How to Enter Car Competitions for Free

Yes. You can enter most UK car competitions for free by post, with exactly the same odds as paid entries. This is a legal requirement, not a courtesy — operators who charge for tickets must offer it. Here's how it works.

Why the free entry route exists

UK car competition operators structure their promotions as prize draws rather than gambling. Under the Gambling Act 2005, a prize promotion is legal without a Gambling Commission licence as long as it isn't a lottery. The definition of a lottery requires payment for a chance to win. Remove the payment — by accepting a free entry — and the legal threshold isn't met.

This is why the free entry route has to be genuine: same odds, same draw, no extra steps that put postal entrants at a disadvantage. If an operator buried it or made it practically impossible to use, they'd risk reclassification as an unlicensed lottery.

The exception: BOTB's Spot the Ball competition uses the skill question route instead of the free entry route. Because it's a prize competition (skill, not chance), the free entry requirement doesn't apply. All other fixed-odds sites in our dataset accept postal entries.

How to write a postal entry

Every site has its own exact requirements in its terms and conditions. Read them before sending. The standard format is a handwritten postcard or plain unlined paper (not printed or typed), sent in an envelope, including:

• Competition name and, where relevant, the competition number or ID
• Your full name
• Full postal address (including postcode)
• Contact phone number
• Email address
• The answer to the skill question, if the competition includes one (entering with a wrong answer voids the entry at most sites)

Some sites allow one entry per envelope, others allow multiple on separate cards within the same envelope. Some allow a sliding scale of entries per stamp based on the ticket price. Dream Car Giveaways, for example, gives you more entries per postage stamp for cheaper competitions. Check the T&Cs.

Do not send cash, cheques, or payment of any kind. The postal entry is a free entry — payment alongside it would change the legal structure.

Postal addresses — verify before sending

What happens to your entry

Your postal entry goes into the same draw as the paid entries, with equal weight. The operators don't have a mechanism to identify or treat postal entries differently — they all go into the same ticket pool.

Late entries are typically excluded. Most operators set a postal entry deadline a day or two before the draw date to allow for processing. Check the T&Cs for the exact cutoff.

If an entry is invalid (missing information, wrong answer to the skill question, or late), it's voided. The responsibility is yours — a voided entry won't be contacted, and there's no appeal mechanism.

Is it worth it?

Financially, yes — one postal entry for the price of a stamp is better odds-per-pound than almost any paid ticket in a large draw. In a 50,000-ticket competition, one free entry is worth (1/50,000 × prize value) against a stamp cost. That's usually positive expected value.

In practice, the volume of postal entries is low relative to paid tickets, which means postal entrants aren't at any disadvantage in the draw. There's no mechanism by which operators can or would deprioritise them.

The limitation is scale: you can realistically post a few entries per week, not hundreds. And you can only enter competitions that are running when your letter arrives. Postal entries suit people who want to participate occasionally without spending, not people trying to maximise their entries across multiple competitions.

Last updated: June 2026. Postal addresses should be verified against each site's current terms and conditions. About our reviews. 18+ only.