Sweepstakes: How to Go from Being a Potential Winner to an Official Winner

Potential winner - what does it mean?

Now, you can argue that just about anyone who submits a sweepstakes entry is a potential winner - and that may be true. But, in the strictest sense, the potential winner is a person who has received a win notification from the sponsor and is, thus, closer to winning the prize in comparison to other entrants.

If you are a potential winner of a sweepstakes giveaway, that means you are one step closer to winning the grand prize, but you’re not quite there just yet. This is because the sponsor will need to verify your identity before they give you the prize.

How do you become an official winner?

In order to become an official winner, you will need to clear the sponsor’s verification process. This process may involve the following steps:

1. Checking that you did not exceed the set entry limit restrictions
2. Ensuring you meet the eligibility requirements
3. Verifying your identity with the affidavit you submit
4. Making sure you did not use any prohibited methods to win the giveaway
5. Verifying that there was no technical problem that caused your entry to be picked as the winning entry

Keep in mind that the sponsoring company may follow a number of other steps to ensure that you followed all the other sweepstakes rules set by them.

Watch out for prize notifications

Not all potential winners receive the grand prize, even if they followed all the rules. In fact, many potential winners don’t win the sweepstakes prize solely because they didn’t respond to the win notification on time. Sponsors usually need additional information, like your Social Security number, address, etc., before they send out the prize. So, if the sponsor isn’t able to get in touch with you, they will disqualify you and draw a new winning entry. This is why it’s important to keep looking out for win notifications.