UK Prize Competition Glossary
Every term you are likely to meet on a UK competition site, defined in plain English. Each entry is marked ⚖ legal where the word has a meaning fixed by law, or jargon where it is industry vocabulary an operator can define however it likes. That distinction matters more than any single definition.
By Mitch Barnes · Last reviewed 7 September 2026
NetCompetitions is a UK prize competition operator. Some of the jargon below is vocabulary we use ourselves.
Why the legal and jargon labels matter
Some of these words are load-bearing. "Free draw" has a meaning set out in the Gambling Act 2005, and a site that uses it wrongly has a legal problem. Others sound equally official and mean nothing in particular. "Provably fair" has no agreed standard behind it, so two sites can both claim it while doing completely different things.
If a term is marked jargon, the word alone tells you nothing. Ask the site what they mean by it, and treat a vague answer as the answer.
Entering and tickets
Entry (jargon): One place in a draw. Not a share, a stake or a product. Your odds depend on how many other entries exist, not on what you paid.
Ticket (jargon): The same thing as an entry on most sites. The word is borrowed from raffles and carries no separate meaning.
Ticket cap, or maximum tickets (jargon): The upper limit on how many entries a site will sell for one competition. A published cap is what makes your odds knowable before you pay. No cap means your odds can keep getting worse while the competition runs.
Total ticket count (jargon): How many entries currently exist. Useful only if you can see it before buying rather than after.
Per-person limit (jargon): The maximum entries one person may hold in a single competition. Its purpose is to stop one buyer taking a large share of the pool.
Closing date (jargon): When entries stop being accepted. Worth checking against the draw date, and worth checking whether the terms allow it to move.
Rollover, or extension (jargon): When a site pushes back the closing date because the competition has not sold enough entries. Legal, and it makes your odds worse after you have already paid. Under the DCMS voluntary code, signatories undertake not to do it.
Free entry and the law
Free entry route (⚖ legal): The way to enter without paying, which a paid UK competition must offer unless it relies on genuine skill instead. It has to be a real choice, no more expensive and no less convenient than paying, publicised well enough to reach people before they enter, and it must carry the same chance of winning. Usually a postcard.
Postal entry (⚖ legal): The most common free entry route. Free means free at the ordinary rate, which the Gambling Commission takes to mean first or second class. A site demanding recorded or special delivery has made the free route more expensive than it should be.
Free draw (⚖ legal): The regulator's term for a competition that stays outside lottery law because it offers a genuine free entry route. Rarely used by the industry itself.
Prize competition (⚖ legal): The regulator's term for a competition that stays outside lottery law because it requires genuine skill. In everyday use, including on this site, it means any competition at all.
Skill question (⚖ legal): A question intended to make a competition depend on knowledge rather than chance. For it to do that legally, it has to be hard enough to stop a significant proportion of people entering or winning. Many questions on UK sites would not clear that bar, which is why the free route usually carries the legal weight.
Lottery (⚖ legal): You pay, and chance alone decides. Lotteries need a licence, and running one without is a criminal offence. A paid competition with no real skill element and no free route is an unlicensed lottery.
Raffle (⚖ legal): Not a separate legal category. A raffle is a lottery, permitted without a licence only where it falls into an exemption for small or non-commercial draws.
Gambling Act 2005 (⚖ legal): The legislation that separates lotteries from prize competitions and free draws.
Gambling Commission (⚖ legal): The regulator for licensed gambling. It does not license prize competitions or free draws, so an operator having no licence is expected rather than suspicious.
CAP Code (⚖ legal): The advertising rules, enforced by the ASA, covering how prizes, odds and closing dates may be described.
DCMS voluntary code (jargon, with real content): Short for the government's Voluntary Code of Good Practice for Prize Draw Operators, published in November 2025 and to be implemented by signatories from 20 May 2026. It covers free entry, draw transparency, prize fulfilment and player protection. Voluntary, unaudited, and the signatory list is public.
Draws and fairness
Draw (jargon): Selecting the winning entry once entries have closed.
Draw date (jargon): When that happens. A long gap between closing and drawing is worth a question.
RNG, or random number generator (jargon): Software that produces the winning number. On its own the term guarantees nothing, since every method from a spreadsheet to a certified service can be described this way.
CSPRNG (jargon): A cryptographically secure random number generator. Stronger than an ordinary RNG in a specific technical sense. Still tells you nothing about whether anyone checked the result.
Seed (jargon): The starting value fed into a random number generator. The same seed produces the same result, which is what makes verification possible.
Commit and reveal (jargon): A method where the operator publishes a scrambled version of the seed before the draw, then reveals the seed afterwards. Anyone can then confirm the result was fixed in advance and not chosen to suit.
Provably fair (jargon): A claim that a draw can be independently verified after the event, usually via commit and reveal. There is no agreed standard and no certification behind this phrase. Ask what specifically is published, and whether you could actually check it yourself.
Audit trail (jargon): The record of a draw: entry list, seed, timestamp, winning number. Only meaningful if it is published.
Third-party draw service (jargon): An outside provider that performs the random selection so the operator is not marking its own homework.
Redraw (jargon): A second draw held because the first winner could not be reached, failed verification, or missed the claim window. The terms should say when this is allowed.
Winning and claiming
Winner notification (jargon): The message telling you that you have won, which usually starts the clock on claiming.
Claim window (jargon): How long you have to respond before the prize can be redrawn. Often between seven and twenty eight days, but it is set by the operator, not by law. Check it.
ID verification (jargon): Confirming a winner's identity and age before a prize is released. Reasonable in itself. It should never involve a payment.
Cash alternative (jargon): Money instead of the advertised item. Usually well below the advertised value, because that value is normally a retail price rather than what the operator paid.
Runner-up (jargon): A secondary winner where the competition offers more than one prize.
Instant win (jargon): A prize attached to a specific entry number, awarded immediately rather than at the draw. Under the DCMS voluntary code, signatories do not accept credit card payment for these.
Money, odds and value
Odds (jargon): Your entries divided by the total entries. Unknowable unless the total is published.
Expected value (jargon): The prize value multiplied by your chance of winning. Almost always less than the ticket price, and any site claiming otherwise is doing arithmetic you should check.
RRP (jargon): Recommended retail price, used to state prize value. Frequently higher than the real market price and higher than what the operator paid.
Bulk discount (jargon): A reduced price for buying several entries at once. It improves your odds in proportion to entries bought, and it also increases what you spend.
Site credit (jargon): Money held in an account with the operator rather than refunded. Read what happens to it if you stop entering.
Subscription, or autoplay (jargon): A recurring payment that enters you automatically. The thing to check is how you stop it, before you start it.
Consumer protection and reporting
Companies House (⚖ legal): The public register of UK companies. Any legitimate operator is on it, and you can search it free.
Report Fraud (⚖ legal): The national fraud reporting service for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, at reportfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040. It replaced Action Fraud in December 2025. In Scotland, report to Police Scotland on 101.
Chargeback (⚖ legal): Asking your card issuer to reverse a payment for goods not received. Time limits apply, so act quickly.
Section 75 (⚖ legal): A protection making a credit card provider jointly liable with the seller, for purchases over £100. Most competition entries cost less, so chargeback is usually the relevant route.
Trading Standards (⚖ legal): Enforces consumer protection law through local authorities, reached via Citizens Advice.
The bottom line
The vocabulary is not settled, and that is the useful thing to know. Terms marked legal above have meanings an operator cannot bend. Everything marked jargon can mean whatever a site decides, which is why "provably fair" and "audit trail" should prompt a question rather than end one. If a site uses a word you cannot pin down and does not define it anywhere, ask before you pay.
Frequently asked questions
What does ticket cap mean?
A ticket cap is the maximum number of entries a site will sell for one competition. It matters because it fixes the worst your odds can get. A competition with no cap can keep selling entries indefinitely, so the odds you had when you paid are not the odds you end up with.
What is a free entry route?
A free entry route is the way to enter a paid UK competition without paying, usually by post. It must be a genuine choice, no more expensive or less convenient than paying, publicised clearly enough to reach people before they enter, and it must carry the same chance of winning as a paid entry.
What does provably fair actually mean?
It usually means the operator publishes a scrambled version of the draw's starting value beforehand and reveals it afterwards, so anyone can confirm the result was not chosen to suit. There is no agreed standard or certification behind the phrase, so the useful question is what exactly is published and whether you could check it yourself.
What is the difference between a free draw and a prize competition?
A free draw stays outside lottery law because it offers a genuine free entry route. A prize competition stays outside it because winning takes real skill. The industry uses "prize competition" for both, so the label on a site is not a reliable guide to which applies.
What is a redraw?
A redraw is a second draw held when the original winner cannot be contacted, fails identity verification, or does not claim within the stated window. The terms should say when a redraw is permitted and how long the winner gets before one happens.
What does RRP mean on a competition prize?
RRP is the recommended retail price, the figure used to describe what a prize is worth. It is often higher than the item's real market price and usually higher than what the operator paid, so treat it as a starting point rather than a valuation.