Search Google for “prizes” or “competitions” and a lot of the results are for pay to enter sites, more commonly known as raffle sites. These are sites that give you the chance to win cash, cars, campervans, holidays and even Freddos (Raffled-Up). Additionally there’s sites like Omaze where you can win multi million pound houses. To take part you need to purchase a ticket. Sometimes the number of tickets are limited whilst other times the prize is awarded regardless of the number of sales. Despite our reservations it’s all evidently big business because there seems to be no sign of the trend abating. And if anything it seems to be increasing with more and more brands jumping on the bandwagon, including daily deals site Wowcher.
Win A Holiday With Wowcher
Pay to enter prize draws at Wowcher aren’t totally brand new as we’ve spotted them before. However we wondered whether if it was a one off or just a trial. It does seem though that pay to enter prize draws are an interesting new addition to the retailer. At time of writing they’re offering entrants the chance to win a Walt Disney World Florida Holiday for 4 People worth £20,000. The prize includes return flights, Disney World Magic tickets, £1000 spending money, resort transfers, airport pick up, priority security at airport and airport lounges. Whilst the holiday sounds great the rest of the promotion maybe a little less attracive. To purchase this particular Wowcher will cost you £10 and this will get you 20 entries. Spend £20 for 70 entries or £29 for 150 entries. Note that there are early bird offers and extra chances to win via Early Bird offers. You have until the 3rd July 2022 to purchase tickets. Wowcher have opted to run the promotion without any upper limit to the number of tickets sold. As far as we’re aware from checking the terms and conditions the draw will take place regardless of the number of tickets sold.
No Purchase Necessary
If you fancy trying to win a £20,000 Walt Disney Holiday but don’t fancy the £10 entry fee then there’s some good news. This particular prize draw has a no purchase necessary route. Details for NPN option are given in the terms. You will need to print your full, legal name, home address, city, post code, phone number, email address and the full name of the prize draw you wish to enter (for example Walt Disney Competition), on either postcard or letter. Make sure you get the full name of the prize draw as Wowcher do tend to run more than one at a time. There’s a limit of one entry per outer mailing envelope or postcard but there’s no indication to how many NPN entries you can send in. If you are considering sending a NPN entry then our advice is do it as early as possible rather than wait until the last minute. This is because your entry will be considered for any early bird prize draws that form part of the promotion. In this Walt Disney Holiday case that’s a 3 night holiday in Disneyland Paris for four passengers.
Win A Range Rover Sport?
If you drop in on the Wowcher Free Deals and Competitions page then you’d expect to find all the current prize draws that they’re running. Apparently a new deal that has launched today is the chance to win a Range Rover Sport Plug-In Hybrid Worth £95,000! We’ve seen this particular prize draw on the site before (via Google search) so we’re not totally convinced it’s new. However before you get excited about spending between £10 and £19 on tickets there’s some small print to consider. According to the “fine print” it says that “this competition is currently not open or live. Promotion is to gauge interest only”. To add to the confusion you actually can’t buy tickets so we’re not quite sure how Wowcher aim to gauge interest. Don’t panic though because we suspect that this particular offer may be hanging around on the site – whether live or not – for sometime. A further check of the rules and it says that the “deal will be advertised on site until 27.04.2023”.
Our Verdict
Raffles or pay to enter prize draws look like they’re here to stay and unless The UK Gambling Commission intervene in the near future there’s not going to much in the way of legislation. This means limits on user protection, responsible gambling etc. which is something we think should be in place as standard. In our view Wowcher should at least set a limit on the number of tickets an entrant can purchase. Mind you if we had £10 to spend on tickets for a prize draw then we’d probably opt to head to Omaze instead. For the same price you can get tickets for the chance to win a £3million house in Cornwall. That all said both promotions allow No Purchase Necessary postal routes so that may be a lot more preferential. The problem with NPN options in a pay to enter prize draw is what happens to your entries, how are they treated and how are they included in the draw? Mind you we’d love to see a NPN entrant walk away with a star prize like those offered above.