BOTB REVIEW

USER RATING

OWNER

Best of the Best PLC

ESTABLISHED

1999

PRIZES WON

£67,000,000+

ESTIMATED ANNUAL REVENUES

£26,200,000 (for year ended 30/04/23)

AUTHOR AND GUARANTOR

Jonathan Rees

TRUST RATING HISTORY

4.2 (18/03/24)

Last Updated 7th September 2024

Add or Correct Information

Having conducted a thorough investigation on BOTB Ace Prize have decided to give them a trust rating of 4.2 meaning that BOTB are a recommended provider.

This assessment has been made after detailed consideration of the facts and information listed below in accordance with our Trust Rating guidelines.

 

ABOUT BOTB

BOTB also known as Best of the Best are quite possibly the oldest and most well established competitions company in the U.K.

They were Established way back in 1999 when they began offering spot the ball skill based competitions at terminal 4 of London’s Heathrow airport.

BOTB offered a wide selection of sports cars as prizes such as Porsches, Jaguars and TVRs, if you travelled abroad at that time it is quite likely you would have walked past one of their sports cars inside the terminal with a representative of BOTB selling tickets.

They went on the offer their competitions at other terminals in Heathrow and then onto many other airports around the country and beyond. Eventually they were offering competitions inside shopping centres such as Westfield and at various events and festivals such as Goodwood Festival of Speed where they still feature every summer.

In 2006 BOTB was listed on the AIM section of the London Stock Exchange, they have expanded since with their focus now primarily online. BOTB are without question one of the leading providers of prize draw and skill based competitions in the U.K.

Their primary offering remains a spot the ball skill based competition where the player is presented with a picture of a football match with the ball removed, the player has to decide where they think the panel of judges will decide the ball should be placed. This is regarded as a skill based competition and as such no free entry method is required by law.

With the explosion of new prize draw and competition providers in recent years BOTB have had to adapt under the pressure of growing competition, they now also offer a range of prize draw competitions with a skill based question to answer, however these competitions also feature a free entry route.

Unlike may of the other sites BOTB allow the player to choose as prize such as a new car from a wide selection. The value of the prize will effect the ticket cost. In effect this means that many people can be playing for many different prizes with different entry costs for the same competition. A pioneering approach which is not offered by many other operators.

 

ESTABLISHMENT 4.8/5

BOTB are incredibly well established with a track record dating back to 1999, making them possibly the first competition business in the country and true pioneers of the industry.

Their competitions have had a massive amount of coverage in the national press and are featured regularly in major news media nationwide.

They have given away prizes totalling £67 million and counting and reported annual revenues north of £26 million meaning that they are clearly a well established operator.

The caveat to that is that despite the huge turnover and long history BOTB have been outpaced by some of their smaller competitors that have surpassed BOTB’s prize total already despite only coming onto the scene within the past few years. This is possibly down to the fact that despite the large choice of prizes BOTB actually only run a few large competitions per week.

BOTB is a large competitions company with a large team of 21 direct employees (as of 2022) adding further to their overall creditability.

 

OPERATIONS 4.4/5

BOTB business seems to be run in a very professional manner with a huge amount of positive reviews and feedback collected over the many years (over 7900 reviews on Trust Pilot alone with a decent 4.1 average at the time of writing).

Their customer support appears to be very good. BOTB are well known to actively chase down winning non responders to award their prize.

The quality and variation of the prizes are very high with users able to tailor the prize to their needs with ticket prices adjusted accordingly.

For a business of this size there is a lack of prizes awarded with only a handful of large competitions per week, easy to overlook when you visit their website due to the choice of prizes.

They have easy to use website and apps which are very user friendly.

The presentation and branding of BOTB is excellent with easy to enter games with useful tools to help entry into the spot the ball competition being particularly good.

Prizes are awarded in person by the presenter which for many will add to the fun in participating.

BOTB welcome international customers which is a welcome sign for many.

For some however the website may be confusing, particularly if the user is new and used to competitor sites with a different format.

BOTB offer many prize choices which may confuse users into thinking that they are looking at completely different competitions as opposed to simply a choice of prizes for the same competition.

 

FAIRNESS 3.7/5

BOTB appear to run all of their competitions in a relatively fair manner within their terms and conditions, however due to the nature of their skill based games much is left to the discretion of the judging panel which typically consists of a panel of 10 expert judges, whilst this appears extremely fair the issue is that the judging is sometimes inconsistent and a human element is involved often in deciding which judge to remove in the event that their selection is deemed to far from the mean. This has led to concerns from customers that the games can not be considered fair and transparent. Further concerns have been raised due to the lack of information in regard to the number of entries in any given competition, this makes it extremely hard for an average user to work out the odds.

The other concern raised is that by adding complexities such as a wide choice of prizes and different ticket prices dependent on the prize selected it creates confusion in regards to odds and value.

Ticket prices can be quite high for certain prizes leading to claims that entry is unaffordable, this is a particular issue for the skill based dream car competition which has no free entry route.

They appear to be fully legally compliant with free entry routes for the prize draws with a skill based question. The spot the ball competition is deemed to be a skill based competition and as such should ensure full compliance with the law

BOTB have been involved in some charity work with over £180000 given away which is a positive sign.

BOTB show their judging online for full transparency. They have good feedback on draws with many winners listed online dating back over 2 decades.

A random number generator is used to complete the midweek lifestyle draws, more transparency would  be welcome in this regard.

Winners of the large prizes are banned from entering for a year which while frustrating for the winner helps to alleviate concerns from other customers in regards to integrity.

Prizes are allocated fairly timely however there is typically a 2 day delay on naming winners which seems excessive.

BOTB competitions have a fixed closing time and date with no extension period, meaning that the prize is allocated regardless of how many tickets are sold. This leads to a fair competition without frustrations caused by extensions.

There is serious lack of odds transparency with all competitions due to the fact that BOTB to not disclose the number of entries in any of their competitions. This means that it can be extremely difficult to work out the expected return which can lead to confusion. The confusion is added to by the variety of ticket prices and prize values with a different ticket price dependent on prize. The odds of winning the instant win competitions are also extremely hard to work out due to the amount of prizes on offer and other complexities.

All in all BOTB is one of the least transparent competition providers in terms of odds which harms their trust rating significantly.

BOTB players can get back some of the ticket costs by earning credits depending on how close they are in the spot the ball competition. BOTB also award runners up prizes. This is a welcome addition but considering the odds and lack of transparency over ticket sales it’s quite insignificant.

 

REPUTATION 4.1/5

There are currently no users reviews for this provider on Ace Prize, however reviews elsewhere are very positive in general with little negative feedback.

 

EXTRA INFORMATION

None at this time.

 

TRUST RATING 4.2/5

An outstanding provider with a high trust rating. Users should enter their competitions without any concerns.