Are UK Car Competition Sites Legit? A 2026 Buyer's Guide

Every week we get the same question: are UK car competition sites actually legit? Short answer: yes, the established ones are — but the market has grown fast and not every operator deserves your money. Here is what to check.

How UK prize competitions are legal in the first place

Under the Gambling Act 2005, a prize competition is legal in the UK if it includes either a genuine element of skill or a free entry route on equivalent terms to paid entries. That is what separates a prize competition from an unlicensed lottery. The big established operators — BOTB, Elite Competitions, 7days Performance, Rev Comps and others — all comply with this.

The four checks we run before adding any operator to our directory

• Public live draws. Legitimate operators draw winners on Facebook or YouTube live with the ticket number visible on screen.
• A free postal entry route in the T&Cs. If you have to dig and still can't find one, that is a red flag.
• A registered UK company. Companies House takes 30 seconds to check.
• A track record of completed draws and prize handovers. Brand new operators are not automatically untrustworthy, but they have not earned the benefit of the doubt yet.

What does not actually tell you anything

Slick branding, social media follower counts, and celebrity endorsements are not signals of legitimacy — they are signals of marketing budget. Conversely, a small operator running a tight, transparent draw is perfectly legitimate even if their site looks 2014.

Where Competition Showroom fits

We track every operator in our directory in real time and score every draw with the Value Ratio so you can see which ones are returning the most of your entry money to the prize pool. Inclusion is never paid — see our methodology.