Competition websites are everywhere at the minute. Cars, cash, holidays, tech, even houses. I get asked about them a lot, usually by someone who’s seen a big account on Instagram and thinks “I could do that”. You can, but there’s more to it than a nice homepage and a Buy Ticket button.
I’m Kieran, I run InfaCloud, and I’ve been building websites for over 10 years. This is the stuff I’d want to know before spending a penny on a competition site.
If you’d rather have it built for you, have a look at our competition website design service.
First, Make Sure It’s A Competition And Not A Lottery
This is the bit people skip, and it’s the most important. In the UK, if people pay to enter and the winner is picked purely by chance, that’s a lottery under the Gambling Act 2005. Lotteries can only be run by licensed operators and certain charities and societies, so a normal business can’t just run one.
Competition sites stay on the right side of that in one of two ways:
- A genuine skill question. The question has to be hard enough to put a fair number of people off entering or stop a fair number from winning. “What colour is a red car?” doesn’t count.
- A free entry route. Usually a postal entry, which has to be properly promoted and treated exactly the same as paid entries.
In 2025 the government also brought in a voluntary code of practice for prize draw operators, covering things like the free entry route, age checks, and being open about how many entries there are and how winners are picked. It’s worth reading before you launch. I’m a web designer, not a solicitor, so get proper legal advice on your terms and conditions. I build the site around whatever your advice says.
Sort Out Payments Before You Build Anything
Not every payment provider will take a competition website. Some won’t touch them at all, others want to review and approve your business first. I’ve seen people spend weeks on a site and then find out they can’t take card payments. Check with your provider first, tell them exactly what the site does, and get it approved in writing.
What A Competition Website Actually Needs
Underneath the design, a decent competition site needs to handle a lot more than a normal shop:
- Ticket limits. A maximum number of tickets per competition, and per person, so it can’t be oversold.
- Ticket numbers. Every entry gets a number the customer can see in their account and in their confirmation email.
- The question. Asked before checkout, with wrong answers handled the way your terms say.
- Free entries. A simple way to add postal entries so they go into the same draw as everyone else.
- Countdowns and progress. How long is left and how many tickets have gone. This is what drives sales.
- Instant wins, if you want them, with the winning numbers locked in before the competition opens.
- Draw and winners pages. Most sites draw live on Facebook or Instagram with a random number generator, then post the result and a photo of the winner. That’s your best trust builder.
- Age checks and clear terms on every competition page.
I usually build these on WordPress and WooCommerce, which is solid, easy for you to manage and doesn’t tie you into a monthly platform fee per ticket.
Trust Is Everything
People are handing money over for a chance at something, so they need to believe you’re real. The sites that do well all have the same things in common:
- A proper winners page, kept up to date, with real photos.
- Clear contact details and a company name, not just a contact form.
- Fast pages, especially on a phone, because almost every entry comes from social media on a mobile.
- Simple wording. If someone has to read the rules three times to work out how to enter, they won’t bother.
Getting People To The Site
Most competition sites live and die by social media, which is fine, but it means you’re paying for ads forever. Having a site that can rank on Google for things like your prize types and your area gives you visitors you don’t have to pay for each time. Build your mailing list from day one too. Past entrants are the easiest people to sell your next competition to.
What Does It Cost?
It depends how much of the above you need. A simple site running one or two competitions at a time is a very different job to a busy one with instant wins and a dozen live draws. The quickest way to find out is to use my instant quote tool, or tell me what you’ve got in mind and I’ll give you an honest answer, including whether I think it’s worth doing.
If you want to see the kind of work I do, have a look at my website design page.
