What is Omaze UK?
Omaze is a for-profit prize-draw business that uses high-value prizes to raise money and awareness for charities.
Omaze UK Limited describes itself in its current rules as a commercial fundraiser, technology and media company. It is not itself a charity. Its signature UK product is the Million Pound House Draw, where people can enter online by paying or use a qualifying free postal route.
From house advert to winner: the basic process
Behind the glossy property film is a fairly clear chain. A house is sourced, a charity partner is attached, entries are collected through paid and postal routes, secondary prizes may run during the campaign, then one eligible entry wins the house.
Omaze secures and prepares a house
The company buys properties ahead of future campaigns and may refurbish or develop them before launch.
A charity partner is linked to the campaign
Omaze selects charity partners through a formal proposal and pitch process for future campaigns.
People enter online or by post
Online entrants pay for entry bundles or subscriptions. A qualifying postal method is available without payment to Omaze.
Other draws run around the main house
Early Bird cars, large cash prizes, Monthly Millionaire draws and flash draws are now a significant part of the wider offer.
A winning entry is selected at random
Omaze's rules say potential winners are chosen using a verifiably random process from all eligible entries.
The winner takes ownership of the house
After verification and legal transfer, the winner can keep, rent or sell the property. The charity receives funding under the relevant partnership arrangement.
Is Omaze a lottery?
Not in the legal sense in which the UK National Lottery is a licensed lottery. Omaze's UK draws are structured as free draws with both paid and qualifying free entry routes.
Why the free route matters
The Gambling Commission says a draw with paid entry can operate without a gambling licence if a genuine free route also meets the requirements of the Gambling Act 2005.
The free route must be real
The Commission says it must be visible, charged only at a normal communication rate and treated no differently by the system that determines the winner.
The Commission does not approve each draw
The Gambling Commission says it does not approve free draws. If an operator fails to meet the legal requirements, the arrangement may instead amount to an illegal lottery.
Can you really enter Omaze without paying?
Yes. Current Omaze rules provide a postal entry route. One eligible postal submission is equivalent to one entry into the relevant grand-prize draw.
| Route | How it works | What one action gives you | Important point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid online entry | Buy an entry bundle through the website or app. | A bundle can contain many individual entries. | More individual entries mean more chances within the same draw. |
| Subscription | Pay monthly for recurring entries and specified subscriber benefits. | The number of entries depends on the subscription terms. | Subscriptions renew until cancelled under the applicable terms. |
| Postal entry | Send the required personal and draw details by post to the address in the relevant Experience Rules. | One eligible submission equals one entry. | There is a maximum of one entry per outer envelope or postcard. |
How does Omaze pick a house winner?
Current rules say potential winners are selected through a verifiably random process from all eligible entries. Paid and postal entries are not meant to be treated differently by the draw.
Entries go into the draw database
Paid purchases are linked to unique entry codes. Omaze says postal entries are separately coded and added to the same draw database.
Independent processing is involved
Omaze's published winner process says Civica Independent Scrutineers processes postal entries and randomly selects winning entry codes for its draws.
The winner must still be verified
A selected entrant is initially a potential winner. Identity, eligibility and compliance checks must be completed before the prize is confirmed.
Other Omaze prizes, Early Birds and smaller draws
The house is the headline prize, but modern Omaze campaigns sit inside a much wider prize programme. Recent draws have included luxury cars with cash, £1 million Monthly Millionaire prizes, subscriber cash draws, flash draws and large numbers of smaller prizes.
How does Omaze choose the houses?
It is not simply a case of finding the most expensive property on Rightmove. Omaze now treats house selection as a data-led part of the business.
About 1,500 properties for roughly 12 selections
In a 2026 interview, co-founder and CEO Matt Pohlson said the business works about a year ahead and uses agents around the country. He said the team may see around 1,500 houses before choosing roughly 12.
That follows earlier comments from James Oakes that Omaze had begun buying properties six or seven campaigns ahead as the UK operation grew.
A 130-variable prediction model
Pohlson said Omaze uses an internal house-prediction model with around 130 variables, including location, size, features, content potential and time of year.
Human judgement still matters. He described the need for a strong visual “hero” view and a memorable feature such as a cinema, pool, sauna or tennis court.
Location
Cornwall, London, the Cotswolds and the Lake District have repeatedly appeared because they have become proven campaign locations.
Visual impact
The house needs to work in photographs, video, television and social advertising—not just on a property specification sheet.
Preparation
Omaze has moved from only buying finished homes to refurbishing properties and exploring more direct development activity.
What happens if you win an Omaze house?
The winner does not simply receive a stay in the property. The grand prize is structured around ownership of the house, with costs around the transfer covered under the relevant rules.
Live in
The winner can make the property their home and use the settling-in cash towards normal ownership costs.
Rent out
A winner can consider renting the property, subject to planning, lender-free ownership, local rules and the normal responsibilities of being a landlord.
Sell up
The winner can sell the property after taking ownership. Omaze does not require the winner to keep it.
How much does Omaze give to charity?
There is no single percentage that accurately describes every Omaze UK house draw. The funding model has changed several times since 2020.
| Period / model | How it worked | What to understand |
|---|---|---|
| Early UK draws | Some campaigns used a share of net proceeds. The first Cheshire model stated 80% of net proceeds to the charity, with a guaranteed minimum. | “Net proceeds” meant revenue after specified prize, marketing and operating costs—not 80% of every pound paid. |
| Later percentage model | Many later Experience Rules stated that 17% of paid entry revenue would go to the named charity, normally with a £1 million minimum guarantee. | This was clearer because the percentage applied to paid entry revenue rather than profit after costs. |
| Current partnership model | Omaze says that from 2025 each Million Pound House Draw charity receives a guaranteed £1 million linked to that draw, plus a separate multi-million-pound grant paid over later years. | The grant is described as separate from the performance of one individual house draw. |
£150m+ for UK charities
Omaze stated in July 2026 that its UK community had raised more than £150 million for UK charities.
Charities are selected in advance
Omaze says it invites prospective partners to submit proposals, reviews them and runs a pitch process before awarding partnerships for the following year.
The advertising has value too
Charity partners have said the national television and digital exposure can reach audiences they could not otherwise afford to reach.
How does Omaze make money?
Omaze makes money by selling entries and subscriptions. Those revenues must cover an unusually expensive product: multimillion-pound property prizes, cash and car prizes, marketing, staff, technology, transaction costs and charity commitments.
Entry bundles
Customers can buy multiple entries to a house or cash draw. The more individual entries held, the more chances that person has within the random draw.
Subscriptions
Recurring monthly subscriptions give Omaze predictable repeat revenue and can include automatic entries into specified house and cash draws.
Scale matters
Independent reporting on Omaze UK's 2024 accounts recorded £196.7 million of revenue and £6.2 million of pre-tax profit, illustrating the scale the UK model had reached.
The house is also the advertising campaign
Omaze is unusually dependent on marketing because every new draw needs a very large national audience. The property is not simply the prize—it is the main creative asset used to sell the campaign.
Television
Luxury interiors, aerial shots and charity ambassadors turn naturally into high-impact television adverts. Charity partners have also valued the national exposure.
Digital advertising
Omaze's current legal terms explicitly refer to promotion across platforms including Meta/Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Snap and X/Twitter.
Repeated creative angles
The house, winner reactions, charity stories, closing deadlines, Early Bird cars and cash prizes all give the same campaign different reasons to reappear in front of potential entrants.
A £4 million house is expensive as a prize, but it is also unusually powerful advertising material. One property can generate months of television, social video, press coverage, property tours, winner stories and charity content.
Who started Omaze, and who runs it now?
The company began in the US before the house-draw model became particularly successful in Britain.
Matt Pohlson
Co-founder and current CEO of Omaze. Pohlson and Ryan Cummins created the business after seeing a high-priced charity auction experience that ordinary supporters could not afford to bid for.
Ryan Cummins
Co-founder of Omaze. The original concept was to open desirable charity-auction experiences to a much wider audience through low-cost chance-based participation.
James Oakes
Current President of Omaze. Oakes began as an investor and board observer, then built and led the UK business from 2019 to 2025 before moving into international expansion.
Why was Omaze created?
Omaze traces its origin to a 2011 charity event where a chance to attend a Lakers game and spend time with Magic Johnson was auctioned beyond the founders' budget. Their question was simple: could a much larger group of people each contribute a small amount for a chance to win, and raise more money in the process? Omaze launched in 2012 around that idea.
Who regulates Omaze UK?
There is no single regulator equivalent to the National Lottery licence sitting over Omaze's house draws. Several legal and regulatory frameworks apply instead.
| Area | Who / what matters | What it means for readers |
|---|---|---|
| Free-draw law | Gambling Act 2005 and Gambling Commission guidance | A qualifying free draw does not need a gambling licence, but the free route must meet the statutory conditions. |
| Advertising | CAP Code and Advertising Standards Authority | Marketing must not mislead and the free route must be presented appropriately. Omaze has previously been subject to an ASA ruling over free-entry prominence. |
| Consumer protection | General UK consumer law and contract rules | Terms, subscription conditions, pricing and draw information must be communicated fairly. |
| Prize-draw sector code | Government-backed Voluntary Code of Good Practice | Omaze is a founding signatory. The code raises standards around transparency, independent winner selection and player protection, but it is voluntary rather than legislation. |
Is Omaze actually unique?
The legal free-draw mechanism is not unique. Britain has a large and growing prize-draw sector. What makes Omaze unusual is the combination of scale, prize value, national advertising and major-charity partnerships.
What is not unique
- paid entry alongside a free postal route
- random prize selection
- cars, cash and luxury prizes
- subscription-based entries
- commercial operation for profit
What is distinctive
- regular £3m–£6m-style house campaigns
- nationwide television and digital advertising
- large established UK charity partners
- properties bought and prepared specifically for campaigns
- a repeat monthly ecosystem of house, cash, car and subscriber draws
It sits somewhere between property marketing, entertainment, commercial fundraising and a national prize-draw business. That combination—not the free-draw law itself—is what makes the model unusual.
Omaze UK FAQs
Short answers to the questions readers usually ask first.
Is Omaze legitimate?
Is there always a house winner?
What are the odds of winning an Omaze house?
Does a postal entry have the same chance as a paid entry?
Can an Omaze winner sell the house?
Does Omaze pay the winner's stamp duty?
Is the £250,000 cash part of every house prize?
Does all my entry money go to charity?
Go deeper into the Omaze UK archive
This explainer covers the business model. The house archive tracks the actual competitions.
Where this information comes from
We prioritised current official rules, Government and regulator guidance, Companies House records and direct statements from Omaze. Independent reporting is used where it adds useful context about the business model and house sourcing.
- Omaze UK Official Rules — entry methods, spend limits, winner selection and verification.
- Gambling Commission — legal requirements for free draws and prize competitions.
- UK Government voluntary code — current prize-draw good-practice framework.
- Omaze charity partnership explainer — current £1m house-draw guarantee and separate grants.
- Omaze charity partner process — proposal, review and pitch process.
- Omaze winner process — entry coding, independent scrutineering and winner notification.
- Omaze FAQs — stamp duty, conveyancing, settling-in cash and house-running information.
- Omaze past house draws — completed-house archive used for current draw count.
- Companies House: Omaze UK Limited — company status, incorporation and filings.
- Companies House officers — current directors.
- Omaze company history — 2011 origin story and 2012 launch.
- Omaze leadership — current roles for Matt Pohlson and James Oakes.
- The Guardian — UK model, house sourcing and charity-partner context.
- Saturn Partners interview with Matt Pohlson — current property-selection process and prediction model.
- Advertising Standards Authority — free-entry-route advertising guidance and historic Omaze ruling.