The three worst teams each receive 14% odds for pick #1. Odds taper to 0.5% at the 14th slot. Picks 1–4 are drawn by weighted lottery; picks 5–14 follow record order (worst first).

Every one of the 14 lottery teams gets exactly equal odds (~7.1% each) for pick #1. The lottery still applies to picks 1–4; picks 5–14 go by record. Losing an extra game gives no lottery advantage whatsoever.

The 4 teams that just missed the playoffs (play-in zone) receive the highest lottery odds — equal to or better than any floor team. Being competitive enough for the play-in is the reward; bottoming out is not.

A rolling 3-year weighted score (50% current / 30% prior / 20% two years ago) determines each team's lottery weight. One bad season barely moves the needle — you need sustained futility to earn top odds. This kills one-year tanking but rewards genuine rebuilds.

Multi-year coefficient (similar to UEFA) plus head-to-head record versus other lottery teams. Hard caps enforce fairness: no team can receive the #1 pick more than once in 5 years, or a top-3 pick more than twice in 5 years.

The 8 worst teams by record play a single-elimination tournament. The tournament winner earns pick #1. Teams 9–14 get picks 9–14 by record. You need to be in the bottom 8 AND win games to land the top pick.

No lottery at all. The best non-playoff team picks #1; the worst non-playoff team picks last. This completely inverts the tanking incentive — losing hurts your draft position. Every team should try hard all season.

Draft order is determined by wins accumulated after a team is mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. Teams that keep competing hard after elimination are rewarded. This system is used in real life by the PWHL.

Proposed by Ron Bronson (2026). Activates at game 60 for all 30 teams. Starting chips are assigned by quintile: the worst 6 teams begin with 100, the next 6 with 80, middle 6 with 60, next 6 with 40, and the best 6 with 20 — giving bad teams more firepower without rewarding additional losing. All 30 teams have a pre-assigned home night where they may declare their double. Analytics teams bid with fine-grained precision (2 decimal places) to avoid ties. Chips are clamped at 10 — teams always have enough to bid next game. The 14 lottery teams' final chip totals determine draft order directly: most chips = Pick 1, fewest chips = Pick 14. Fully deterministic — no lottery draw. Ties (rare) are broken by worse record. Picks 15–30 go to playoff teams by record. Tanking is structurally impossible: losing depletes chips at the same rate regardless of intent.

Every team cycles through all 30 pick positions on a fixed 30-year rotation. No randomness — each team's draft slot is known years in advance. Tanking is completely pointless because record has zero impact on draft position.

The original NBA lottery system in use before 2019. The worst team receives 25% odds for pick #1, the 2nd-worst 19.9%, the 3rd-worst 15.6%, tapering sharply to 0.5% at slot 14. Only picks 1–3 are drawn by lottery; picks 4–14 follow record order.

All 14 lottery teams have exactly equal 7.14% odds for the #1 pick. Picks 1–4 are drawn by equal-weight lottery; picks 5–14 go strictly by record (worst first). Maximally random — record has no bearing whatsoever on landing a top-4 pick.

Only the 4 worst teams by record enter a weighted lottery for picks 1–4. The worst team gets the most lottery weight (40%), tapering to 10% for the 4th-worst. Teams ranked 5–14 receive picks 5–14 in strict record order.

The NHL Entry Draft Lottery determines only picks #1 and #2 by weighted draw. The worst team has 18.5% odds for pick #1, tapering to 0.5% for the 16th slot. Picks 3–16 are then assigned in strict reverse-standings order. Introduced in its current form for the 2024 draft.

MLB introduced a draft lottery in 2023 for the top 6 picks among the 18 non-postseason teams. The two worst teams share the highest odds at 16.5% each for pick #1, tapering sharply to 0.5% at slots 17–18. Picks 7–18 are assigned in strict reverse-standings order.