Prize competitions are not licensed by the Gambling Commission, so there is no register that tells you whether a site is sound. What you can do is check what the operator publishes about itself and its draws. Most of it takes a few minutes, and the gaps you find are often more telling than anything the site says.
Who runs the site
A UK limited company has to show its registered name, company number, the part of the UK it is registered in and its registered office address on its website. Look in the footer, the terms or an "about" page. Then check it:
- Search the company on Companies House. The Companies House register on GOV.UK is free to search by name or number. Check that the company is active, that the name and address match the site, when it was incorporated, and whether its accounts and confirmation statements are filed on time or overdue.
- Look at the address. A registered office at an accountant's or a formation agent's address is common and not a problem on its own, but the site should still give you a way to reach the business itself.
- Find a contact route. An email address, a contact form or a phone number that a person answers. A site you can only reach through social media messages is harder to hold to account.
Some smaller operators trade as sole traders or partnerships and have no company number. That is legal, but they should still give a trading name, a real person or business behind it and a postal address.
Read the full terms
The competition terms are the contract between you and the operator, and most disputes come down to a clause nobody read. Make sure there are full terms, not a short list of rules, and look for what they say about:
- Changing the prize. Many terms allow a substitute "of equal or greater value". A clause letting the operator swap the prize for anything it chooses is weaker.
- Extending the draw. Whether the closing date can be moved if sales are slow, and how many times. See what happens when a competition doesn't sell out.
- Cancelling. What happens to your money if the draw is cancelled. A full refund to your original payment method is what you want to see; site credit only, or no refund, is not.
- The cash alternative. Whether one is offered, how much, and how soon it is paid. See prize or cash alternative.
- Publicity. Whether you must appear in photos or videos, or have your name and area published, to receive the prize.
- Per-person limits and eligibility. The ticket limit, the minimum age (usually 18) and who is excluded.
Check each draw, not just the site
Every competition should state a ticket cap and a closing date and time. Without a cap you cannot work out your odds, and without a fixed closing date the draw can run for as long as the operator likes. Look too for a free entry route on paid draws (see free postal entry) and for an explanation of how the winner is picked: a random number generator on a live stream, a third-party draw service or a filmed physical draw. A closing date that has already moved several times is worth noticing.
Past winners you can check
A winners page with first names, areas, ticket numbers and dates is a good sign, and better still if the live draws are kept online so you can watch one through. Cross-check a few: does the winning ticket number match the recording, do the dates line up with the competitions, and do winners appear on the operator's social media with comments from people who are not the operator? A page of stock photos, or winners for draws you cannot find, tells you little.
Reviews and their limits
Trustpilot and similar sites are useful for patterns: complaints about prizes not arriving, refunds refused or draws that keep being extended. They are less useful as a score. Reviews can be bought or encouraged in bulk, an operator that asks every customer for a review will collect more positive ones, and an unhappy winner and an unhappy loser leave the same star rating. Read the recent one- and two-star reviews and the operator's replies, rather than the headline number.
How you pay
Pay by debit or credit card, or a payment service with buyer protection, wherever you can. If you pay by card and do not get what you paid for, you can ask your card provider about a chargeback. A bank transfer is usually very hard to reverse. Never pay by bank transfer to an individual's account, and be wary of any site that only takes transfers or asks for a fee to release a prize.
The checklist
| Check | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Company details | Name, company number and registered address shown, and matching the Companies House record |
| Contact | An email, form or phone number, not only social media |
| Full terms | Clear rules on prize changes, extensions, cancellation and refunds |
| Ticket cap and closing date | Stated on every draw |
| Free entry route | Explained in the terms, with an address |
| Draw method | Explained, and usually streamed or recorded |
| Past winners | Named, dated and possible to cross-check |
| Reviews | No recurring pattern of undelivered prizes or refused refunds |
| Voluntary Code | A signatory, if the operator says so, and you can check what that commits them to |
| Payment | Card or protected payment, never a transfer to a person |
The government's Voluntary Code of Good Practice for Prize Draw Operators sets out standards on terms, transparency and prize delivery. Signing up is optional, so not signing tells you less than signing does, but it is a useful checklist in its own right.
How our ratings fit in
Every operator in our directory carries a trust tier, which records how much we have been able to check about them, and, where we have assessed them, a letter grade based on what they publish and the draw data we collect. A blank grade means we have not assessed them yet, not that they scored badly. How we rate operators sets out the criteria.
Quick answers
How can I tell if a competition site is legitimate?
Check that the site names the company behind it with a Companies House number and a contact address, publishes full terms, states a ticket cap and closing date for every draw, explains how winners are picked, offers a free entry route, and shows past winners you can check.
Are competition sites regulated in the UK?
Prize competitions sit outside gambling licensing, so there is no licence to check. Consumer protection and advertising law still apply, and operators can sign up to the government's Voluntary Code of Good Practice for Prize Draw Operators.
What are red flags on a competition website?
No company name or number, no ticket cap, terms that let the operator change the prize or cancel the draw without a refund, no free entry route, winners you cannot verify, and closing dates that keep moving.