Razorback Raffle goes live ahead of final baseball series of school year

The first raffle will run until the sixth inning of the baseball game on Saturday. Tickets can be purchased both in-person at Baum-Walker Stadium and online at RazorbackRaffle.com.

Fans must be in the state of Arkansas at the time of purchase and at least 18 years old in order to participate.

This marks the end of a long drawn out battle in the Arkansas House that lasted over four months after it required two separate attempts to pass a bill before the raffle could get up and running.

House Bill 1044 initially failed to get out of committee before, House Bill 1634, the Arkansas Sports Raffle Act passed through both chambers of the state legislature with relative ease before being signed into law on March 13 by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The announcement of the raffle comes just less than 24 hours after Yurachek spoke with reporters at the Bentonville stop of the ONE Razorback Roadshow in which he explained that the department had a "$21 million problem" because of the impending changes in college athletics stemming from the House v. NCAA settlement.

He also said that coaches' bonuses are being held until the end of the fiscal year (June 30) to "make sure there's enough money for them," according to Best of Arkansas Sports.

The company operating the raffle on behalf of the Razorbacks is BUMP 50/50, a subsidiary of Blast Gaming, which calls themselves a "international leader in lottery and gaming with over 40 years’ experience providing best-in-class lottery, casino, and bingo games and systems to lottery and gaming authorities, governments, and gaming operators throughout the world."

It is the same company that runs a similar raffle for the University of Florida. That raffle went live for the start of the 2024 football season.

For reference, the first raffle for the season opener for football season did about $90,000, which meant the winner took homer about $45,000.

The winner of the inaugural raffle will be announced following the eighth inning of Saturday's game and will also be posted online.

In the 6 hours since the raffle went live 8 a.m. Tuesday, the pot is already up to $10,890, meaning the winner would take home $5,445

This is expected to be the first of many raffles at Razorback sporting events. It will be "the first of numerous contests that will be scheduled for Razorback football, basketball and baseball games as well as select other events."

You can read the full terms and regulations of the raffle here.

Fans' first opportunity to buy tickets in-person will be the series opener between No. 8 Arkansas and No. 17 Tennessee.

First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday and will be broadcast live on national TV on ESPN2.

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