The Birthday Draw sells a shot at £1 million for £1 or £2 a week. Prize competition sites sell smaller prizes with a fixed number of tickets. They are different products, so compare the parts that decide what you get for your money.
Side by side
| The Birthday Draw | Prize competition sites | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Weekly draw: match a date, a letter and a colour | One competition per prize, a fixed number of tickets, often with instant wins |
| Price | £2 an entry, £1 on a subscription | Varies by competition, from pennies to several pounds |
| Top prize | At least £1 million, shared if more than one entry matches | Fixed and stated: a car, cash, a gadget |
| Your chance | Not published (about 1 in 11.4 million for the top prize, our arithmetic) | Worked out from the ticket cap when it is shown. Hoardsy shows the chance per ticket for every prize |
| Share paid out as prizes | 40% of Net Entry Sales, set in the terms | Varies widely: work it out from the prize list and the ticket cap |
| Free entry | Post, same chance as paid | Post on lawful sites, same chance as paid |
| Closing time | Sundays 23:59:59. The postal deadline moves for bank holidays or postal delays | Set per competition. Some sites extend it for slow sales; Hoardsy never does |
| How the winner is picked | “Awarded by chance”; the method isn’t described | Varies: live stream, random number tool or, on Hoardsy, a public random number after the entries are locked |
Chance of winning
A £1 million prize needs millions of entries, so the chance per entry is tiny. A competition with 2,000 tickets gives each ticket a 1 in 2,000 chance at its main prize, and you can see that number before you pay. If you care about actually winning something, the published chance matters more than the size of the headline. See do competition sites have to show odds?
How much comes back as prizes
The Birthday Draw’s terms set the weekly prize fund at 40% of Net Entry Sales. Competition sites don’t all say. In our October 2026 study of 389 live competitions on 8 UK sites, prizes were worth 44p per £1 of tickets at a full sell-out, with a median of 51p (see the study and its data). The two figures use different bases, sales after deductions against a full sell-out, so read them as a rough guide, not a ranking. On Hoardsy every competition page lists each prize and its chance, so you can work out the payback before you enter: what payback means.
Subscriptions vs single tickets
The Birthday Draw halves the price for subscribers, who pay monthly by continuous payment authority and get extra subscriber-only draws. Competition sites mostly sell one-off tickets. A subscription is cheaper per entry but keeps charging until you cancel, and cancelled months aren’t refunded. Read is The Birthday Draw safe? for the refund rules.
Which suits you?
- Want a life-changing headline and don’t mind long odds: a weekly £1 million draw is built for that.
- Want a real chance at a smaller, named prize, and to see that chance first: a competition with a published ticket cap is the better fit.
- Either way, set a weekly limit and treat it as entertainment with a cost.
Sources: The Birthday Draw terms and conditions (version effective 7 September 2026, read 26 October 2026) and ITV’s launch release. Hoardsy runs a rival prize competition site and has no link to The Birthday Draw, ITV or Global. Terms change: check the current version before you enter.
How Hoardsy runs its competitions
- Closing dates are never extended for slow sales.
- There’s no minimum number of sales: every end-draw prize and top instant prize is awarded, sold out or not.
- Every competition page shows its prizes and your chance per ticket before you enter.
- Every competition can be entered free by post, with the same chances as a paid ticket. See free postal entry.
Keep reading
- All Hoardsy guides
- Is The Birthday Draw safe?
- The Birthday Draw vs prize competitions
- UK prize draw rules and the 2026 code
- What the ASA has ruled on UK competition sites
Last checked 26 October 2026.
Hoardsy
See the competitions
Choose a draw or an instant game. Every prize and its chance is on the page before you enter.
18+, Great Britain only. Free postal entry on every competition.
