Terms & Conditions

These terms and conditions ("Terms") govern your use of the Deserved Competitions website and your entry into any prize competition we run (each a "Competition"). The promoter of each Competition is Deserved Competitions ("we", "us", "our"), whose details are set out above.

By creating an account, entering a Competition, or otherwise using the site, you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy and any specific rules published on a Competition's page. The specific rules for a Competition (for example its closing date, ticket limit, prize and skill question) form part of these Terms; if there is a conflict, the specific Competition rules apply to that Competition.

Our Competitions are open prize competitions that operate on a free-draw basis. Because a genuine free entry route is always available with no purchase ever necessary, our Competitions fall outside the legal definition of a lottery under the Gambling Act 2005, and no licence is required to run them. Each entry also includes a multiple-choice skill question, which must be answered correctly for the entry to be valid. You should still only spend what you can afford, and a free entry route is always available (see section 5).

To enter a Competition you must:

• be aged 18 or over;
• be a resident of the United Kingdom with a valid UK address;
• have registered an account with accurate details that belong to you; and
• not be an employee, officer, agent or immediate family member of the promoter, nor anyone professionally connected with administering the Competition.

We may ask you to verify your age, identity and address at any time, including before paying out a prize or processing a withdrawal. We use these checks to meet our legal obligations and to keep the Competitions fair. If you cannot satisfy these checks, we may withhold a prize, suspend your account, or refuse or cancel an entry.

You may hold only one account. Opening multiple accounts, or entering on behalf of another person without their authority, may result in entries being voided and the account(s) closed.

You are responsible for keeping your login details secure and for all activity that takes place under your account. Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission.

You must keep your account information accurate and up to date. We may contact you about your entries, wins, payments and these Terms using the email address on your account, so please make sure it remains valid and that you can receive our messages.

We confirm your email address when you register. Some features, including entering Competitions and withdrawing winnings, may require a confirmed email address and completed identity checks.

Each Competition page shows the prize, the entry price, the total number of tickets available, the maximum tickets per person (if any), the closing date, and the skill-based question. Read these details before you enter.

To enter, you select how many tickets you want, answer the skill question, and complete payment (or use the free postal route in section 5). A correct answer to the skill question is required for an entry to be valid. Entries with an incorrect answer are not valid and will not be included in the draw; this applies equally to paid and free entries.

Each valid entry is allocated one or more unique ticket numbers from the Competition's ticket pool. Your ticket numbers are shown in your account and are the basis on which prizes are drawn. We may cap the number of tickets you can hold in a Competition, and a Competition closes at its published closing time or once all tickets are allocated, whichever is sooner.

Every Competition is drawn on its published closing date and the prize is always awarded. There is no minimum number of tickets, and we do not cancel a Competition, or withhold its draw, because it has not sold out — the draw goes ahead and the prize is won even if only a few tickets have been bought. The only exception is an event genuinely outside our reasonable control that makes running the Competition impossible (for example a serious technical failure or other event of force majeure); if that ever happens we may extend the closing date or, as a last resort, cancel that Competition and refund its paid entries, and we will tell affected entrants what we are doing.

A free postal entry route is available for every Competition, with exactly the same chance of winning as a paid entry. To enter for free, you must first register an account with us, because every entry, paid or free, must be allocated to an account so that ticket numbers, results and any prize can be tracked and paid to you.

To enter for free, send an unstamped postcard containing all of the following:

• your full name;
• your home address;
• the email address registered to your account;
• your phone number;
• the name of the Competition you are entering; and
• your answer to that Competition's skill question.

Post it to: FREEPOST DESERVED COMPETITIONS. No stamp or postcode is needed. Send one entry per postcard and one postcard per envelope.

Your postcard must be received before the Competition closes to be included in that draw. We record each valid postal entry against the matching account as a free ticket with the same status and chance of winning as a paid ticket. Illegible or incomplete entries, entries with an incorrect skill answer, or entries we cannot match to a registered account cannot be processed. Free entries are not charged for and are not refundable in money because no payment is taken.

The price of each entry is shown on the Competition page and is confirmed to you before you pay. We calculate the amount payable on our servers at the time you order, the price you pay is the price we quote at that point, in pounds sterling (GBP).

We accept payment by debit/credit card and by cryptocurrency through our payment providers. Your entry is confirmed once we have received and verified payment. If a payment fails, is underpaid, or is made in the wrong currency, the entry will not be completed and any amount received may be refunded.

You may set a spending limit on your account. Where you have done so, we will refuse orders that would take your spending over that limit in the relevant period. See section 11.

Winnings are credited to your account wallet and can be withdrawn in line with section 9. The wallet holds winnings only; it is not a payment or e-money account and does not pay interest.

Winners are selected by a provably-fair process. Before a Competition closes we publish a commitment (a cryptographic hash) to a random seed. After it closes, we reveal the seed, which, combined with the published list of entries, determines the winning ticket(s) by a fixed, published method. Anyone can reproduce the result from the revealed seed and entry list, so the outcome cannot be changed after the commitment is made.

Some Competitions include instant wins, where specific ticket numbers carry a prize that is determined by the same provably-fair allocation. Instant-win results are shown as soon as the relevant tickets are allocated.

After a draw we publish the result, including the winning ticket number(s) and the verification data, on our results pages. We also publish the entry list for transparency.

Publishing winners' names

By default we publish a winner's first name and last initial only (for example, "Priya S."). You can opt out of having your name shown publicly in your account settings, in which case only your winning ticket number is published. We will still need your full details privately to verify your entry and pay your prize.

The prize for each Competition is described on its page. Prizes are not transferable. Where a cash alternative is offered, it will be stated on the Competition page; otherwise no cash alternative is available.

We will contact winners using the details on their account after the draw. You are responsible for keeping those details current. If we cannot reach a winner, or a winner does not respond or complete any required verification within a reasonable period that we will specify (and which will be at least 14 days), we may withdraw the prize and, where appropriate, redraw it.

We will arrange delivery or transfer of a physical prize to a winner's UK address, or pay a cash prize to the winner's wallet, within a reasonable time after the winner is confirmed and any checks are complete. Risk in a physical prize passes to you on delivery.

Some instant prizes may take the form of a free entry into another Competition. Where you win a free entry, it is added to your account for you to claim by answering that Competition's skill question.

Cash winnings are credited to your account wallet. You can request a withdrawal of available wallet funds to a verified payment destination at any time, subject to identity and source-of-funds checks and to any minimum withdrawal amount shown at the time.

We aim to process withdrawals promptly, but they may take longer where verification is required or where we are investigating a potential breach of these Terms. We may refuse, delay or reverse a payment, and void related entries or wins, where we reasonably suspect fraud, error, abuse, or a breach of these Terms or of applicable law.

If an entry that contributed to a win is later reversed (for example because a card payment is charged back), we may void the corresponding entry and recover or withhold any associated winnings.

Because a Competition entry is fulfilled immediately and your chance to win begins as soon as your ticket is allocated, you do not have a right to cancel a confirmed entry for a refund once it has been placed. This does not affect your legal rights where something has gone wrong.

We do not cancel a Competition, or refund its entries, because it has not sold out — every Competition is drawn and its prize awarded as described in section 4. We will refund paid entries only where we cancel a Competition in the exceptional circumstances set out in section 4, where an entry was not validly completed, or where we are otherwise required to do so by law. Refunds are made to the original payment method where possible.

We want playing to stay fun and within your means. You can manage your play from your account:

• set a spending limit, which we enforce when you place orders;
• take a break or self-exclude for a chosen period, during which you will not be able to enter Competitions; and
• ask us for help or to close your account at any time.

If gambling-style spending is affecting you or someone you know, free and confidential support is available from BeGambleAware.org and from GamCare's National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133. See our Responsible Play page for more.

You must not misuse the site or the Competitions. In particular you must not use bots, scripts or other automated means to enter; attempt to manipulate a draw, the skill question or the ticket allocation; open or use multiple accounts; provide false information; or attempt to gain unauthorised access to our systems or other users' accounts.

We may suspend or close an account, void entries, and withhold prizes or winnings where we reasonably believe these Terms have been breached.

You can close your account at any time by contacting us; closure does not affect entries already in a draw that has not yet taken place, or winnings owed to you, subject to verification.

We may suspend or close an account, or withdraw the site or a Competition, where we reasonably need to, for example for legal, security, or operational reasons, or because of a breach of these Terms.

We may change these Terms from time to time. We will publish the updated version with a new "last updated" date, and where a change materially affects you we will take reasonable steps to tell you. Changes do not apply retrospectively to Competitions you have already entered.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud.

Subject to that, we are not liable for losses that are not a foreseeable result of our breach, or for losses arising from events outside our reasonable control, or for any loss of the chance to win beyond a refund of the affected entry fee where an entry was not validly processed through our fault.

Your legal rights as a consumer are not affected by these Terms.

If something has gone wrong, please contact our support team first, we will do our best to put it right. We will acknowledge complaints and aim to resolve them promptly.

These Terms and any dispute arising from them are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your local courts.