On the face of it, Di Coke has a lifestyle some can only dream of: a butler at her beck and call at Glastonbury festival, a private chef whipping up dinner for her at home, dining at Copenhagen’s Michelin-starred restaurant Noma and a guitar signed by Noel Gallagher, not forgetting the luxury holidays to destinations including New Zealand, Japan and Switzerland.
But Coke’s glamorous lifestyle isn’t thanks to a well-paid job in the City, a lucrative inheritance, or pocketing a windfall from selling property. It’s down to luck. For Coke, who lives in Brighton with her husband and eight-year-old son, is an avid “comper”.
Since graduating from university just over 20 years ago, Coke started entering competitions almost every day. “I started entering and ending up winning a guitar signed by Noel Gallagher and trips to Dublin, New York and Iceland,” says Coke, who once won a laptop and sold it for £2,500, helping fund a backpacking trip around the US. “That’s when I thought it was a hobby for me – it was time well spent.”
Coke has turned entering competitions into a career, with the 43-year-old ditching her graphic designer job to run SuperLucky, a site dedicated to providing competition news and tips. Tracking her winnings on a spreadsheet, Coke calculates that she wins between £500 and £1,000 worth of prizes every month. “Some years I’ve won over £20,000 of prizes,” enthuses Coke, author of SuperLucky Secrets: 100 Tips for Winning Competitions, Contests and Sweepstakes.
Like many other serial compers, Lola Bellouere-Keay uses her three-hour commute to enter competitions. “I have bookmarked a forum that has 20 pages of new competitions a day,” says the PR account executive, who started entering competitions two years ago when she couldn’t work due to a chronic knee problem.
“I enter about 200 competitions a day. They’re all just forms and really easy to do. Just click on the link, and autofill puts in my details.” It has proved lucrative. So far this year Bellouere-Keay has won a trip to the Baftas, a phone, coffee machine, virtual reality headset, 240 bottles of water, £3,000 and Arcadia festival tickets.
While she keeps many of the prizes, Bellouere-Keay sometimes gives them away as birthday presents or sells them online. “I sometimes win runners-up prizes, such a petrol lawnmower, which I don’t need. I sold it to a guy in Ireland for £240.”
The extra money has come in useful. “I won £3,000 on the day I passed the theory part of the driving test, so I used that to buy a car and pay my insurance,” she says.
It has also helped the 26-year-old boost her savings and splash out more on trips and dining out.
But it’s the money-can’t-buy experiences that are more memorable for Bellouere-Keay. “I’ve gone on experiences I would never have gone on such as the Baftas, I’ve won a hot-air balloon experience I couldn’t normally afford and a stay in a treehouse in Wales that I wouldn’t usually spend £300 on.”
From brand websites and radio shows to TV programmes and magazines, competitions can be found in a range of places. But it’s not always about just entering your email address. “The easiest ones to win are the hardest to enter,”says Coke. “If you’re asking people to take a video or visit a certain place, most people won’t bother.”
Carlisle-based Lee Gardner, 40, knows this all too well. Last year he won a helicopter ride and VIP tickets to the Kendal Calling festival for himself and five friends after he entered a Strongbow competition in which he had to buy a promotional pack and enter a code on the brand’s website.
“I like the ones where you have to put effort in and dress up or purchase a code – ones that other people see and can’t be bothered to enter,” says Gardner, who, when I speak to him, is packing for a trip to New York that, of course, he won.
“People think you never win but if you don’t enter, you won’t.”
Gardner, who says he spends between one to two hours a day entering competitions, adds that they have helped pay for birthday presents such as a PlayStation 4 for his son and holidays.
However, while prizes such as a year’s supply of washing powder or bedroom blinds might whip up a frenzy among some, Coke says she is “fussy now” and only enters competitions offering prizes she or her family might want. She says her favourite prize was when her son won a place as a mascot for Arsenal in the FA Cup final last year. “That was a massive occasion for me, my husband and my son. It was something money can’t buy.”
Although some prizes can be lucrative, Sammy Fairman, editor of competitions website Simply Prizes, doesn’t believe we should all quit our jobs and start running around our local supermarket to find product packs with competitions on.
“There are some compers who also run and write blogs, and so get income from advertising and free goods,” she explains. “But for your everyday comper this is a hobby that allows you to sometimes have things that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford otherwise.”
However, be warned that entering competitions can lead you down a rabbit hole. “I know I can put it to one side,” says Coke. “But I think some people can get addicted. Some of my single mum friends who aren’t out on an evening can be up until 3am entering competitions. It’s endless – you’re never going to get to the point where it ends.”
Top competition tips
From Sammy Fairman, editor of the website Simply Prizes
• Create a specific email address so your work emails aren’t inundated.
• Understand that it’s a numbers game – the more you enter, the more chance you have of winning.
• Only enter for prizes you want – entering for stuff that is of no use is a waste of time.
• Encourage a few comping friends to join you on social media. They will be able to tag you into competitions you haven’t seen.
• Enter local competitions. These are often specific to your area so can attract fewer entrants than those run nationally.