Want to start a
competition business?
Here's everything you need to know to
go from zero to profit in 12 Weeks
Get your step-by-step guide from the competition business experts👇
The UK Competition site builders
Design Hero helps
serious entrepreneurs
start a profitable competition business
in the UK
✅
Help picking your winning niche
✅
Branding that connects with your ideal customers
✅
A powerful platform
✅
Legal aid & templates for compliance
✅
Streamlined payment gateway approval
✅
Instant wins, affiliate, site credit & more...
✅
Social Ad management
✅
Growth marketing, strategy & guidance
✅
Templates, resources and guides
Our Results
0 - £100k/m
in 6 months
0 ad-spend. Traffic from private Facebook community
£5/m by month 3
No marketing spend, “slow but steady” income From personal network & work community
£300k/m by month 4
Explosive growth From intensive social ad campaign
£70k/m by month 3
Used a private email list from previous business for day one profit.
We work with 1-1 with UK clients to grow a
successful competition business
Design Hero provide an end-to-end service;
while web designers will leave you to “sink or swim”,
we give you everything you need to successfully launch and scale.
I'm not interested in chruning out cheap competition and raffle website templates. Design Hero is a marketing agency that works with driven entrepreneurs who are commited to growth to a successful online competition business.
The UK specialists for competition website design
onnline prize competitions live or die by the strength of digital marketing after launch
After launching your new online lottery website you must drive traffic to your website to sell enough tickets to be profitable.
Design Hero help you promote your prize competitions, guiding our clients through the challenges of the competition industry.
Design Hero give you
Everything you need to
start a successful competition business
in the UK
What raffle web designers
won't tell you...
Simply launching a raffle website doesn't guarantee your success.
Online competition businesses are becoming more popular because:
1 Raffle websites can be incredibly profitable
2 Running a competition online can be incredibly passive income, time-wise
3 Competition business models are incredibly scalable once you get your ads optimized
But be warned, a website for online raffles is only one part of the story:
There are 3 things you’ll need to in order to start a competition business successfully.
1
A Brand designed
for ONE
target audience
Learn how to choose a profitable niche that lowers your ad costs, builds trust with your audience, and creates a loyal community of buyers.
2
A powerful
automated competition site
that converts
Don’t have to manage everything manually.
Set up an automated website selling raffle tickets with automated admin.
3
Master your
Launch marketing
to drive traffic
Get proven marketing strategies that drive ticket sales. Fill up competitions, and turn visitors into long-term customers—all while staying on budget.
My complete guide on how to
launch & scale
an online competition business in the UK
For £12 you save weeks of research, avoid costly mistakes, and get a step by step plan for everything you need to launch a successful competition business in the UK
Our competition websites
come packed with powerful features
to help you sell
Custom competition rules
Draw Date/Time
Countdown Timers
Multiple Choice Entry Question
Ticket Counters & Progress Bars
QTY slider & ticket bundles
Admin reports & exports
Randomized Ticket Numbers
Multibuy offers
Instant Win functionality
Points and Rewards
Site credit & gamification
Affiliate marketing systems
Email Marketing systems
SMS Marketing systems
Popups and upsells
Random ticket number generators
Random winner selection
instant winner reveal
Free entry route
Design Hero
vs
competition website templates
Raffle website designers
✅ Pretty raffle website
❌ Leave you to figure it out yourself
❌ Bombard you with "Tech-talk"
❌ Complicated process
❌ Hard to get hold of
❌ No marketing support
❌ No strategy for leads
Results: pretty designs
Design Hero
✅ Pretty raffle website
✅ A dedicated business sidekick
✅ Brand design around your ideal niche
✅ Marketing guidance
✅ Business strategy sessions
✅ Automation and integrations
✅ Industry Contacts
Results: Successful competition business
The best competition websites builders in the UK
But don't just take our word for it...
70+ 5 star Google reviews
A welcoming, easily reachable business that communicates well and provides updates. One of the most important things for us is that they are a reasonable and fair organisation, which is really important when starting a business. Strongly advised!
Not only did they design a great quality website, they also helped with the marketing strategies and walked me through everything I needed to do!
I was beyond happy, would recommend them to any and everyone who needs help designing a personalized competition website and marketing their business!
He was very responsive to our questions and our change requests so it didn’t affect our working relationship.
Reach out to him if you want to boost your business online wherever you are in the UK (or World!). You don’t just get a web designer with Nick, he is good with graphic design, and just so happens to be an online marketing wizard too!
The results were totally unexpected The characters were an instant hit, our customers are picking a character! Absolutely delighted with the result!
I have not had a single encounter or conversation where my query hasn’t been resolved or I have walked away unhappy.
Thank you so much for all of the work that the team have provided.
Thank you for all of your support and making a dream come alive.
Thank you thank you thank you!
I would highly recommend his services to anyone looking for branding, marketing or web development.
He has been extremely professional and knowledgeable throughout.
works in a timely manner, following feedback to the T.
He was easy to share ideas with, understanding fully what I was asking every time and also provided good advice and clear explanations along the way.
It is clear that he is very
dedicated to providing a strong customer service.
I couldn’t fault him. I’m confident he was the right guy to give my business the start it needs to be successful.
Would certainly recommend him and I’m sure we will continue working together. Thanks Nick, and team!
Thanks also for making useful suggestions for marketing and helping us to create the video. You have worked extremely hard for us and it is very, very much appreciated, we could not have got all this up and running without your wisdom, help and understanding.
We would 100%+ recommend to anyone looking for help growing a business
You are:- A Hero!
He never overstepped and allowed me to focus on improving and comparing against competitor products.
I would not go elsewhere.
He provides value for money.
I would recommend nick as he always picks up the phone, provides input where needed and would find out an answer should I need to know anything. He's very knowledgeable and very reasonable with different designs and changes you may want.
Benefits to business depend on what you need him for and for me that meant good ideas for expanding scope where my experience was lacking.
Positive Responsiveness, Quality, Professionalism, Value
His design was very sharp and helped me stand out in a competitive marketplace.
I was new to the whole process but his quote was very clear, and he guided me through the whole process!
I will be recommending Nick!
Design Hero are are the leading raffle site builders in the UK
Our competition website developers pride themselves on building the best online raffle websites in the UK. Design Hero are a full spectrum marketing agency and we specialise in building amazing comp sites,
In fact we’re one of just a few premium competition website builders in the UK. We don't just customize a competition website template, we build a custom lottery website to help your business stand out and succeed.
We like to say there's lots of cowboy web designers building competition websites in the UK, but only a few digital agencies doing competition sites properly...
Experience & guidance to help you launch & scale
We build the best competition websites in the UK. But A good raffle website is only half the story; After launching your new online lottery website you must drive traffic to your website to sell enough tickets to be profitable.
We work with our clients in the long term to provide everything they need to succeed in the competition niche. We coach our clients through some of the extra legal challenges and specific requirements of the competition industry.
We don't use raffle site templates
Don't settle for generic lottery website templates! The competition niche is very competitive (pun intended!). A generic raffle website template or a competition website builder is not going to cut the mustard!
A bespoke raffle site designedshould boost your sales, and automate your admin as you scale.
What's so amazing about Design Hero's online Raffle sites?
Don't be fooled by digital cowboys, proper competition website design should be highly bespoke, super streamlined, and packed with incentives to help increase sales and make you more money. Online raffle websites from Design Hero will let you....
- Sell prizes online
- Create and edit your own prizes, countdowns and discounts
- Take payments online
- Automate your admin and emails
- Run random ticket numbers
- Set quiz questions and answers
- Run promotions and sales online
- Keep customer records and enquiries
- Ingrate email and social marketing
- track site data for running ad campaigns
- Integrate influencer and affiliate marketing
- Automate your marketing and boost sales
How much does a raffle site cost?
A good competition website costs a lot less than a bad competition website!
We believe if you're going to start a raffle business with a website for online prizes then you have to do it well. This niche is full of competition businesses who don't make it... We don't work with people who are interested in cutting corners, and without a good competition website, you won't be able to make the sales you need to break even. The best raffle websites also automate the admin and sales process. Without smooth admin processes, it's impossible for your lottery business to scale. That's why your lottery business that runs on a Facebook Page is doomed to fail...
Start a competition business the right way...
I’ll be upfront and say we’re not the cheapest.
At Design Hero we’re not interested in building cheap competition websites;
We design and build powerful raffle sites that will help you scale.
Just a heads up; we work with entrepreneurs who are serious about growth.
If this sounds like you just give me a ring and we’ll chat in more detail about your project
Ready to Launch
a successful competition business
in the next 12 weeks?
FAQs
💵 How much does it cost to build a competition site?
Prices will vary depending on your requirements, and if you desire additional functionality or web development during the web design process.
Branding and website costs will be the biggest initial outlay.
You will find prices for a competition site vary wildly.
The price will depend on your niche, the quality you are looking for in the design, the functionality…
But a word of warning:
Price is what you pay for it, value is how much it pays off!
Beware digital cowboys selling customized templates. Many of these sites, sub £3,0000 mark are complete garbage and not fit for purpose.
What about those £600 packages for competition websites I’ve seen online?
Just as many think competition businesses are “easy money”, many web designers think comp websites are easy to do and get stuck.
It will cost more to fix these than to do it right the first time, so they are false economy.
If I had a penny for every time I’m approached to fix these websites…I’d have 5p this week 😂
My professional advice:
I’ve seen many “budget lottery competition website” or “low cost raffle websites” advertised on Ebay, Gumtree and even Facebook marketplace for as little as £600 including a logo and hosting.
👿 BEWARE: you get what you pay for!
Here’s approximate budgets for the website and brand side of things:
- Less than £1500
- Cowboy Territory, don’t even go there
- £3000
- Your budget is too low to have success.
- I’ve seen some sites done ok at this budget. But I’ve seen twice as many bodged.
- Unlikely to include branding or any guidance
- £7000
- This is my minimum required investment for a comp brand and site
- £12000
- A better budget for a high-quality brand and website
- £16000
- more advanced functionality and marketing integrations etc.
- £18000+
- Recommend for high ticket prizes, bespoke functionality
Outline of other costs
Here is a list of all the costs to think about.
- Paying for your prizes
- Website
- Marketing budget
- Social Media ads
- Affiliate bonsuses
- Lawyers
- Insurance
💳 How do I get a payment gateway provider for a raffle site?
Payment Gateway Providers allow you to process online payments such as card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay etc.
They act as a middle man to take payments from the customer, and move the money between the website and your bank.
Usually for ecommerce sites I recommend Paypal and Stripe.
But Paypal and Stripe will not support new competition sites as raffle websites are counted as a “high risk niche” for insurance reasons.
Therefore you’ll need a specialist payment gateway provider who supports new competition sites.
How much do payment gateway providers charge for competiton websites?
Payment Gateway Providers will take a small slice of your action, before depositing the remaining money into your business bank.
Payment gateway providers will charge for their services.
They are all much the same (about 1-2% of your transactions)
but the oneoff set up fee can vary,
but because competition websites are “high-risk”, they tend to charge higher set up fees than with other ecommerce websites.
If you download my competition guide there’s a whole chapter on finding the right payment gateway provider
⏰ How long does it take to launch?
Most web designers will tell you how long it takes to design the website. But this isn’t an accurate portrayal of how long the project will take.
There’s some 3rd parties in there like banks and payment gateway providers, plus your soft launch etc.
So the timeline of a project can vary, it mostly depends on yourself as the client and how organised you are.
But on average across all the projects I do, the average timeline is 12-16 weeks from start to launch but They can be much quicker, and they can be much slower.
📝 Can I update & manage my own raffle site?
Yes! We build our raffle sites on WordPress, and the backend is optimized to make the site easy to manage.
As a client you’ll also get training on using your site, so you’ll be able to manage your own raffles online, upload and add your lotteries, and make simple changes to the site.
The site comes packaged with dashboards and reporting so you can manage your competition business yourself.
Of course, if you get stuck, we’re always here to help!
🚑 Do you offer maintenance and support for raffle sites?
I also offer a maintenance and support package to take the hassle of setting up and maintaining your website, so you don’t need to lift a finger if you don’t want to.
Please see my hosting page for details.
⚡ What do I need to start a competition business?
Before you can start making money with competition websites , there are a few things you’ll need:
1. A legal business entity. This will be required for many of the business infrastructure elements such as payment gateways, insurance etc.
2. A payment gateway. This is how you take payments online for sales of lottery tickets. There are many different payment gateways, but many of the usual brand names dont process payments for competition businesses under gambling laws. We can advise the best paltforms for you to use.
3. A business bank account. Setting up your bank account for a competition business can also be hampered due to the nature of the business. Make sure you’re bank, isnurance and any other business infrastructure is happy with the nature of your business before proceeding.
4 Prizes. The raffle competition business market is already quite saturated. You may wish to increase your chances for success by focussing on a smaller, mroe specific niche such as travel, gadgets, fashion, electronics or cars. You MUST provide evidence of how you legally purchased your prizes through the business, your payment gateway provider will insist upon this.
If you want more guidance on this you can get my full guide on starting a competition business
Competition business knowledge hub
Experts for competition websites in the UK
Design Hero build the best websites for competitions in the UK with hundreds of rave reviews from our happy clients for to prove it.
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Get my
Step-by-step guide to start a competition business