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Statistics and research release

Understanding the consumer landscape in free draws and prize competitions

The Gambling Commission report on Understanding the consumer landscape in free draws and prize competitions

Summary

About our supplementary analysis and additional insights

The Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) collects our official statistics on gambling behaviour in Great Britain, gathering responses from 20,000 participant annually. In addition to official statistics, the GSGB captures insights on other emerging areas of interest as well as having wider capabilities for analysis and insights than the official statistic releases. This could include topical reports and further insights using GSGB data on emerging topics included in our adhoc and modular questions. This will form our supplementary analysis and additional analysis series.

If you would like to join our GSGB statistics user group, please complete the  GSGB Statistics User Group Sign Up form .

If you would like to provide feedback on the GSGB, associated outputs and/or publications, or would like to suggest content for the GSGB survey, please use the GSGB feedback form .

This short report takes a closer look at consumer behaviour in relation to free draws and prize competitions using 3 different data sources:

  • Gambling Survey for Great Britain
  • YouGov Finance open banking data
  • SimilarWeb web traffic and engagement insights.

This work also illustrates the power of using a single survey question, when paired with multiple data sources, to generate detailed and meaningful insights.

More information on the data sources and methodology can be found in the full report.

Key facts

Overall, 8 percent of respondents reported spending money to enter an online draw or competition for the chance to win a substantial prize such as a luxury house in the past 4 weeks. This is similar to the proportion of respondents who reported playing online instant win games in the past 4 weeks.

The majority (80 percent) of respondents who participated in free draws or prize competitions in the past 4 weeks, also participated in gambling activities.

Across the 20 free draw or prize competition providers analysed using open banking data, the average annual spend per user was £75.38.

Monthly web traffic data shows clear seasonal and cyclical patterns in user engagement, with a general upward trend and heightened activity in line with broader seasonal trends in the wider consumer landscape.

Details

More details on the legal distinctions between lotteries, free draws, and prize competitions can be found in our guidance.

More details on the research, methodology and findings can be found in the full Understanding the consumer landscape in free draws and prize competitions report.

Notes

This publication is primarily for anyone who has an involvement or interest in the gambling industry including government, licensed operators, trade bodies, international regulators, journalists, academic researchers, financial institutions, statisticians, consumers and local authorities.  

Data and downloads

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