Blog

Setting up Third Party shop

See also: Donation Website To help with selling balloons from your own website/platform you can link the “Buy a Balloon” button direct to your balloon shop. To give your shop some colour you can download promotional images and all the balloon colours here. The balloon race platform allows you to upload balloons with a CSV […]

Valentine’s Virtual Balloon Race

We’ve now added heart shaped balloons to the selection to cater for valentines themes and the growing number of Hospice orders. As we approach valentine’s day I noticed a number of races with start and finish dates on 14th February. It’s also a popular emoji used in messages on charity and hospice leaderboards, so I’m […]

Adding custom balloons

To keep the cost down the balloon race is designed for 1 size fits all – to pay £30+vat it’s best to try to use it as it is. As the race grows I am getting asked more and more for custom balloons to fit different markets and themes. Question: I am curious as to […]

Bacs (Card Payments)

You can now accept card payments by simply selecting “show” for the buy button. On a test sample of 100 races we sent an average BACS payment of £272.40 per race after the 12% fee had been deducted (this is an average of 108 balloons per race sold @ £3 each). We collect the card […]

Sharing your URL

Following the server move in 2023 you now have unique URLs for all your pages: You can now link directly to any part of your race. Examples below for your homepage, sales page, full leaderboard or balloons in flight: https://www.balloonrace.net/beta https://www.balloonrace.net/beta/registerballoon https://www.balloonrace.net/beta/leaderboard https://www.balloonrace.net/beta/islandcontent The previous ASP server only allowed a unique link to your homepage […]

Viewing Messages

When setting up a balloon there’s a space to add a message. Once the messages are added where do we go to see them? Messages can be seen when clicking on the main leaderboard: You’ll also see messages when doing a balloon search: …and when you mouse over or touch a moving balloon:

Admin Area

Instructions on how to use the Admin Area As your admin page is password protected you can only stay logged in for so long. If you are logged in and decide to go make a cup of tea… you will probably have been logged out by the time you return. Any changes you make when […]

Legal Classification

Without the free entry option the software requires an ELMOL (External Lottery Manager Operating Licence) and a Remote Gambling Software Operating Licence – both of these are required on an annual basis which makes the product unviable. Even if you have a lottery licence – the software does not. So to run a race without […]

Changing Backgrounds

You can change (& upload) the background when the race is live – and you can change it as often as you like. Why not change the background on a regular basis whilst your race is live, you can upload your own or use the pre-uploaded library. See examples of uploaded backgrounds here. After you’ve […]

Active / inactive balloons

The inactive balloons are balloons that have been created but payment not completed. On most occasions the buyer returns, starts again and buys a different balloon. There’s lots of reasons for this (listed below) but the most common is not having your card details to hand after creating the balloon. If you’re paid cash for […]