Why a glossary helps
UK prize competitions sit at the intersection of consumer law, online platforms, and a small amount of cryptography. The vocabulary can move quickly between everyday language and specialist terms, and the difference between a trustworthy and an untrustworthy platform sometimes hides in a single word. This glossary is a quick reference. Skim it before you enter a new platform, or come back to it whenever a term in the terms and conditions sounds unfamiliar.
Entry and tickets
- Ticket pool: the full set of tickets available for a single competition. Sometimes called the entry pool.
- Ticket cap: the maximum number of tickets that can be sold for a competition. A cap is what gives you predictable odds.
- Total ticket count: the number of tickets currently in the pool, usually shown on the competition page.
- Per-user limit: the maximum number of tickets one person can buy for a single competition. Keeps the draw balanced.
- Bulk discount: a per-competition tiered percentage off when you buy multiple tickets in one order. Off by default unless the platform enables it.
- Promo code: a code that applies a discount or grants a free entry. Best discount usually wins, never combined with bulk or referral.
Free entry and legal terms
- Free postal entry route: the legally required no-cost way to enter a paid UK prize competition, usually a postcard sent to a published address.
- Skill question: a question or task with a non-trivial correct answer. One of the two ways a paid competition can stay outside the gambling regime.
- Gambling Act 2005: the primary UK legislation that separates prize competitions from licensed lotteries.
- ASA: the Advertising Standards Authority, which regulates how competitions can be promoted under the CAP Code.
- Action Fraud: the UK national fraud reporting centre, the right place to report a suspected scam competition.
- Trading Standards: enforces consumer protection law via local authorities, contactable through Citizens Advice.
Draws and fairness
- Prize draw: the moment a winning ticket is selected from the pool. Also used loosely to mean any random-selection competition.
- CSPRNG: cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generator. The technology behind a fair, unpredictable draw.
- Audit trail: the recorded log of a draw, including the seed, timestamp, and winning ticket number, used for verification.
- Commit-reveal: a fairness pattern where a hash of the random seed is published before the draw, then the seed itself is revealed afterwards so anyone can verify the result.
- Provably fair: a system where the fairness of a draw can be independently verified after the fact, usually via commit-reveal.
- Redraw: a new draw triggered when the original winner is disqualified, fails ID verification, or cannot be reached within the claim window.
Winners and prizes
- Winner notification: the email a winner receives at the moment of the draw, which starts the claim window.
- Claim window: the time a winner has to confirm and claim their prize, often 48 hours. Missed claims may trigger a redraw.
- ID verification: the document upload step (passport, driving licence, or similar) that confirms a winner is 18 or over and a UK resident.
- Ship gate: a platform rule that blocks prize delivery until ID verification is complete.
- Archived winner: a winner who has been removed from the active list, usually because of failed verification or claim-window expiry. The slot returns to the draw pool for a redraw.
Where to apply this
When you read a competition platform's terms for the first time, the unfamiliar words are usually the most important. If a term is missing from this list and the site does not define it either, that is a fair signal to ask before you pay.
Want to see these terms in practice?
Browse our live competitions to see ticket caps, total ticket counts, free postal entry routes, and audit-trailed draws working together on real competitions. The how-it-works page also walks through every step from purchase to winner notification, with the glossary terms used in context.