How it works
Local Draws runs prize draws in UK cities. You pick a draw, you enter it, and if your entry is the one drawn, you win the prize. That is the whole thing.
Here is what happens at each step.
1. Find a draw
Every draw belongs to a city. Manchester is live now, with other cities to follow.
Open any draw and you will see the same set of facts before you decide anything:
- what the prize is, and what it is worth
- what one entry costs
- the maximum number of entries the draw can take
- when it opens and when it closes, to the minute
- any conditions attached to the prize
The maximum matters more than it looks. It is the number that tells you your chance. If a draw has a maximum of 200 entries, no entry in it can ever have a chance smaller than one in 200. We publish it before you enter, not after.
2. Enter by card, or by post for free
There are two ways into every draw, and they are worth the same.
Paid entry. Buy one entry or several. There is no cap on how many entries you can buy in a single draw. What there is instead is a monthly spending limit you set for yourself, which applies across every draw in every city. Responsible play covers how that works.
Free postal entry. Every draw takes free entries by post — one per person, per draw. Ordinary postage. Nothing to enclose, nothing to pay. The address and what to write are in the Draw Rules.
A free entry has exactly the same chance of winning as a paid entry. Not a separate draw, not a consolation route. The same draw, the same chance.
That is also why every draw stays open for at least 14 days. A postal route that does not leave time for post is not a real route.
3. The draw closes
At the published time, entries close.
Then the draw runs. It always runs. There is no minimum number of entries and no threshold to hit. If a draw closes with three entries in it, one of those three wins the prize. We do not cancel a draw, extend it, or swap the prize for something cheaper because too few people entered.
If a draw fills more than a day before its published closing time, it takes place at 6pm UK time the day after it filled.
4. A winner is picked
The winner is selected at random by a cryptographically secure process, normally within one working day of the draw closing.
No person picks the winner. Not us, not a partner, not anyone.
You do not have to take our word for that. Before entries close we publish a fingerprint of the random seed. Afterwards we publish the seed itself and the method, so anyone can reproduce the result and check it for themselves. How we draw sets out the mechanism, and Trust & safety covers the rest of what we do.
5. Claiming the prize
We contact the winner, and they have 7 days to claim. Reminders go out along the way. If someone needs longer, they ask us and we extend it.
Every winner's identity is verified before a prize is released.
6. The result is published
Winners appear as a first name and a city — Sarah, Manchester. A winner who would rather not appear tells us, and they do not.
Points
You earn points on every entry. Two points for every £1 you spend.
A free postal entry earns the same as a paid one. Not a token amount — the same points a bought entry in the same draw would earn. A free route worth less than a paid one is not a free route.
Invite someone and you earn 25 points when they make their first paid entry, up to ten a month. You share a code. We do not email anybody on your behalf.
Points do not expire. Nothing runs out and nothing counts down.
There's nothing to spend them on yet — we'll tell you when there is. They add up in your account in the meantime. They are not money, they cannot be transferred, and they do not buy or discount entries. The Points Terms set them out in full.
Anything not covered here, email hello@localdraws.com. The Help centre sets out what we can help with and how long we take.