Welcome to Real Competitions - Your go-to place for finding the best competition sites in the UK (and the worst)!

As there are more and more competitions, it is increasingly difficult to know which competition is legitimate, and which one isn’t. And even if you were to do your due diligence and as an example check the reviews of a competition; you might still get thoroughly mislead! I highly recommend giving my post about why you shouldn’t trust reviews on Trustpilot for a competition, or anywhere else for that matter.

Luckily for you; this is exactly the reason why this website exists! You are able to find legit competitions on this website that have been thoroughly investigated and reviewed and have scored a high Real Score. And equally, you will be able to quickly tell if there are any sticking points in a competition that might question their legitimacy if they have gotten a low score in the reviews.

If you wish to do your own due diligence about a competition, I’d still recommend reading through my criteria for giving the competitions a Real Score, and checking a couple of the reviews from the Hall of Fame & Shame. Doing so should give you plenty of pointers as what to look out for in a legitimate competitions – and ones that are borderline scams!

It can be extremely safe to enter some competitions! However, it can also be an absolute minefield when you are trying to find out which competitions are legitimate (and safe to enter), and which ones are not! I highly recommend doing your own due diligence before entering a competition, but also checking out some of my reviews on this website so you can find the best competition sites in the UK (and the worst)!

The majority of the giveaways are run as free draws in the UK, and some of them are run as prize competitions. As they are not regulated by the Gambling Commission, they are legal. However, the majority of the giveaways in the UK are not exactly compliant with the guidelines, therefore they are not exactly legal either. I highly recommend reading my article about the difference between the two, so you can identify and tell the difference between the two – but also to understand the legal requirements for the two.

I would like to argue, that the free entries won’t either win a thing most (or all) of the time, or they’re not just worth it in the first place. As discussed in my post about free competition entries, and whether it is even worth entering them: They really aren’t worth your time! There are more downsides to entering the free competitions that you may find, than potential upsides. Remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch!

I fully understand and sympathise with that sometimes we can be in a bleak financial situation (I’m still in one myself), and it’s only natural to look for easy ways out… Below is an example of what I got in the “People also search for results” after searching for “legitimate online competitions to win cash”, which means that there are plenty of people out there who are looking for ways to win money for free, and instantly:

The sad reality is, that even if there are plenty of people looking for winning cash instantly, and for free nonetheless… This doesn’t mean that there really is a way to do this. The best way to win cash online is to play for the paid competitions. However, if you can’t afford the paid competitions… I seriously think that you should not be playing in the first place. As every paid competition is mostly down to luck, what’s likely to happen is that you’ll just be worse off financially.

If you are in a financial situation that you would like to get out of; I’d argue that if you spend the time and effort that it takes to find ‘free’ competitions to enter spending something more productive instead such as meal planning, making small (but cumulative) positive changes to your life, learning more about ways to be frugal, and so on… You’d be a lot better off, and a lot quicker!

Some of us can change our lives by entering competitions or get a bit of extra cash here and there (like myself), but it is most definitely not a good idea to try and make a living or a constant source of income from entering competitions. More often than not, you will not be winning any money – or at least more money that you keep spending. So, much like in investing in the stock market; you should only part with the amount of money you are personally comfortable never seeing again!

And much like the stock market (think S&P 500 vs. LSE:AIM meme stocks), there are safer choices when it comes to entering competitions. So, make sure to check out the reviews of the best competition websites! 

If you are on the lookout for the best competition websites (in the UK specifically), please check out the list of recommended competitions on this site!

The best way to win money by entering competitions is to choose a few legitimate competitions (such as the ones reviewed and recommended on this website), and then only play a sum of money, one that you are still comfortable potentially losing. Finally, make sure you are ‘in it to win it’ so to speak. That’s all there is to it!

The odds of winning online competitions vary greatly between competitions, and sometimes even between the draws that the competitions themselves have! The most important thing to remember is: That the online competitions that you can enter and find recommended on this website, have better odds than the lottery does – which I never would recommend entering as you do not need to win a lottery jackpot to change your life! This is also a big reason why this website exists: I want to provide people with alternatives to the lottery, with actual odds of winning!