No purchase is necessary to enter or win. You can enter any competition completely free by post. Free postal entries receive the same number of entries and exactly the same chance of winning as paid online entries. Same draw, same odds.
Our free £500 launch draw is open 1 to 30 October. You enter online with a free account and one click, with no purchase ever: enter the launch draw free.
Why we offer a free route
A genuine free entry route of equal standing, together with the skill question, is what keeps Grand Draws competitions lawful prize competitions and free draws under the Gambling Act 2005, outside the definition of a lottery. It is not small print we would rather you missed. It is a core part of how we operate.
How to enter for free by post
Send a postcard, or an unenclosed sheet of paper, by first or second class post. Write all of the following on it:
- Your full name, date of birth, address, email and contact number;
- The exact name of the competition you wish to enter;
- Your answer to that competition’s skill question;
- A statement that you are 18 or over and resident in Great Britain.
Post it to: Grand Draws, Unit 12, Tilstock Crescent, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY2 6HW
If you would rather not write it all out, use our printable entry form. It is one page, it lists everything we need, and it makes your entry much less likely to be rejected for a missing detail. You do not have to use it: a plain postcard with the details above counts exactly the same.
The rules that keep it fair
These exist so that one person cannot post two hundred slips in a single envelope and swamp a draw. A genuine entry meets all of them without having to try.
- One entry per envelope. Each envelope counts as one entry, equivalent to one paid ticket. Several slips in one envelope still count as one entry.
- The envelope must be sealed and carry a valid stamp. We cannot accept anything sent postage due, or anything hand delivered.
- You may send more than one envelope, up to the same maximum-entries limit that applies to paid entries for that competition.
- Entries must be received before the competition’s closing date and time. Proof of posting is not proof of receipt, so allow time for delivery.
- Illegible entries, or entries missing any required detail, may be rejected.
- Free entries must answer the skill question correctly to qualify, exactly like paid entries.
Instant wins
Where a competition includes instant wins, a postal entry can win them on exactly the same terms as a paid one. There is no separate prize pool for postal entries and no difference in the odds.
This is a consequence of how the prizes are placed rather than a policy we apply. Before a competition opens, each instant prize is attached to a particular ticket number. Postal entries draw their ticket numbers from the same single sequence as paid tickets, so a postal entry holding a prize-carrying number wins that prize, and no other entry can hold the same number.
Postal entries also always qualify for the main draw, on the same odds as a paid ticket.
What happens to your postcard
Every valid postal entry is allocated real ticket numbers from the same pool as paid tickets, and appears on the competition's published entry list (first name and county) before the draw, like any other entry. If one of your tickets wins, we contact you using the details on your postcard.