Frequently asked questions

Our quick start guide covers entering, draws, prizes and your spend controls in about a minute. Quick start guide →

NetCompetitions is a UK online prize competitions platform. You enter to win prizes across the categories that interest you (the latest tech, experiences, cash, and kit for your hobbies) for a low, fixed price per ticket. Every competition has a capped number of entries, a published closing date, and a draw you can verify for yourself. There’s always a free entry route, so no purchase is ever necessary.

Yes. A free account lets you enter, see your ticket numbers, view the competitions you’ve entered, and get updates about draws and results. You’ll need an account for the free postal route too, so we can match your entry to you.

Creating an account is free. You only pay when you buy tickets. And every competition has a free postal entry route with exactly the same chance of winning, so you never have to pay to take part.

NetCompetitions is operated by NetCompetitions Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 07533343, with its registered office at 17 St. Peters Place, Fleetwood, Lancashire, FY7 6EB. You can contact us at support@netcompetitions.co.uk.

Choose the competition you want, select how many tickets you’d like, and complete secure checkout. Each entry is given its own unique number, and your entries appear in your account straight away. You can also enter any competition for free by post. See the free entry section below.

Every competition has a maximum number of entries and a per-person limit, both shown on the competition page, so no single entrant can dominate a draw. Once the entry cap is reached, the competition closes to new entries.

Yes. Each competition page shows live entry numbers and your current odds, so you can see exactly how many entries have been taken, and how many remain, before you decide to enter.

Yes. Your entries and ticket numbers appear in your account immediately, and we send you an email confirmation.

Every competition has a fixed closing date and time shown on its page: the deadline to enter by either the paid or the free route. The draw then takes place on the published draw date, which is on or shortly after the closing date and time. The draw always goes ahead whether or not every ticket has sold. We don’t extend or roll over a draw, and a winner is always drawn from the valid entries received.

The draw date only changes in two cases. If every ticket is allocated before the closing date, we may bring the draw forward: the new date and time is shown on the competition, and everyone who has entered is told at least an hour before it (Terms 4.10). And in exceptional, unavoidable circumstances we may delay, suspend or cancel a draw (Terms 7.3).

Yes. Every paid competition has a free postal entry route, with exactly the same chance of winning as a paid ticket. No purchase is necessary.

You can enter any paid competition free by post, no purchase necessary. Send a postcard by ordinary first- or second-class post to NetCompetitions Ltd - Free Entry, 17 St. Peters Place, Fleetwood, Lancashire, FY7 6EB. Competitions that are free to enter online need no postal route: the free online entry is the free route.

Your entry must clearly include your full name, your full postal address, the email address registered to your NetCompetitions account, your date of birth, and the full title and closing date of the competition you’re entering. You’ll need a free account so we can match your entry to you, and your address must be in the United Kingdom. Your entry is then given its ticket number (or several, since one postal entry counts for as many entries as the price of a stamp would buy at that competition’s ticket price) and added to the same draw pool as paid entries.

Send one postcard per competition, each posted separately with its own stamp. Several entries sent in one envelope count as one entry. The full rules for the free postal route are in clause 4 of our Terms, which govern.

Normally within 30 minutes of the post arriving with us. Your entries then appear in your account with their ticket numbers, and we email you a confirmation. When a competition is close to its closing date, post received that day is keyed straight away, so a valid entry never misses the draw. Entries do have to reach us by the closing date, though: anything arriving after it can’t be included.

Yes. Once numbers are allocated, postal entries are treated exactly the same as paid entries and sit in the same draw pool, with the same odds.

Yes. A free account is needed so your postal entry can be matched to you. Postal entries also count toward the same per-person limit as paid entries for that competition.

Your entry must be received by the competition’s closing date and time. Anything that arrives after that can’t be included, and proof of posting is not proof of receipt, so please post in good time.

Nothing in how the winner is picked. All three open the sealed seed at the draw time and pick the winning ticket the same way. They differ only in how the result is shown: an auto draw has nothing to watch and the winner is told directly; an auto visual draw reveals the result on screen as a short game (a wheel, lottery balls, a vault, plinko or balloons); a presented draw has a presenter revealing the same result on camera.

Whichever kind it is, the result is decided by the draw, after entries close. What you watch afterwards shows it and cannot change it. See /how-our-draws-work for the three types and /auto-visual-draws for the games.

When a competition opens we generate a random seed (a long, unpredictable number from a secure random generator), seal it, and publish its fingerprint on the competition page. When the draw date arrives the draw runs automatically: the sealed seed is opened and used to select the winning entry from all the valid entries received. Nothing is picked by hand, and the seed cannot have been changed after the fingerprint went up.

We then publish that seed, together with a tamper-evident record of every entry that was in the draw, and a one-click verifier on the competition's verification page re-runs the exact calculation in your browser so you (or anyone) can confirm the winning number for yourself.

It means you don’t have to take our word for it. Every draw is fully reproducible: we publish the random seed used and a fingerprint of the exact pool of entries, so the result can be independently checked. And because that pool is locked in, it can’t be changed after the draw.

Yes. Every competition publishes its entry list before the draw, so you can see your ticket numbers are in. Entrants appear as a first name and initial, and you can search a list by ticket number but not by name: you can check your tickets, but you can’t look up another player. If you’d rather not be named at all, choose “Entrant” in your account settings and it applies to every list, past and present (winners are still announced).

Your ticket numbers are also always in your account under My Tickets, and every drawn competition publishes its frozen, anonymised entry ranges on its verification page.

If we can’t contact a winner within 30 days of the draw, or the winner doesn’t respond or has broken our Terms, the winner forfeits the prize and it is drawn again from the remaining entries, by the same method as the original draw (Terms 5.5). A prize can be redrawn up to three times, and every draw and redraw is recorded in a tamper-evident audit trail.

We’ll contact you using the details on your account and send a secure claim link to your registered email address to confirm your prize. Before we release any prize we confirm your identity, age and address, usually through a quick electronic check, so winners usually won’t need to send us documents (see our Terms). For cash prizes, we also carry out a simple bank name-match to make sure the payment goes to the right person.

You have 30 days from being notified to respond and complete your claim. After that, the prize may be redrawn.

Once you’ve claimed it with your bank details, we usually pay within 5 working days, and often much sooner. You’ll get an email when it’s sent. Payments usually arrive the same day, but some banks take up to two working days to show them.

Prizes won in UK prize competitions are generally not subject to personal income tax, but everyone’s circumstances are different. We can’t give tax advice, so if you’re unsure please check with HMRC or a qualified adviser.

For some competitions, yes. Where a cash alternative is available, the amount is shown on that competition’s page and is set by us. If a competition doesn’t offer one, that will be clear on the page.

You choose the cash alternative when you claim, and we pay it by bank transfer to a UK bank account in your own name (we run a quick check that the account name matches yours). There’s a short window to change your mind and switch back to the prize; after that, your choice is final.

Most prizes are ordered new once the winner is confirmed and sent straight to you by the retailer, so you get the full manufacturer’s warranty from your delivery date. Where a prize comes in a choice of colour, size or spec you pick on the claim form, and we order exactly that. Delivery is paid by us and tracked: we email you when the order is placed and the retailer emails you when it ships. When it arrives, one tap on the link we send confirms it has reached you; if it hasn’t, we’ll already be watching the tracking and will chase it. Arrived damaged? Tell us within 48 hours and keep the packaging. Develops a fault? Tell us within 30 days. We deal with the retailer for you either way. Larger prizes such as vehicles are handed over by arrangement (Terms 8.7 to 8.12).

Most prizes are supplied and sent by us. Some competitions feature a prize provided by a partner business (a sponsor), and if you win one of those, we’ll put you in touch with them to arrange delivery or collection. Experience prizes (like days out or activities) are booked directly with the provider, on a date that suits you, within any dates shown on the competition page.

Ticket prices are low and fixed, and the exact price per ticket is shown clearly on each competition page before you enter.

Your odds depend on the total number of tickets available for that competition and how many you hold. Because every competition has a capped entry pool, your best possible odds are known upfront and shown live on the page as entries are taken.

Competitions have different entry caps and prize values, so their pool sizes differ. The live odds on each page always reflect the current state of that specific competition.

From time to time, yes. Add a promo code in your basket and it comes off every competition it covers; where more than one code covers a competition, you get the best one. Codes apply to paid entries only.

You can sign up with your email address and a password, or with your Google account. We only ask for the details we need to run your account and process entries.

Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, all taken by Cashflows, our payment provider. Apple Pay and Google Pay appear on the payment page when your device supports them. You can also pay with site credit, on its own or alongside a card.

Yes. Add tickets from as many competitions as you like to your basket and pay for them all in one go.

Orders have a small minimum, shown in your basket. It’s the price of your tickets (after any bundle savings) before discount codes, so a welcome or promo code never takes you under it. Site credit counts towards the minimum; you don’t need to pay it all by card, and if your credit covers the whole order there’s no minimum at all. If you’re just under it, we’ll let you know before checkout so you can add a little more.

When your credit doesn’t cover the whole order, the rest is paid by card, and a card payment is always at least 50p. So we may use a little less of your credit and keep the rest for next time.

For example, with a £2.00 order and £1.80 of credit, we use £1.50 of your credit and you pay 50p by card. The other 30p stays in your balance.

If your credit covers the whole order, there’s no card payment at all.

Yes. Payments are taken by Cashflows, an electronic money institution authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and a PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment provider. You enter your card details on Cashflows’ secure page, so they never pass through our site, and we never store your full card number.

You can manage your details, email preferences, and password any time in your account settings. You can also close your account from there. We’ll delete or anonymise your personal data in line with UK data-protection law.

No. Each person may hold one account only. Duplicate accounts may be closed and their entries voided.

You must be 18 or over and a resident of the United Kingdom to enter.

Northern Ireland, yes: entry is open to residents anywhere in the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, and the free postal route works the same way. Entrants in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and outside the UK are not eligible.

Yes. From your account settings you can take a short break (which can’t be ended early), set a self-exclusion, or close your account permanently. You can also set voluntary spend limits on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

If entering competitions ever stops being fun, free and confidential support is available from the services listed on our Responsible Play page, which is linked in our footer.

Every competition has a per-person entry cap, and you can also set your own voluntary daily, weekly, or monthly spend limits in your account settings.

We collect only what we need to run your account, process your entries, and contact winners, and we handle your data in line with UK GDPR. Full detail is in our Privacy Policy.

Only if you opt in. You can change your marketing preferences any time in your account settings, and messages about your entries and draws are always kept separate from marketing.

No. Your entry goes into the draw the moment your purchase completes, so the service is performed in full at that point and there is no cooling-off period (Terms 7.1). Check the competition and quantity before you pay. If you have a problem with an order, contact us and we’ll look into it.

Entries are generally non-refundable once purchased. You won’t pay for tickets that sell out, though: we reserve your tickets first and only charge for the ones we can secure, and if some sell out while you’re checking out we’ll show you what we could get and the updated total before you pay. In the rare case a ticket still can’t be allocated after payment (a last-second clash, or you’ve reached the per-person limit), we refund the affected amount in full to your original payment method automatically. You don’t need to claim it, and it usually shows within 5–10 business days depending on your bank. If a technical failure means a competition can’t be completed, we re-run it and your entries carry across (Terms 7.3 and 7.4). In the rare case one has to be cancelled for reasons beyond our control, entries for it are refunded.