The highly-anticipated giveaway by The Block‘s billionaire buyer Adrian Portelli has been delayed due to technical issues during the raffle draw.
Portelli, who bought all five properties from the 2024 season of the construction-based reality show, planned to give away the properties or $8 million in cash to one lucky winner on behalf of his company LMCT+.
The draw was meant to take place at 8:30pm on Boxing Day. However, when it came time for the live draw of the winner on Facebook, the 75,000 people logging on to watch caused the LMCT+ systems to crash.
Portelli was left to buy time on the live stream while his team worked to fix the issues.
Unable to find a solution, Portellia took to the LMCT+ Instagram to announce that the draw would be postponed.
“If you did miss the Livestream, I have made the decision to draw the winners tomorrow. The gates are closed, and the promotion ran as it should,” Portelli said in a video.
He noted that although his team fixed the issues in time, he decided to postpone the draw so he could “personally go over everything” and “ensure that everything is running as it should” before the giveaway is continued.
“This is what happens when you run things live, unfortunately, this is how you know it’s all legitimate because things like this happen,”
“It’s annoying, I’m frustrated but I’d rather be safe and preserve my company’s reputation and my reputation and not disappoint you guys or break trust in any way.”
Portelli announced the competition in November, two days after buying all five houses on The Block‘s Phillip Island houses for a whopping $15 million, making it one of the richest competitions in Australian history.
“Under New Management! And as mayor of Portelli town, I would like to announce a world first. LET’S GIVE AWAY A FKN RESORT!!!” the billionaire wrote on Instagram.
“One Giveaway – One Prize – Winner takes the whole resort OR take $8,000,000 Instant Tax-Free Cash! Let the games begin.”
To have a chance to win the entire The Block resort, punters had to buy an entry pack which ranged from $10 for one entry and $500 for 500 entries.
Although it’s a doozy of a giveaway, it’s not the first time Portelli has raffled off houses from the reality show. In 2023, he raffled off Steph and Gian‘s Japandi home. However, this time around, the 35-year-old said it would be his last appearance on the show so he wanted to “go out with a bang.”
Although Portelli is known for his giveaways, he is reportedly facing nine charges in South Australia for personally conducting or assisting in the conduct of an unlawful lottery, with his company, Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd, which runs under LMCT+, facing the same nine charges.
These offences are in relation to multiple promotions by the entrepreneur and LMCT+ between January 2023 and May 2024, with the acting liquor and gambling commissioner alleging that Portelli and his business “did not hold a licence to conduct the lottery in South Australia”, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Portelli will have a mention hearing in the South Australian Magistrate’s Court on January 15. If convicted, he could face charges of $190,000.
