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Schedule a Competition

Set a future start date so a competition stays hidden, shows a Coming Soon countdown, and opens for entries automatically at the time you choose.

The short answer: give your competition a future Start Date (Scheduler) and keep it Active. Until that moment it is hidden from your site and nobody can buy tickets. Anyone who opens its direct link sees a Coming Soon countdown. When the countdown reaches zero, the competition goes live on its own, so you do not need to be online.

This is ideal for launching a big prize at a set time, lining up next week's competitions in advance, or teasing a draw on social media before tickets go on sale.

How to schedule a competition

1

Open the competition

In the admin panel, click Competitions on the left, then open the competition you want to schedule. To start a new one, click New Competition.

2

Set a future start date

Find the Start Date (Scheduler) field and pick the date and time you want entries to open. As soon as the date is in the future, an amber Scheduled note appears under the field to confirm the competition will stay hidden and show a coming soon countdown until then.

The start date must be before the competition's end date.

3

Make sure it is Active

Switch the Active toggle on. A schedule only works while the competition is Active.

4

Save

Click Create (or Save changes if you are editing). That is it. The competition will open automatically at the start time.

Active and scheduled work together. If Active is off, the competition stays offline and customers cannot open it at all, even once the start date has passed. Leave Active on and let the start date decide when it opens.

What customers see before it opens

A scheduled competition does not appear anywhere on your site, but it can still be reached by its direct link. That means you can share the link ahead of launch to build excitement.

Anyone who opens the link sees the competition page with a Coming Soon panel in place of the ticket picker. The panel shows:

  • A Coming Soon badge and the heading Entries open, followed by when it opens (for example "Entries open Tomorrow 7:00pm").

  • The message "This competition hasn't started yet. Come back when the timer hits zero to grab your tickets."

  • A countdown to the start time in days, hours, minutes and seconds.

  • The full opening date and time.

While the competition is waiting to open, the entry list and the countdown to the end date are hidden. When the countdown hits zero, the page refreshes itself and the ticket picker appears, ready for entries.

Where a scheduled competition is hidden

Until its start time, a scheduled competition is left out of every place customers would normally find it:

  • Your homepage Product Grid, Product Horizontal Grid and Sliders.

  • The Next Competition countdown in the Stats block.

  • Your category pages, and the competition counts shown for each category.

  • Related competitions on other competition pages.

  • Your entry lists page.

  • Upsell suggestions when customers add to basket or check out.

  • Your sitemap, so search engines are not pointed at it yet.

  • Your Meta product catalogue feed and Klaviyo product feed.

  • Any custom Twig blocks that list your active competitions.

The moment it opens, it joins all of these automatically.

What is held back until it opens

A few more safeguards make sure nobody can enter early and nothing announces the competition too soon.

  • No tickets can be added to a basket. A customer who tries sees a message saying the competition has not started yet and when entries open.

  • Baskets are tidied up. If a scheduled competition is somehow already in a customer's basket (for example, you moved its start date later), it is removed when they open their basket or checkout, with a message explaining that it has not started yet.

  • Auto Draw will not run. A competition is never drawn automatically before it has opened.

  • Instant wins stay quiet. Instant wins from the competition are left out of your public instant winners list, the instant winners carousel and the instant winners Twig feed.

  • Dropped basket reminders leave it out. Reminder emails only feature competitions customers can actually enter.

  • Notify emails will not send. If you select a scheduled competition for a Notify email, the send is stopped and a red message names the competitions that have not opened yet. Remove them from your selection, or wait until they go live.

Preview it as an admin

While you are logged in as an admin, you can open the competition page before it goes live to check everything looks right. An Admin preview banner at the top confirms the competition is not visible to customers yet and tells you when it is scheduled to open. Only admins see this banner.

As an admin you also still see the normal ticket picker rather than the Coming Soon panel, so you can check the page exactly as it will look once it opens.

The same admin preview banner also appears on a competition that is not Active, reminding you that customers cannot view it or buy tickets.

Find your scheduled competitions

Your Competitions list helps you keep track of what is coming up.

  • The Starts column shows each competition's start date and time. Competitions that have not opened yet are shown in amber with a clock icon. Hover over one to see "Scheduled: goes live automatically at this time (if Active)."

  • The Show Only Scheduled Competitions filter lists just the Active competitions that are waiting to open.

  • The Show Only Live Competitions filter leaves scheduled competitions out, so it only shows competitions customers can enter right now.

Change the schedule

  • Open it early: set the Start Date (Scheduler) to the current time and save. It goes live straight away.

  • Push it back: choose a later start date and save. It goes back to being hidden, and it is removed from any customer baskets it was already in.

  • Pause the launch completely: switch Active off. It stays offline until you switch it back on.

Once the start time passes, there is nothing else to do. As long as the competition is Active, it opens for entries and appears across your site on its own.

Related pages

Create a CompetitionWhy a Competition Is Not on My Homepage

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