FnF Competitionsfacts ’n’ figures on UK prize draws

Free tool

Competition odds & value calculator

Type in the numbers shown on any UK prize competition. You will see your chance of winning, what you spend, the expected value of your tickets and how your chances add up across several similar draws. Nothing is sent anywhere; it all runs in your browser.

Odds & value calculator

Enter the numbers from any competition

Your chance
1 in 2,500
0.04%
You spend
£24.90
Expected value
£12.00
Value back per £1
48p
Operator takings if sold out
£62,250
Chance of ≥1 win across all draws
0.48%
Total spend across all draws
£298.80

Roughly as likely as flipping a coin and getting heads 11 times in a row.

What the numbers mean

  • Your chance is your tickets divided by the tickets in the draw. If you leave “tickets sold” empty, the calculator assumes the draw sells out.
  • Expected value is the prize value multiplied by your chance, i.e. what your tickets are worth on average over many identical draws.
  • Value back per £1 compares expected value with what you spend. Below 100p means you pay more than the average return, which is normal for any prize draw.
  • Operator takings is the maximum the operator collects if every ticket sells (ignoring free postal entries).
  • Chance across draws uses 1 − (1 − p)n: entering more draws raises your chance slowly while your spend rises in a straight line.

What it cannot tell you

The calculator only knows the figures you give it. It cannot tell whether a competition is run fairly, whether the prize is really worth the advertised value, or what the terms say about unsold tickets. Use our 12-point trust check for that, and read the odds & ticket maths guide for worked examples.

For a single main prize. With extra instant-win prizes, add up the value of all prizes and enter the total as the prize value to get the average value per ticket.