A slightly earlier update this month because they’ll be another advent themed update in a week or two. Every year we make a note of putting together how Loquax makes advent comping really easy. By that we mean you don’t need to faff around with your own spreadsheets, bookmarks, folders etc. you just need Loquax’s free set-up. It takes away a lot of the hassle. However by the time we’ve remember to explain how to do this it’s half way through December and we’re writing down “write post for next year” reminders. If all goes well we’ll be going through all things advent in our next post. In the mean time here’s a few lines about comping and competitions that we’ve spotted over the last few weeks.
Win A House For 29p
If you had 30p handy you could buy yourself a Freddo. Or for just 1p less have the chance to win yourslf a brand new home. Elite Competitions have launched not only their big Christmas promotion but the cheapest win a house prize draw to date. For just 29p you could end up the winner of a 5 Bedroom Detached Home in Catforth, a Landrover Defender and £25,000 cash. In addition there are a whole bunch of instant win prizes involved in this particular giveaway. The instant win prizes include £60,000 cash (an instant win prize of £55K has already been snapped up). Whilst 29p is an absolute snip for a ticket we do have to tell you that low prices mean high odds. Elite Competitions are aiming to sell up to ten million tickets! At time of writing 18% have already been sold but there’s plenty of time to get involved as the live draw is scheduled to take place at the end of December. Don’t fancy the house? Well the good news is that if you win then Elite Competitions will let you accept a £750,000 cash alternative. If you fancy getting involved in this or any other prize draw on Elite Competitions then do use code ‘loquax‘ at the checkout for a 10% discount. For transparency we also earn a small commission (#AD).
“Free Draws Must Be Regulated”
Before you all get excited this headline actually refers to pay to enter prize draw sites and not to your run of the mill free to enter prize draws and competitions. According to an article in iGaming, the Chairman of The UK’s Lotteries Council is calling for more regulation. As we’ve mentioned a few times now on this blog, and across other content on Loquax, prize draw sites like Bounty Competitions, That Prize Guy and even Omaze are not regulated or licensed in the same way as bingo, slots or sportsbook sites. There is a hazy blur between pay to enter prize draw sites and gambling and many of these sites run in a way that would not be permissable by a gambling brand (e.g. urgency to purchase, child attractive images, payment by credit card, no safe play options etc.). This isn’t to say they’re doing anything wrong because they’re not, but current legislation is outdated and needs to reflect the change in the prize draw landscape. One thing that we don’t agree with is that multi-million pound prizes should be the sole preserve of The National Lottery (UK Lotteries Council Blog). Enforcing prize value limits on to Omaze for example could essentially see that platform close. We’d rather the powers that be look at platforms that extend their closing dates, don’t reveal their winners and offer high value prizes but fail to deliver them due to insufficient sales. 2025 could bring about a lot of change for this sector, but we’ll only know the effect on prize draws and competitions if/when any such changes actually come.
The Millionaire Draw With Stephen Webb
If you’re a fan of Googlebox you might be wondering what Stephen Webb is up to these days? Stephen left the series last year and was due to appear on Dancing On Ice. Sadly he broke an ankle and had to pull out. He subsequently has also appeared on Celebs Go Dating. Away from the TV you can now find Stephen fronting a brand new competition website called The Millionaire Draw. The aim of the site is to “give away one million pounds and an additional six life-changing prizes in every draw, every time”. To enter you need to purchase a bundle of tickets that start from £10. The site claims that they “payout over 86% of all sales from each draw (the highest in the UK), which means better odds of winning”. We think this is confusing as the payout doesn’t effect the chances of winning. The number of tickets and the number of prizes are what matters. Anyway scrape away the showbiz from the site and it’s simply a pay to enter prize draw site where there are 150,000 tickets to be sold by the closing date of 7th November 2025. The Millionaire Draw is showing the number of tickets sold as a way to be transparent but this is what a lot of sites already do and it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. If sales are flying out it creates urgency to purchase, but if they’re hardly moving then why would you buy a ticket? At the moment ticket sales aren’t flying despite Stephen’s best efforts on social media – maybe he should run a free prize draw to help build an audience! We’ve blogged before about how hard it is to get these kind of ventures off the ground and a celebrity in the mix doesn’t make it easier. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes especially as it’s the kind of venture that The UK’s Lotteries Council would like to see regulated.
How Much Do ITV Make From Competitions
Sticking with celebrities, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here returns to our screens this month and it’d be a massive surprise if there wasn’t a competition running throughout the series. ITV do love their competitions and at £2 an entry via SMS or the online paid option they must generate some decent revenue? But how much do ITV make from competitions? According to The Daily Express ITV “earned a whopping £84m from entries” in 2019. However the very light in content article doesn’t provide any other information other than “the broadcaster don’t tend to share figures for the number of entries”. So no one knows the odds of winning or how much money is generated. ITV Competitions are interesting though because they are essentially pay to enter draws that offer big cash prizes. At time of writing there were 2 x £100,000 prizes alongside a £70k, £80k and £50k competition. These are no major differences to prize draws being run by Bounty Competitions, Elite Competitions, McKinney etc. They are pay to enter, they are for big money prizes and there are no charitable donations. ITV do limit entrants to 30 per competition but that’s still quite a hefty layout. However no one seems to be shining the spotlight as vehemently on ITV in terms of regulation. If pay to enter prize draw sites like Omaze end up being regulated then how will this effect the giveaways offered by ITV which no doubt generate considerable income for them?
Christmas Jumper Competitions
Whilst advent comping tends to take the spotlight as we head into December, there are plenty of brilliant festive giveaways. There are still loads of advent calendars up for grabs and quite a few Christmas Jumpers too. Irn Bru for example are giving away thousands of Christmas jumpers in two draws that run until the 5th December 2024. You can enter once for each draw for the chance to win either a small, medium or large jumper. Each week there are 333 of each size to be won. The downside of this giveaway is that it’s for Scottish residents only. Less geo-restrictive are Birra Moretti who have 20 jumpers to be won in their prize draw. You can enter this one daily until the 2nd December. Brewers Paints always have a jumper giveaway at this time of year and there’s no exception for 2024. Visit Instagram before the end of November to enter for the chance to win 1 of 100 jumpers. The prize draw also is on Facebook but if you don’t have social media then there’s an email entry option too. Another brand who always jumps on the Christmas Jumper bandwagon are Guinness. They’ve not gone live just yet but this Christmas competition page suggests that it’ll start from the 14th November. Last year they had 1000 of them to be won and entries could be made daily. Hopefully they’ll be something similar for 2024.
Comping Chat & Freebies
We appreciate that not everyone is a fan of forums and that many of you rarely venture outside the exciting listing sections of Loquax. However we do advise that you occasionally check in on the forums as it’s where we post announcements and share anything useful comping wise. Now forums can be full of chit chat and ours is no different but thanks to prefixes you can filter out things. So for example Comping Chat will just show you comping related posts. If you’d used it recently then you’ll know about prize draws appearing in newsletters and Caffe Nero’s new app giveaway. There’s also a monthly “what have you won…” post that is always started by a poem by one of the regulars. As well as competitions we also occasionally post up a few Freebies too. Recent posts under this prefix are how to get a Letter From Santa off The Royal Mail, how to get free tickets for The National Lottery Big Bash and how to pick up some free crisps at Tesco. Perhaps not the most exciting things but they all help add to the Loquax experience and let’s face it, everyone loves a freebie don’t they!
Lidl’s Christmas Freeway Tour
Lidl will be taking their version of the Coca Cola truck out on tour this festive season and if you’re close to a stop-off point then you might want to take a visit because there’s a chance of winning prizes. The Freeway On The Freeway Events start from the 14th November and run until the 1st December. Destinations include Dundee, Harrogate, Hull, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, Wrexham, Luton, Bournemouth and Southampton. If you can attend then make sure you’re near the front of the queue as the first 250 visitors at each of the 9 stops will receive present boxes made up of items from the middle aisle. Furthermore, 1 in 10 boxes will also contain a ‘Golden Ticket’ giving shoppers £100 towards their festive food shop at Lidl. If you’re not amongst the lucky winners then they’ll be some festive treats to try. On top of that, according to Lidl’s PR, “visitors can submit a wish that would make Christmas truly magical for them and their family – whatever that may be. In the spirit of creating a magical Christmas with Lidl, the retailer will then grant a number of them, making dreams big or small come true”. Let us know if you get to see the Freeway Tour Truck and if you win a prize.