Sports Foundations Think Beyond the Jackpot?
The jackpot is the most visible part of a 50/50 raffle, but it is not necessarily the only valuable outcome. Every raffle participant represents a fan who has taken an action connected to the team's charitable foundation. For some participants, that may be their first direct interaction with the foundation.
That creates an opportunity to build awareness of what the foundation does with the charitable portion of the raffle. Fans can learn about youth programs, community initiatives, scholarships, health programs, education, military and veteran support or whatever charitable work the foundation funds.
With appropriate consent and communication practices, the foundation can also think about how game-day participation fits into its larger supporter-engagement strategy. The raffle raises money tonight.
The relationship created through that participation can potentially last much longer.
How Can RaffleGives Reduce the Work Required to Run a Game-Day 50/50?
A sports foundation should not have to assemble its raffle infrastructure from unrelated tools. A modern 50/50 program can involve campaign configuration, ticketing, payments, participant information, age verification, drawing processes, jackpot calculations, reporting and game-day communications.
RaffleGives is built specifically around nonprofit raffle fundraising. The objective is to centralize more of that process so the foundation's staff can concentrate on promoting the campaign, engaging fans and advancing the organization's charitable mission. The platform is also performance-based. RaffleGives does not require a monthly subscription or upfront platform fee. Our standard platform fee is 8% of gross ticket sales, so the cost of the platform is tied directly to fundraising activity rather than another recurring software subscription.
That structure is particularly relevant in Texas because Chapter 2004 expressly allows qualifying operating expenses, including software licensing costs, up to the statutory 10% limit. Any particular deployment still needs to be structured to satisfy Chapter 2004, including its requirements governing sellers, venue location, age verification, ticket disclosures and other operational rules.
But Texas law clearly anticipates professional sports foundations using technology to run these raffles.
What Could a 50/50 Program Look Like Across an Entire Season?
The biggest opportunity may not be a single successful raffle.
It is repetition.
A foundation associated with a qualifying professional team can potentially conduct raffles throughout preseason, regular-season and postseason home games. That creates repeated opportunities to improve promotion, build fan awareness and make the charitable foundation part of the game-day experience.
Over time, fans can begin to recognize the 50/50 program before they even enter the venue. Screens, announcements, team communications and in-venue promotion can reinforce both the jackpot and the charitable purpose behind it. The foundation can also learn which promotional moments generate participation and how different parts of the venue respond. Instead of beginning from zero at every game, the organization builds a repeatable fundraising program.
Why Compliance Needs to Be Part of the Technology
Texas demonstrates why RaffleGives approaches digital raffle fundraising from a compliance-first perspective.
The state does not simply say professional sports foundations may conduct 50/50 raffles and leave the details open. It regulates who qualifies, when tickets may be sold, where digital purchasers must be located, who may sell tickets, the purchaser's minimum age, required disclosures, operating expenses and how raffle proceeds may be used. Those requirements should shape the technology from the beginning.
For example, an ordinary e-commerce checkout designed to sell products is not automatically the same thing as technology designed around a regulated charitable raffle. A purpose-built system should help the organization configure its fundraising experience around the rules that apply to the campaign.
That is particularly important for professional sports organizations because the volume and visibility of a stadium raffle can be substantial.
Texas Gives Professional Sports Foundations a Unique Fundraising Opportunity
Texas is restrictive when it comes to ordinary nonprofit cash raffles. Under the general Charitable Raffle Enabling Act, cash prizes are prohibited and ordinary qualifying organizations operate under significantly different rules.
Professional sports team charitable foundations are different. Texas voters and lawmakers created a separate legal framework that recognizes the unique fundraising environment surrounding professional sports. It permits cash 50/50 prizes, recurring raffles at qualifying home games, digital ticketing inside the venue and operating expenses for the hardware and software required to make the raffle work. For qualifying foundations, the opportunity is significant.
The audience is already there.
The legal framework already exists.
The technology can make participation easier.
The remaining challenge is turning game-day attention into charitable impact.
Bring 50/50 Fundraising Into Your Texas Game-Day Experience
A professional sports venue can bring thousands of people together for a few hours. A well-designed 50/50 raffle gives the associated charitable foundation an opportunity to turn some of that energy into funding for the community it serves.
RaffleGives is built specifically for nonprofit raffle fundraising, with a performance-based model designed to reduce administrative friction while keeping compliance at the center of the campaign. There are no monthly subscriptions and no upfront platform fee. Our standard platform fee is tied to gross ticket sales, aligning our success with the fundraising activity of the organization.
For qualifying Texas professional sports team charitable foundations, that creates an opportunity to explore a modern game-day 50/50 program without adding another recurring software subscription.
If your organization is associated with a qualifying professional sports team, league, venue, golf event or rodeo organization in Texas, talk with RaffleGives about what a compliant game-day 50/50 program could look like for your foundation.
Explore Software & Platform Resources
Read Fundraising Strategy Articles
Official Texas Resources
Texas Attorney General: Charitable Raffles and Casino/Poker Nights
Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2004: Professional Sports Team Charitable Foundation Raffles
Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2002: Charitable Raffles
Texas H.B. 1759: 2023 Digital Ticket-Sale Amendments
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This article is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Texas charitable raffle laws are technical and distinguish between ordinary charitable raffles and professional sports team charitable foundation raffles. Organizations should verify their eligibility and proposed operating model under current Texas law and consult qualified legal counsel when appropriate.
