There are a lot of UK competition sites and, from the outside, they mostly look the same: a grid of prizes, a low ticket price, a countdown. The differences that matter are structural, and they are all checkable before you spend anything.
Draw sites versus instant win sites
Most UK competition sites are draw sites. You buy a ticket, the competition sells out or reaches its date, and a draw is held — often streamed on Facebook Live. You find out whether you won at that point, which can be days or weeks after you entered.
Instant win sites settle at least part of the prize pool at the moment your ticket is issued. Many sites do both: an instant-win pool that pays as tickets sell, plus a main prize drawn at the end. Neither model is inherently better, but they feel completely different to play, and it is worth knowing which one you are buying into.
Five things worth checking on any site
None of these require you to trust anyone. They are either printed on the competition page or they are not.
- Is the total ticket allocation published, so you can work out the odds yourself?
- Is the full instant-win prize list published with quantities, and does it show which prizes have already gone?
- Is there a free entry route, and can you find it without emailing support?
- When are prizes actually paid — at purchase, at draw, or after a fulfilment queue?
- What happens if a competition does not sell out: is it drawn anyway, or extended indefinitely?
Free entry and questions of skill
UK prize competitions have to be distinguishable from lotteries, and there are two standard routes for that: a genuine free entry alternative, or a question of skill that every entrant must answer. Sites use one or the other, sometimes both across different competitions.
If a site has neither, that is worth noticing. If it has a free route buried behind a postal address in the small print, that is technically compliant and practically useless — a free route on the competition page itself is a meaningfully different thing.
Where Treasure Square sits
We run instant wins settled at purchase with a main prize drawn at the end, tickets from 20p, published allocations and prize lists, and either a free ticket allowance or a skill question on every competition. We also run something most competition sites do not: free and paid treasure hunts on real UK town maps, where prizes are hidden under squares rather than drawn.
That last part is the actual difference. Everything above it is a competition site doing competition site things.
Frequently asked questions
Are UK competition sites gambling?
Prize competitions are not licensed gambling in the UK provided they include a genuine free entry route or a question of skill that determines entry. That is why you will see one or the other on every legitimate site. Treasure Square uses both, depending on the competition.
How do I work out the odds?
Divide the number of prizes by the ticket allocation. Both numbers should be on the competition page. If the allocation is not published you cannot calculate odds at all, which is itself the answer.
What age do you have to be?
Eighteen or over, and resident in the UK, on Treasure Square and on comparable sites.