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Report

Understanding the consumer landscape in free draws and prize competitions

This short report explores consumer behaviour in relation to free draws and prize competitions

Published
22 January 2026

Last updated
22 January 2026 - Changes

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  1. Contents
  2. Conclusion

Conclusion

This report has explored the participation patterns, spending behaviours, web traffic, and gambling activity profiles of individuals engaging with free draws and prize competitions. Our aim was to better understand who participates in free draws and prize competitions, if and how they gamble and, and how this activity fits into the broader consumer landscape.

Overall, we have seen a range of experiences from participants of free draws and prize competitions, which appear to be a semi-regular activity for many users. This is shown by the consistent patterns of both financial and digital engagement.

We understand that the activity is popular among consumers, at a similar level to online instant win games, with a similar customer demographic profile to lottery draws.

We have seen that free draw and prize competition participation is likely to sit alongside gambling as an analogous activity, as 80 percent of those who spent money on a free draw or prize competition in the past 4 weeks also participated in a gambling activity. Participation in lottery draws, scratchcards and online instant win games were most popular for those who have participated in a free draw or prize competition.

Web traffic data has shown that engagement is shaped by broader seasonal trends in the consumer landscape as the monthly web traffic numbers reveal clear seasonal and cyclical patterns in user engagement. While visit numbers fluctuate month to month, there is a general upward trend toward the end of the year.

This work illustrates the power of using a single survey question, when paired with multiple data sources, to generate detailed and meaningful insights. Ongoing monitoring free draw and prize competition landscape will continue, as the question remains in the GSGB survey, enabling us to track trends in participation over time.

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Key Findings - Understanding the consumer landscape in free draws and prize competitions
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