Omaze started in California. Then it gave up on the US and moved to London.
Now it is coming back. The pitch is simple - you can win a multimillion-dollar home for the price of a few coffees.
Omaze is a for-profit firm that runs prize draws. You pay for entries, and a chunk of that money goes to a charity.
One winner then takes home a luxury house. That is the part that gets all the buzz.
There is also a free mail-in entry. That is how these draws stay legal in most places.
The free route matters for the law. It keeps the draw from counting as gambling.
Think of it as a raffle. The prize on the table is a piece of high-end real estate.
The model became a big hit overseas. In the UK, the average home given away is worth about £2.9 million.
Winners take the house fully furnished, with no mortgage to pay. Entries there can start as low as £10.
In the UK, Omaze hands charities 17% of every draw. It also promises each partner at least £1 million.
Omaze says it has raised more than $250 million for charities. Single homes have drawn huge crowds of buyers.
The company also runs a monthly cash prize on top of the homes. The appeal is plain, since a few dollars buys a shot at a house most people could never afford.
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Two friends, Matthew Pohlson and Ryan Cummins, started the company in 2012. Back then it gave away celebrity outings, not homes.
It switched to UK home draws in 2020. Then it paused its US business in early 2023 and moved to London.
The exit was not quiet. Omaze cut 103 jobs on its way out the door.
Away from the US, it sharpened the formula. It learned how to sell a dream home at scale.
In the UK, the format took off fast. Omaze now runs new home draws almost nonstop.
It also spread to Germany last year. There it promises charities at least 500,000 euros per draw.
That tested model is what is now crossing back over the Atlantic.
The big questions are the local ones. First is which homes go up for grabs.
Just as important is which charities get the money. The other open question is how much of each entry reaches them.
Prize-draw rules also differ from state to state. That patchwork is part of what tripped up the first US run.
US marketing will likely ramp up before any draw opens. Omaze leans hard on big email and ad pushes.
A model that once walked away from America is back. This time it has years of practice.
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