You might have seen BOTB giving away dream cars and luxury prizes, with winners popping up across the UK. It is appealing, and it naturally raises a simple question: how does it really work?
With the buzz around these competitions, it helps to separate stories from structure. If you are weighing up whether to enter, getting a clear picture of how your chances are formed is essential.
In this post, you will find straightforward facts on how BOTB runs its competitions, how winners are chosen, what Spot the Ball involves, and why all of that shapes your odds.
What Is BOTB And How Does It Work?
BOTB is a UK-based prize competition platform where entrants can win vehicles, technology and cash. It is not a lottery or a raffle. Instead, entries revolve around a game called Spot the Ball.
To take part, you choose a prize and purchase one or more entries. Each entry includes a Spot the Ball attempt. You are shown a real football photo with the ball removed and asked to click where you believe the centre of the ball should be.
After the round closes, a panel of independent judges, typically with football expertise, each marks the point on the same image where they believe the centre of the ball would be. The average of their positions sets the final coordinates.
Whoever places their marker closest to those coordinates wins the stated prize for that round. Judging sessions are recorded and outcomes are announced online, so you can see how a result was reached. With that structure in mind, how do your chances shape up?
What Are My Odds Of Winning BOTB?
BOTB works differently to a lottery because there is no fixed pool of tickets. People can buy multiple entries, and each entry is its own Spot the Ball guess.
Your odds depend on the number of valid entries in the specific round you join. If a round receives 50,000 entries, a single entry would have a roughly one in 50,000 chance of finishing closest to the judges’ final average. Entry totals are not published in advance, so you will not know the exact likelihood before you take part.
It is also not a random draw. The winner is decided by accuracy relative to the judges’ average coordinate. Careful analysis of the image can help, although everyone is aiming for a very precise point and comparisons are made across all entries.
If you want more context, you can watch the published judging videos and weekly results to see how decisions are reached. So how is that decision made in practice?
How Are Winners Selected In BOTB?
As explained earlier, each entry includes a marker placed on the same football image. Every entry counts separately, even if they are from the same person.
Once the round closes, a panel of independent judges reviews the picture individually. Each judge considers factors such as players’ eye lines and body positioning, then selects the coordinate they believe represents the centre of the ball.
Those coordinates are averaged to produce the final reference point. The entry closest to that point wins the prize for that competition. If more than one person places a marker at exactly the same winning position, a tie break process, published in the rules, is used to decide who receives the prize.
Judging sessions are recorded, and summaries are made public for transparency, so you can see how the panel reached its decision in any given week.
Entry Types And Costs For BOTB
BOTB runs several competition types, typically grouped by prize category such as Dream Car, cash or lifestyle items. To enter, you choose a specific prize within a competition and purchase entries for that choice.
In the Dream Car competition, for instance, you pick the vehicle you would like to win and then buy entries that allow you to play Spot the Ball for that exact car. Cash and lifestyle competitions work similarly, with a menu of items you can select before purchasing entries.
Entry prices vary by the value of the prize. Dream Car entries generally range from around 85p to about £5 per entry, with higher-value cars costing more to enter for. Lifestyle entries are often cheaper, sometimes starting at roughly 40p. The exact price for each prize is shown before you pay.
There is no set minimum or maximum spend, it is up to you how many entries you buy and each one is counted separately. Payment is usually by debit card, with other secure online options sometimes available. Those categories and prices do more than list choices, they influence the number of entries gathered around each prize.
How Does The Prize Structure Affect Your Chances?
Each prize sits within its own competition, which means only entries aimed at that prize are considered when a winner is picked.
High-value cars often attract more entries, so you are likely competing against a larger field for those prizes. By contrast, some lower-value lifestyle items can draw fewer entries overall. For example, a flagship supercar generally draws more entries than a mid-range gadget.
Pricing tiers also play a part. Higher entry prices can curb how many entries some people submit for a given prize, yet popular items can still attract substantial participation. Lower entry prices may encourage more entries, even if the underlying prize is smaller.
In short, your odds are shaped by the number of entries chasing the prize you have chosen, rather than by activity across all BOTB competitions together.
How Many People Enter Typical BOTB Competitions?
BOTB does not publish exact entry totals for individual rounds, so it is not possible to know the precise number of entries in advance.
Public estimates from media coverage and winner interviews suggest that thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands, of entries are submitted in main competitions. Some participants choose to buy more than one entry, which means total entries can be higher than the number of individual players.
Bigger prizes, such as high-end cars or large cash amounts, tend to attract more entries. Smaller lifestyle items often see fewer people take part, but counts can still run into the thousands for a single round.
While BOTB shares winners’ names and locations, it does not release full entry statistics. Taken together with the judging process, pricing and prize categories outlined above, this should give you a realistic sense of what you are entering and how your chances are formed.
**The information provided in this blog is intended for educational purposes and should not be construed as betting advice or a guarantee of success. Always gamble responsibly.