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The Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation 50/50 has opened with increased capacity for Friday’s elimination game.

The foundation has increased the maximum allowable ticket sales by 2 1/2 times when compared to Wednesday’s raffle.

Natalie Minckler, executive director of the Oilers Foundation, said staff have been working around-the-clock with their service provider, Ascend Fundraising Solutions, to increase the capacity in time for Friday’s game.

“We had not put revenue projections on it because it was new for us,” she said. “We were unsure so we were a little bit conservative. We certainly were not expecting to see the type of volumes that we have.”

She said the foundation had no expectations for its 50/50, that was made possible after Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis approved online sales in July.

Tickets were previously sold to fans at games. They are now available to any adult in the province.

Oilers Entertainment Group spokesman Tim Shipton said the servers are expected to be able to hold fan’s demands for tickets.

“The expectation is — although Oilers fans have proven they can shatter all expectations — that the server will have the capacity to handle demand,” said Shipton.

Increased demand leads to delays

Shortly before 9:30 a.m. Friday Oilers fans began posting screenshots of an error page after they attempted to buy tickets saying the server could not handle the request. The foundation said on Twitter they were experiencing increased demands, “even beyond” the previous game. 

They are asking fans to be patient as they work to resolve the issue.

The increase in capacity comes after Albertans bought tickets at record levels earlier this week hitting a total pot of $3.2 million and $5.4 million during raffles on Monday and Wednesday respectively.

Officials said Wednesday’s draw “shattered an all-time record” and had to close early after it reached the server provider’s maximum allowable ticket sales. Monday’s draw closed earlier than expected because of technical issues.

Wednesday’s jackpot claimed

On Friday, The Oilers Foundation announced Wednesday’s jackpot of $2,708,565 had been claimed, but the name of the winner was not released.

Source: – Edmonton Journal

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