How does a Melbourne Cup sweep work?

24 horses are drawn at random, one per ticket. Everyone pays the same entry, draws blind, and the holder of the winning horse takes the pot or a share of it.

What happens if a horse is scratched?

Decide the house rule before drawing: refund the holder's entry, re-draw the whole board once the final field is confirmed, or scratched-means-scratched.

How do you split a Cup sweep pot?

A common split is 60-70% for first, 20% for second, 10% for third, with last place getting their entry refunded.

First Tuesday in November

Melbourne Cup sweep rules

Everything you need to run the office sweep properly — the rules, the money conventions, and the annual scratchings argument, settled in advance.

The basic rules

A Cup sweep is the simplest bet in the world: 24 horses, drawn at random, one per ticket. Everyone chips in the same entry — traditionally a gold coin, these days more often $5 or $10 — and draws a horse blind. Whoever holds the winner takes the pot, or a share of it. No form guides, no skill, no idea what you own until the barriers open. That's the charm.

If there are fewer people than horses, people draw multiple horses (buy more tickets, get more chances). More than 24 people? Run a second board — don't put two names on one horse, it only ends in tears.

Splitting the pot

House rules vary, but the classic split for a $240 pot (24 tickets at $10) looks like:

First: 60–70% of the pot
Second: 20%
Third: 10%
Last place: entry refunded — the traditional consolation for backing the slowest horse in Australia

Decide the split before the draw and write it on the board. Nobody argues about percentages at 2:59pm; everybody argues at 3:04pm.

The scratchings question

Every year a horse or two is scratched between the draw and the race, and every year an office relitigates what happens next. Pick one of these before you draw:

Refund: scratched horse's holder gets their entry back, pot shrinks. Simplest.
Re-draw: the whole board re-draws once the final field is confirmed. Fairest, and painless if your sweep is digital — one button rather than another round of scissors.
Bad luck: scratched means scratched. Traditional, brutal, and someone will bring it up at the Christmas party.

Timing

The race runs at 3:00pm AEDT on the first Tuesday of November — 3 November in 2026. The final field of 24 is declared the Saturday before. You can draw your sweep early using horse numbers 1–24 and match them to the printed field on the day, or wait for the declared field and use names.

Run it without the scissors

The Cup sweep generator does the drawing — paste your names, hit draw, share one link. It's free, there's no signup, and it deliberately doesn't touch the money: collect the gold coins the way your office always has. Prefer paper? There's a printable sweep sheet too.