Millionaire Arena
30-day soft-launch inside existing winamillion.com app
1 Strategic Intent
Shift winamillion.com from a pure-chance prize-draw site into a skill-entertainment platform. This beta validates one core hypothesis:
TV-show-format gameplay drives higher completion and repeat-play than number-matching draws or instant-win scratch games.
Success means the value curve diverges from the red ocean (bigger jackpot, cheaper ticket, more draw days) into uncontested space (immersive gameplay, skill progression, TV-brand authenticity).
2 Core Game: The Ladder
The player experiences a compressed, interactive version of the WWTBAM format.
2.1 Session Structure
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Entry fee | 50p per play |
| Questions per game | 15 (mirroring the TV show) |
| Difficulty curve | 5 easy → 5 medium → 5 hard |
| Time limit | 30 seconds per question (configurable) |
| Safe havens | Question 5 and Question 10 (guaranteed prize) |
| Question source | Licensed WWTBAM question bank + curated originals |
2.2 Prize Ladder
Prizes scale with progression. Exact values TBC based on margin modelling:
| Question | Indicative Prize | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | £0 | Must pass Q5 to win anything |
| 5 (safe haven) | £1 | Guaranteed floor |
| 6–9 | £2 – £5 | Incremental |
| 10 (safe haven) | £10 | Second guaranteed floor |
| 11–14 | £25 – £250 | Steep curve |
| 15 | Entry into 9pm live draw | See §3 |
Players who answer incorrectly fall back to their last safe haven. Players can bank and walk at any point after Q5.
2.3 Lifelines
Three lifelines per game, each usable once:
Design note: Lifelines are critical to the entertainment feel. They must be animated and paced to match the TV show's tension beats — not instant.
2.4 Presentation
- Full-screen dark studio aesthetic (the chair, the lighting, the hexagonal answer panels).
- Stings and sound cues licensed from the show: "final answer" confirmation, dramatic pause audio, walk-away moment.
- The question reveal, lock-in, and answer-reveal sequence must have deliberate pacing. No instant feedback. The delay is the product.
3 Live Draw Tie-In (9pm)
Players who reach Question 15 and answer correctly enter a nightly live draw.
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Eligibility | Correct answer on Q15 that day |
| Draw mechanic | Single RNG-certified draw from eligible pool |
| Prize | £1,000 (beta period) |
| Presentation | Short live or pre-recorded reveal in-app, push notification to all entrants |
| Rollover | If no Q15 winners: rolls over, jackpot increments by £250/day |
This ties the asynchronous skill game to a shared live moment — a daily appointment.
4 Progression and Retention
4.1 Player Profile
Each player has a visible profile showing:
- Total games played
- Highest question reached
- Total winnings
- Current streak (consecutive days played)
- Lifeline efficiency (% of lifelines that led to correct answers)
4.2 Leaderboards
| Board | Metric |
|---|---|
| Daily | Highest question reached + fastest completion time (tiebreaker) |
| Weekly | Cumulative questions answered correctly |
| All-time | Total winnings |
Top 10 daily players get a badge. This is the seed for the future cross-show "Arena" leaderboard.
4.3 Streaks
Playing at least one game per day maintains a streak. Streaks unlock cosmetic rewards (seat colour, studio background variants). No gameplay advantage — pure status.
5 Monetisation
| Revenue Stream | Detail | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Entry fees | 50p per play. Primary revenue. | Beta |
| Replay upsell | "Try again" after elimination, frictionless re-entry. | Beta |
| Lifeline recharge | Buy a 4th lifeline for 25p. | Future |
| Subscription | Unlimited daily plays for £X/month. | Future |
Target gross margin: 40%+ after prizes and platform costs.
6 Regulatory Considerations
The skill element is the key differentiator from pure-chance draws.
Key Legal Position to Confirm
- Game outcome is determined by the player's knowledge, not RNG (until the Q15 draw).
- The 9pm draw element is a prize draw and must comply with existing Gambling Commission licence.
- Entry via free postal route must remain available for the draw component.
- Terms must clearly separate the skill-game prizes (£1–£250, paid on merit) from the draw prize (£1,000, paid by chance).
Action: Legal review of whether the ladder component alone qualifies as a prize competition (skill) vs. lottery (chance). This determines marketing latitude.
7 Technical Scope (Beta)
7.1 Platform
- Embedded within existing winamillion.com app (iOS + Android + web).
- New screen/tab: "Millionaire Arena" — sits alongside existing draws, does not replace them.
7.2 Backend
- Question delivery API: serves questions by difficulty band, tracks used questions per player to avoid repeats within 30-day window.
- Session state: entry fee taken upfront, prize calculated on exit (walk-away, wrong answer, or Q15 completion).
- Draw eligibility: flag Q15 completions, feed into existing RNG draw infrastructure for 9pm.
7.3 Content
| Band | Count | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 170 | 500 total at launch +50 new per week |
| Medium | 170 | |
| Hard | 160 |
- Question review: two-person sign-off, no ambiguous answers, source citations for every correct answer.
7.4 Analytics (Critical)
The whole point of the beta is measurement. Instrument everything:
8 Launch Plan
| Phase | Timeline | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Build | Days 1–18 | Core ladder game, question bank, draw integration |
| Internal QA | Days 19–22 | Team playtest, edge cases, payout validation |
| Soft launch | Days 23–26 | Email to current winamillion.com users, in-app banner |
| Paid acquisition | Days 27–30 | £2k spend on targeted social ads to WWTBAM viewers |
| Read results | Day 30+ | 72h repeat-play data, completion funnels, revenue per user |
9 Success Criteria
The beta succeeds if:
- 72-hour repeat play rate >30% (beat current draw repeat rate)
- Median session duration >3 minutes (proves engagement, not click-and-hope)
- Q15 draw entrants show higher next-day retention than standard draw entrants
- Qualitative signal: players describe it as "playing the show" not "buying a ticket"
If all four hold → greenlight The Traitors and 1% Club formats for the full Arena build.
10 What This Is Not
- Not a quiz app. Prize structure and TV-show pacing differentiate it.
- Not a casino game. No crash, mines, or pure-RNG mechanics in the ladder.
- Not a replacement for existing draws. Runs alongside. Migration only if data supports it.
- Not the full Arena. One show, one format, 30 days. Multi-show, subscription, team-play comes later.
A Future Arena Vision (Post-Beta)
If the beta validates, the roadmap expands to:
| Format | Mechanic |
|---|---|
| The Traitors | Social deduction with cash elimination rounds |
| The 1% Club | Percentage-difficulty questions, last-player-standing |
| Cross-show leaderboard | Single "Arena rank" across all formats |
| Team play | Groups enter together, split winnings |
| Subscription tier | Unlimited plays, exclusive tournaments, escalating prize pools |
| Live hosted events | Weekly/monthly hosted finals with larger prizes |
The Arena becomes a destination, not a ticket shop.