How can I tell if a car competition is legitimate?

Check: Companies House registration (active, not dissolved), Trustpilot score and review volume, whether draws are streamed live, whether winners are published with names and evidence, and whether the site is signed up to the DCMS Voluntary Code of Good Practice.

What should I check on Companies House?

Confirm the company is active (not dissolved), has been trading for a reasonable period, and that the registered address matches what's on the site. Accounts filed on time are a positive signal.

Are live draws actually random?

Most operators use Google's random number generator or a certified third-party RNG, with ticket numbers visible during the draw. Rev Comps uses a physical ball machine. A site that won't show you the draw mechanism is a red flag.

Are Car Competitions a Scam? How to Check a UK Site

Q: What is the DCMS Voluntary Code?

A code of good practice for prize draw operators, published by the government in May 2026. Signatories commit to transparent draws, responsible gambling measures, and accurate marketing. Not all operators have signed it — check our site reviews.

By James Lane·Car enthusiast & founder·Updated June 2026·How we calculate

Most UK car competitions are not scams. The established operators — BOTB, Elite Competitions, Rev Comps, Dream Car Giveaways and others — have been running for years, deliver real prizes, and have verifiable winner lists. But the sector is unregulated, standards vary, and there are some operators who've raised legitimate concerns. The question isn't "are car competitions scams" — it's "how do I check whether a specific site is trustworthy."

Here's the checklist we use.

1. Check Companies House

Every legitimate UK business must be registered. Go to find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk and search for the operator name.

What to verify:

Status is Active — not dissolved, struck off, or in administration
Trading for a reasonable period — a company incorporated last month offering a £150,000 Ferrari is a red flag
Accounts are filed — late or missing accounts suggest a business not running normally
Registered address matches — if the site shows a trading address, compare it to the CH record

The company registration number is usually in the site's footer or terms and conditions. If you can't find it, that's a warning sign.

2. Read the Trustpilot score — but read the reviews too

Volume matters more than score. A 4.9/5 from 34 reviews is much less meaningful than a 4.5/5 from 6,000 reviews. Anyone can solicit a handful of five-star reviews. Six thousand reviews across years of trading are harder to manufacture.

Look at the content of the reviews, not just the number. Patterns to watch for:

Consistent mentions of prize delivery problems
Multiple reviews describing the same issue
Responses from the company that flag critical reviews as "illegal content" (a tactic some operators have used to suppress legitimate complaints)
Reviews that all appeared in the same short period (can indicate a coordinated push)

3. Find the draw recordings

A legitimate operator draws prizes in a verifiable way and records it. For most sites, this means a live stream on Facebook or YouTube where the ticket number is selected using Google's random number generator (visible on screen), and the winning ticket is matched to a named buyer.

Some operators (Rev Comps) use a physical ball machine rather than a digital RNG, with results live-streamed and recorded. BOTB uses PromoVeritas, an independent verification company, to certify results.

What to look for:

Draw recordings posted publicly (YouTube/Facebook) — can you find them?
Ticket numbers visible during the draw — not just a winner announcement
Named winner verified against the result

A site that announces "we have a winner" without showing the draw process is providing no verification at all.

4. Check the winners page

Most reputable operators publish winner lists with names, photos, and sometimes draw recordings. Rev Comps has over 6,300 named vehicle winners. Elite Competitions, BOTB, and Dream Car Giveaways all publish winners publicly.

A winners page with only a few vague entries, or one that hasn't been updated in months, suggests the site isn't actively drawing competitions at the pace it implies.

5. Check whether they've signed the DCMS Voluntary Code

The DCMS Voluntary Code of Good Practice for Prize Draw Operators (launched May 2026) is the government's benchmark for how legitimate operators should behave. Signatories commit to transparent draws, responsible gambling tools, accurate marketing, and published winner lists.

Not every legitimate operator has signed it — and signing doesn't make a site automatically trustworthy. But it's a useful shortcut. Details are in each of our site reviews.

Red flags — these don't mean a site is a scam, but investigate further

No Companies House number visible anywhere on the site
Incorporated in the last few months
No verifiable draw recordings
Winners page absent or clearly out of date
No free entry route (or a free entry route that's buried and hard to use)
Trustpilot score below 4.0 with a high review count, especially with unresolved prize disputes
Pressure tactics — countdown timers that reset, "last few tickets" claims that never resolve
No responsible gambling information or age verification

What this site does

We check Companies House, Trustpilot, voluntary code status, and draw transparency for every operator we list — and we note concerns honestly in each review. See the individual site reviews for the breakdown on each operator.

Last updated: June 2026. We may earn commission from links to competition sites — it doesn't affect what we say. About our reviews. 18+ only.