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Oilers ownership responds to allegations against team's 50/50 raffle
A new report from the Investigative Journalism Foundation is making claims against the Oilers 50/50 raffle, and team ownership is pushing back.
50/50 raffles are popular across North American sports, a fundraising effort where 50% of money goes to charity, and 50% is awarded to one winner. However, the percentages may be different with the Oilers.
Investigative Journalist makes major claim against Oilers ownership involving 50/50 raffle
An investigative journalist has found that the Oilers raffle doesn't exactly follow the explicit percentages of a 50/50 raffle. Millions of dollars is instead being paid to a company owned by Oilers Entertainment Group.
Here's what we found when we looked into the Edmonton Oilers 50/50, which the club bills as the biggest in professional sports.
Between 2021 and 2024, the foundation running the raffle paid more than $81M to an Oilers subsidiary called Win50 for what it calls license and rights fees. That's millions of dollars more than was available for charitable activities over that time.
- IJF
Between 2021 and 2024, the foundation running the raffle paid more than $81M to an Oilers subsidiary called Win50 for what it calls license and rights fees. That's millions of dollars more than was available for charitable activities over that time.
- IJF
Shockingly, the IJF found that only 19.6% of the 50/50 raffle went to charity in 2024.
The Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation has released a statement responding to the allegations - but they don't even deny it.
The statement essentially told fans not to worry about where the other 30% of the money goes.
Percentages don't help kids and families in need - dollars do. By focusing on expense ratios and purposely ignoring the millions of dollars in legitimate operational costs covered by WIN50, the IJF misleads readers about our how our 50/50 operates and our overall charitable impact.
- Myrna Khan, EOCF
- Myrna Khan, EOCF
Needless to say, when the percentages are dealing with tens of millions of dollars supposed to go to charity - they should matter quite a bit. That money is given by fans with the expectation of helping charity, not the suits at Oilers Entertainment Group.
Hopefully there will be some real change and a statement coming to rectify the situation, or there could be a significant drop off in the Oilers 50/50 this year. Then, the dishonest actions of OEG will be the one to actually hurt charitable contributions.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 28 | 1021 ANSWERS Oilers ownership responds to allegations against team's 50/50 raffle Do you think the Oilers will make a change with their 50/50 operations now? | ||
| Yes | 508 | 49.8 % |
| No | 513 | 50.2 % |
| List of polls | ||