Review last fact-checked: 28 July 2026. We verify ticket prices, odds, ownership and Trustpilot data against live sources each time we update this page. No competition site pays to appear on Best Car Raffles.
Elite Competitions is the Blackpool operator that turned a 2015 Facebook motorbike raffle into one of the biggest prize draw businesses in the UK — around £100m a year in turnover, a Dragons’ Den appearance, Blackpool FC shirt sponsorship, and by its own count more than £129m awarded and 18 millionaires created. It is a legitimate, fast-paying operator with genuinely entrant-friendly terms in places — and a marketing machine with a couple of habits you should know about, plus two historic ASA rulings on its record. Here is our full, independent review.
What is Elite Competitions?
The operating company is Hydro Solutions Fylde Ltd, incorporated May 2015 and still owned and directed by founder Alex Beckett, who started the business raffling a motorbike on Facebook and pitched it on Dragons’ Den in 2018 (offers received, no deal completed). Unlike Rev Comps, Dream Car Giveaways and 7days Performance — all bought by large gaming groups in 2025–26 — Elite remains founder-owned and independent, which now makes it the biggest independent operator we track.
How the competitions work
Elite’s model is pennies-per-ticket, huge-entry draws with published per-competition entry caps and percentage-sold bars. Live examples when we checked on 28 July 2026: £80,000 cash at 3p a ticket; a Ferrari F8 Tributo plus a Richard Mille watch plus £100,000 at 5p (cash alternative £325,000); a £1.85m “Dream Home Bundle” at 19p (cash alternative £1.3m); and a Mercedes G63 at 3p. Daily draws run every night at 10pm. Main draws are decided by a ball machine streamed live on YouTube and Facebook, with winners often phoned or FaceTimed on stream. Instant-win numbers are randomly selected before a competition opens, then encrypted and hidden from staff — a sensible integrity control. The “Spin to Win” wheel is a separate fixed-odds product with a predetermined number of spins and prizes; treat it as an arcade game, not a raffle.
With entry pools that can run to hundreds of thousands, check the entry cap on each listing and run your numbers through our odds calculator before buying a big bundle.
The free entry route
Send an open postcard to Elite Competitions, Unit 6, 7 & 8 Turing Court, Hawking Place, Bispham, Blackpool, FY2 0QW, naming the competition, confirming you have read the terms, and including your full contact details. Bulk entries in one envelope are not accepted, hand-delivered cards are refused, and you can send as many separate postcards as the per-account entry limit allows. The terms state plainly that each postal entry has the same chance of winning — including instant wins — as a paid entry.
Reputation, and two ASA rulings you should know about
When we checked on 28 July 2026, Elite held a 4.5 “Excellent” Trustpilot rating from 16,950 reviews (84% five-star, 7% one-star) and replies to 99% of negative reviews, usually within a day. Winners praise the professional live draws and fast payouts — the biggest documented being Blackpool electrician Jake Emery’s £750,000 tax-free cash win.
The complaints cluster in three areas: the Spin to Win wheel mostly paying trivial amounts (one reviewer bought 999 spins and won 10p); unsolicited “Elite Club” telemarketing calls pushing subscriptions; and difficulty cancelling subscriptions without contacting support. On the record side, the ASA upheld complaints against the company twice — in September 2019 and May 2020 — the latter covering a free-entry route that was not prominently disclosed, unjustified closing-date extensions, and a fallback prize of 70% of ticket sales that was not a reasonable equivalent of the advertised cash prize. Those rulings are five-plus years old and the current terms bar the practices involved (draws are no longer extendable, the free route is documented, and winners can choose the full prize), but they belong in any honest picture of the company.
Prizes and cash alternatives
Elite’s cash-alternative clause is one of the most entrant-friendly we have seen: every prize winner may choose either the full prize or a reasonably equivalent cash alternative set by the promoter — and the advertised alternatives are substantial (£325,000 on the Ferrari bundle, £1.3m on the dream home). Delivery is free to Great Britain addresses and prizes are stored free for up to 30 days. The main catch: you forfeit if Elite cannot reach you within five working days of the competition ending, so keep your details current.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Ten-year track record, founder-owned, ~£129m in prizes awarded (company figures)
- Winner’s choice of full prize or cash alternative, written into the terms
- Very cheap tickets (1p–19p typical) with published entry caps and sold bars
- Ball-machine draws streamed live; instant-win numbers encrypted pre-draw
- Explicit equal-odds postal entry route
- Responds to virtually all negative reviews within a day
Cons
- Two upheld ASA rulings (2019 and 2020) — historic, but on the record
- Spin to Win offers poor value and drives a steady stream of complaints
- Telemarketing calls pushing the Elite Club subscription annoy entrants
- Subscription cancellation requires contacting support
- Five-working-day claim window before forfeit
Our verdict
Elite Competitions is a credible, fast-paying operator with the strongest cash-alternative terms of the big sites and real transparency on entry caps. Skip the Spin to Win wheel, say no to the Elite Club calls unless you actually want it, and the core draws are among the best-run in the sector. As the last big independent, it is also the operator with the most to prove as its rivals get absorbed into listed gaming groups — we will keep this page updated.
Elite Competitions FAQ
Is Elite Competitions legit?
Yes. Elite has run since 2015, streams ball-machine draws live, replies to almost all complaints, and holds a 4.5 Trustpilot rating from nearly 17,000 reviews. Its biggest documented winner took £750,000 in tax-free cash. Two ASA rulings from 2019–2020 were upheld against it, but the practices involved are barred by its current terms.
How do I enter Elite Competitions for free?
Send an open postcard naming the competition, confirming you have read the terms, with your full contact details, to Elite Competitions, Unit 6, 7 & 8 Turing Court, Hawking Place, Bispham, Blackpool, FY2 0QW. One entry per postcard, no bulk envelopes, no hand delivery. The terms state postal entries have the same odds as paid entries.
Who owns Elite Competitions?
Elite is operated by Hydro Solutions Fylde Ltd and remains owned by founder Alex Beckett, who started it in 2015 — making it the largest founder-owned independent in a sector where most big rivals were acquired by listed gaming groups in 2025–26.
Sources for this review: elitecompetitions.co.uk and its published terms (checked 28 July 2026), Trustpilot (uk.trustpilot.com/review/elitecompetitions.co.uk), Companies House records for Hydro Solutions Fylde Ltd, and the ASA’s published ruling of 6 May 2020. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.