“Picked live” asks you to trust the site. A provably fair draw lets you check it. Here’s how that works in plain English.
Step one: lock the entries
Before the winner is chosen, the full list of entries is fixed. Once locked, nobody can add, remove or reorder a ticket without the lock breaking.
Step two: use a random number nobody controls
The winner comes from a public random number published by an outside beacon, a new one every 3 seconds, with a signature anyone can check. The site can’t pick it and can’t predict it before it is published. Hoardsy uses a number published after the competition closes, so the entries can’t be shaped to suit it.
Step three: an outside timestamp
Each order is also logged in a public transparency log run outside Hoardsy (Sigstore’s Rekor), which proves the order existed before the random number did.
What you can check yourself
- Your own result: redo the maths for every ticket.
- The random number: check its signature on your own device.
- Prize amounts against the published prize table.
Anything that can’t be checked is shown as “Not proven”, never as passed. Verify is not an independent audit. The fairness page lists exactly what it covers.
What to ask any site
- Is the entry list locked before the winner is chosen?
- Where does the random number come from, and can I check it?
- Is there an outside record of the order and its time?
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
- What the ASA has ruled on UK competition sites
- Are online prize draws legit?
- Cash alternatives explained
- Instant win vs end draw
- How a provably fair draw works
Last checked 12 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.
