FAQs · Prize draws for competitions & promotions in the UK

randomdraws.co.uk is an online service focused on helping you randomly select winners for your chance based competitions and prize draws.

Use our free Random Number Generator to draw winners for raffles.

Agencies, law firms, bloggers and brands in the UK trust our service to hold independent/third party random draws.

We are not affiliated or associated with any of our customers.

Results are drawn randomly (based on the laws of chance) by our system from your list of entries, and will provide fair and objective winners. You can be confident that there is no bias as our system is built specifically for prize draws.

• Same low fee regardless of how many entries you have
• No monthly subscription required
• Easy to use wizard
• Option to schedule draw
• Keeps a record of the draw
• We specialise in draws for prize draws. Nothing else.
• Option to hold live draw
• Option to publish winners
• Option to allow entrants to check if they were part of the draw

randomdraws.co.uk keeps a record of all of your draws, sortable by client and draw. Keeping all your draws in one spot is a good way to manage your promotional activity.

Use our service to perform compliant random draws for your clients and keep safe records in one spot for possible audit purposes.

Contact us to discuss your requirements.

Visit our instant win service InstantWinAPI to handle your instant win requirements.

Yes, click here to download our walkthrough document.

Your email address and a chosen password.

You are able to change your password in the Accounts section, after you log in. The password must be at least 5 characters in length.

Click here to reset your password. We will email you instructions of how to do so.

You can opt out of future emails in the Accounts section, after you log in.

Agencies and brands are using our service because they want their draws to be seen as independent and unbiased. They also want to keep records of their draws for potential audit purposes. While you may use your own methods, our service guarantees that the results are sufficiently random for your purposes consistent with the requirements of Rule 8.24 of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) CAP Code.

The draw location is the official address where you intend to perform the draw (e.g. your office). You do not need to reference us in any way in your terms and conditions.

In general, the auditors will verify that the draw occurred at the location and day/time specified in the prize draw's terms and conditions, and that it was performed in an unbiased manner with with each entrant having a fair and equal chance of winning.

If you registered an account with us when you held the draw, you will have a time stamped record of the draw showing the randomly selected winners and the entries from where the winners were drawn.

By using randomdraws.co.uk, you are effectively using a third party system that is independent from you, the promoter of the prize draw.

Yes. If you have uploaded an entries file, we can publish the winners of your draw. To set up winner publication, click the Set up button in the winner publication section on the draw's detail page. You may set up publication before a scheduled draw occurs, or at any time after. Once set up, a link will be provided to you that can be shared with the public.

We also allow you to optionally customise this page to include your brand's colours, images, and more.

You have the option to register an account with us so that we can keep records of each draw that you perform, OR you can proceed without an account and we will delete the draw records after the draw.

You should generally keep records of your draws for potential audit purposes.

We keep all of your records confidential and access to your past draws are via secure password. We will never share your information with anyone and we do not store your credit card details.

randomdraws.co.uk uses a 256-bit SSL certificate, ensuring all data is encrypted end-to-end. Your entrant and winner data is private and secure.

If you prefer, entry data can be anonymised or truncated before uploading. For instance, upload only the row ID numbers or some other unique identifier which you can match with your records after the draw. This means that none of your private data will ever be uploaded or stored.

It is not mandatory to register an account with us in order to perform a draw. However, note that this will mean that you will not be able to access past draws. After you perform an anonymous draw, we will delete the draw details from our servers.

Entry data can be anonymised or truncated before uploading. For instance, upload only the row ID numbers or some other unique identifier which you can match with your records after the draw. This means that none of your private data will ever be uploaded or stored.

No.

If you are concerned about privacy, or cannot upload confidential entrant details, we suggest you anonymise or truncate your data before uploading. For instance, upload only the row ID numbers or some other unique identifier which you can match with your records after the draw. This means that none of your private data will ever be uploaded or stored.

Alternatively, you may simply specify the number of entries to draw from instead of uploading a file. We'll draw row numbers for you to match against your list. It is your responsibility to provide an accurate number and to match the results to the correct entries.

Our service fees are listed on the pricing section of the homepage.

We accept Amex, MasterCard and VISA using Stripe.com or you can pay by PayPal.

We do not charge a credit card fee.

The fee to perform a draw is the same regardless of how many entries or winners you require. The limits are: 20,000,000 entries, 1,000,000 winners, and a maximum upload size of 200MB (if using an entries file). If uploading a zip file, the unzipped entries file has a maximum file size of 300MB.

If you require greater limits, please contact us.

Please contact us if you are a high volume user and would like to discuss alternative arrangements.

You can select your billing currency using the currency selector at the top right of the site.

Yes. You can pre-purchase 10 draws, which reduces the cost of each draw by approximately 40%. You can also pre-purchase 100 draws, which reduces the cost of each draw by approximately 60%.

You have 24 months, from the date of purchase, to use your credits. If you pre-purchase additional draws before the expiry date, any unused credits that you may have at that time will receive the same 24 month expiry as the additional credits (effectively extending the expiry date of the original credits).

Log in to view your remaining credits. You can purchase additional draw credits before they expire (which will extend the expiry date of the original credits).

We are unable to offer a refund on unused credits, regardless of the length of the expiry period.

You can't transfer credits to another account.

You do not need to pre-purchase draw credits.

randomdraws.co.uk is for business use and the supply of our service is subject to the reverse charge mechanism, meaning that we do not add VAT to the transaction.

You will be sent a receipt via automatic email when you transact.

The receipt will indicate a VAT amount of zero, as the transaction is subject to the reverse charge mechanism.

Contact us if you experienced any issues with the service and would like to receive a refund.

• Name of draw and organisation
• A list of entries (tsv, csv, txt, or zip), or the number of entries
• Prize quantities
• Choose to draw immediately or schedule
• Sign up with email address and a preferred password OR proceed anonymously
• Pay for single draw or pre-purchase 10 or 100 draws
• Download randomly generated winners

Yes, our free demo feature allows you to run through the entire process from start to finish for free, without requiring an account.

Demo draws can test our full set of features, including advanced uploads, live draws, entry checking, winner publication, and page branding.

Instead of uploading, you will select an example entries file and will be limited to a small amount of prizes. Demo draws will not be associated with your account if you are logged in. They will be removed and become inaccessible after a few days.

Click here to try a free demo draw.

If you have the eligible entries available on a spreadsheet or alike and you know how many prizes you are awarding, it may take you less than 2 minutes. The random draw wizard is really easy to use and there are only a few steps to go through.

The draw occurs immediately after you confirm and pay for the draw. Or you can schedule the draw to occur at a future time and day.

Yes. You can set up your draw to be performed at a specified time and day in the future. We will automatically send you an email to confirm when the draw has occurred. There is no additional cost to schedule the draw.

Note that in cases where the draw require, or have the possibility of, entrants or auditors attending the draw, you should ensure that you are present at the draw location at the scheduled time and day.

txt, csv, tsv, or zip. If you would like to use an Excel file, please save it as a CSV before uploading. The maximum file size is 200MB. Do not password protect it.

You may zip the file, but the unzipped entries file must not exceed 300MB. Multiple txt, csv, or tsv files cannot be present in the zip file.

Please represent the entries in rows. For example, 10 rows equals 10 entries (or 11 if you have a header row). We also support advanced upload options, such as weighted draws. In this instance, your file should contain one entrant per row, with a column containing the amount of entries/tickets that entrant has. Further instructions and options can be viewed in the wizard.

It is up to you what content you include in the rows, as long as you can identify who the winners are based on the data. This could be name, customer ID, ticket number, email, phone number or any other data that helps you identify who the entrants are.

Please remove any blank rows.

Alternatively, you may also simply specify the number of entries you wish to draw from. We'll draw row numbers for you to match against your list. It is your responsibility to provide an accurate number and to match the results to the correct entries.

Yes. A weighted or ticketed draw allows each entrant to have a different chance to win. This is an optional feature.

To set up a weighted or ticketed draw, select the Advanced Draw option in the wizard. Your entries file should contain one entrant per row, and must include a column containing the amount of entries/tickets that entrant has. All entrant rows must contain a whole number value in this column to use this feature. Up to 20 million entrants and 1 billion tickets are supported.

The number of entries or tickets directly affects that entrant's chance to win. For example, an entrant with 20 tickets would have twice the chance to win of an entrant with 10 tickets.

The header row is usually the first row in your file and may contain descriptions/headings (eg first name, last name, email, phone number) relating to the entries. We ask you whether your file contains this header row so that we can accurately identify the actual entry rows (entries)

You are able to view the randomly generated winners on the results page and you can also download them to an Excel document. Each row on the document represents one winner for one specific prize.

Please ensure that you upload the correct/final entry and prize list, as you are not able to edit a draw once submitted. Please contact us to organise a new draw.

You should generally allocate the major prize to the first winner and the minor ones after that, so that everyone has a chance to win the more valuable prize. The draw wizard will remind you to do so when you set up the draw.

Only upload duplicate entries if the terms and conditions of your competition allows for multiple entries and the same winner can win multiple times. If you want to prevent an entrant with multiple chances from winning more than once, we suggest using our advanced draw option which can be selected on Step 2 of the wizard.

Contact us to discuss your requirements.

To help you ensure integrity, we keep a record of all draws completed. If you do not want us to store any details of the draw, you can hold an anonymous draw.

Please contact us if you would like us to help with a bespoke draw or want us to perform the draw for you.

Yes. If you have uploaded an entries file, a live draw can be held. To set up a live draw, click the Set up button in the live draw and winner publication section on the draw's detail page. A link will be provided to you that can be shared with the public. The link will direct visitors to a page containing the draw's details and a live countdown to the draw time. Once drawn, this page will become a winner publication page, displaying the winners of the draw that just occurred.

You may optionally customise this page to include your brand's colours, images, and more.

We also offer Screen share mode, which allows you to stream, screen share, or otherwise publicly display the draw process while preserving your privacy and obscuring details related to the draw.

Screen share mode disables credit card payments for your privacy, and hides your personal account data, draw numbers, and certain entrant data. You can optionally set the visibility of your draw's entry count.

After you log in, click the account menu and then click Screen share mode to configure.

Yes, we offer a free optional entry check page for all draws that have an uploaded entries file. After scheduling or completing the draw, find the "Entry checking" section on the draw detail page and click "Set up entry checking".

Here, you can select a column that contains a unique identifier field, like Ticket Number, Receipt ID, etc. The data from this column isn't publicly visible, but entrants can query your entries file to determine if their unique identifier exists in this column.

You can select whether entrants receive the total number of entries they have, or simply a yes/no response.

You may optionally customise this page to include your brand's colours, images, and more.

If you also select to publish your winners, the entry check feature will appear on your publication page. Otherwise, a unique entry check URL will be generated that you can share with your entrants.