Creating Competitions
The competition wizard walks you through every step of creating a prize draw — from naming your competition to publishing it live. This guide covers each step in detail.
The Competition Wizard
Access the wizard from your dashboard by clicking Create Competition. The wizard has 7 steps, and you can move between steps freely before publishing.
Step 1: Basic Information
Enter the essential details for your competition:
- Title — A clear, attention-grabbing name for your prize draw
- Description — What entrants need to know about the competition and prize
- Category — Help customers find competitions by type (Electronics, Cash, Experiences, etc.)
- Start and end dates — When the competition opens and closes for entries
AI Description Generator
Click the AI button next to the description field to automatically generate a compelling, professional competition description from your title and prize details.
Step 2: Thumbnail
Your competition thumbnail is the first thing potential entrants see. You have two options:
AI-Generated Thumbnail
- Optionally upload a photo of your prize
- Choose a style template (Luxury, Modern, Bold, Tech, Gaming, Elegant)
- Click Generate Thumbnail — our AI creates a professional competition banner
Upload Your Own
Upload a pre-made image. For best results, use 1200x630px at minimum resolution.
Note
AI thumbnail generation uses DALL-E 3 and counts toward your monthly AI generation limit.
Step 3: Tickets & Pricing
Configure how tickets are sold:
- Ticket price — Set the price per ticket (in GBP)
- Maximum tickets — The total number of tickets available
- Maximum per customer — Limit how many tickets one person can buy
- Bundles — Create discounted multi-ticket packages (e.g. 5 for £20) growth+ plan
- Instant wins — Add surprise prizes that trigger on specific ticket numbers growth+ plan
AI Pricing Suggestions
Not sure what to charge? The AI pricing tool analyses your prize value and suggests an optimal ticket price and quantity to maximise revenue.
Step 4: Draw Settings
Choose how the winner will be selected:
| Draw Type | Description | Best For | |-----------|-------------|----------| | Scheduled | Automatic draw at a set date/time | Standard competitions with a fixed end date | | Flash | Triggers automatically when all tickets sell | High-demand, limited-ticket competitions | | Manual | You trigger the draw when ready | Flexible timing, live events | | Instant Win | Winners determined at purchase time | Engagement-focused, impulse purchases |
Every draw uses a cryptographic seed and deterministic selection algorithm. The seed, method, timestamp, and full entrant snapshot are recorded as an audit trail that anyone can independently verify.
See Draw Types for detailed mechanics.
Step 5: Compliance
UK prize competitions have specific legal requirements. The wizard helps you configure:
- Qualifying question — A skill-based question that makes it a legal prize competition (not a lottery)
- Terms & conditions — Auto-generated UK-compliant T&Cs based on your competition details
- Free entry route — Required by UK law — both postal and online options are configured
Legal requirement
UK law requires a free entry route for prize competitions. The platform automatically generates both postal and online free entry routes for every competition.
See UK Compliance for the full legal guide.
Step 6: Review
Preview your competition exactly as entrants will see it. Review all settings, check your thumbnail, and verify pricing before going live.
Step 7: Publish
Hit Publish to make your competition live. It immediately appears on your homepage and is accessible to entrants. You can pause or end a competition early from the dashboard at any time.
Managing Competitions
After publishing, you can:
- Pause — Temporarily stop new entries
- End early — Close the competition and trigger the draw
- Duplicate — Create a copy to save time on similar competitions
- View analytics — Track ticket sales, revenue, and entrant demographics