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| Dallas Seavey celebrates a win during his "race" at the now closed Wildride Sled Dog Rodeo. Anchorage, Alaska. August 2010. |
The Iditarod announced the Iditarod Lotto on November 3, 2023 as their newest fundraiser to support not only the Last Great Race but also the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry. Tickets can be purchased for $2 each, with special discounts if you buy large quantities (for example, 75 tickets only cost $50). There are weekly winners through March 13 when a jackpot (they call it progressive pot) winner will be announced.
"The proceeds will be essential to not only ensuring the sustainability of the Iditarod, our culture and our mushers but also the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry," Rob Urbach, Iditarod CEO, stated in the press release.
The payout is a simple 25-25-50 model. Weekly winners get 25% of the weekly monies received. 25% goes into the pot to be accumulated for the jackpot on March 13, 2024. 50% is split evenly between the Iditarod and the Museum as well as any costs associated with running the lotto. A single ticket number will be randomly selected by a certified, lab tested Random Number Generator from all tickets sold during the week. All tickets will also be entered for the progressive pot (jackpot) at the end of the season.
This past Wednesday was the first winner announcement and it came with great amusement to many. Dallas Seavey - the second musher to ever win 5 Iditarod championships - won $2,067 in the weekly drawing. The announcement gained automatic attention on Facebook with many fans chiming in with their thoughts on the lucky winner. "How does he do that?" wrote the champion's oldest brother. "Damn the booties and the cash !" wrote fellow musher and 2024 Iditarod Rookie Lauro Ekland who referenced Dallas' luck at the Iditarod Picnic where Seavey won the musher door prize of 500 dog booties. (Don't worry, I got my little dig in, too.)
The lotto is not just for Alaska residents. Fans throughout the US can also purchase tickets. Alaskans must use the online platform to purchase tickets, while outside of the US fans can call 1-800-545-6874.
"We are thrilled to be able to offer a Lotto," Rob Urbach said, "with the excitement of weekly winners and what we hope will be a large grand prize payout."
The Lotto announcement was joined days later by two other fundraisers, a "Tagalong" program where fans can pay a flat fee of $250 to have a tag with their dog's name ride in the sled of their chosen musher. Just five tags for each sled will be sold, and several mushers have already sold out. The third fundraising announcement helps the mushers as well as the race as the Iditarod Store now has an affiliate program for mushers. You can use a musher's code at checkout when you buy online at the Iditarod Store and 10% of the sale will go to the musher. Mushers are current Iditarod roster mushers only and their code is a combination of their first initial plus their last name ALL IN CAPS (example: ABERINGING). The store is also now back in the hands of the race directly, no longer working with a third party.
The announcements of all three fundraising ideas were warmly received by the Iditarod Nation and mushers alike. One can only think that this will revitalize a stagnant fanbase's enthusiasm in financially supporting the race above their usual ITC Memberships or Insider subscriptions.
Have you played the Iditarod Lotto or do you plan to? Comment below on your thoughts about this new fundraiser or any of the other newly released programs!
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