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Prize Centre

Legal

Privacy policy

What we collect, why, who we share it with, and the rights you have over it — in plain English.

Draft privacy notice — pending solicitor review. It will be finalised before launch.

1. Who we are

Prize Centre (prizecentre.co.uk) is operated by UCS Care Group Ltd (company number 15067831, registered office Unit 1 Oaklands Business Park, Newton Road, Lowton WA3 2AQ). We are the data controller for the personal data described here. Contact us about privacy at hello@prizecentre.co.uk.

2. What we collect

  • Account details — name, email address and date of birth when you register. Your date of birth is used for age checks and is never shown back in full.
  • Age-verification results — the outcome of the check we run before you can enter (verified / not verified), via our age-verification provider. We receive the result, not your identity documents.
  • Winner verification records — if you win, we check your identity and age before awarding a prize using an accepted ID document (driving licence, passport or PASS card). We record which document was checked and its reference number — never a copy of the document — and keep that record for 7 years from the draw.
  • Entries and tickets — the competitions you enter, your skill-question answers, ticket numbers, and your postal details if you use the free postal entry route (name, address, date of birth, answer).
  • Payments — handled by our payment providers through their own secure payment pages. We never see or store your card number. We keep the order record: what you bought, when, for how much, and the provider's reference.
  • Player-protection settings — your spend limit, and any time-out, suspension or closure you set.
  • Marketing preferences — whether you have opted in, and every change.
  • Support and complaints — what you send us when you contact us.
  • Technical records — server logs (including IP addresses) kept for security, fraud prevention and diagnosing faults.

3. What we use it for, and why we're allowed to

  • Running competitions you enter — taking entries, allocating tickets, running draws, contacting winners, delivering prizes. Legal basis: performing our contract with you.
  • Age verification and eligibility checks — confirming you are 18+ and eligible before entry, and verifying winners before prizes are awarded. Legal basis: legal obligation and legitimate interests (running lawful prize competitions).
  • The draw audit trail — every entry (paid and postal), draw and result is kept in an append-only record so any draw can be independently verified. Legal basis: legitimate interests (provably fair draws).
  • Publishing results — each competition's result is published with the winner's name and winning ticket number and a link to the draw record. Legal basis: legitimate interests (transparency that protects all entrants). Anything beyond that — photos, interviews, promotion — happens only with your consent.
  • Player protection — enforcing your spend limit, cooling-off periods, time-outs and suspensions. Legal basis: legitimate interests and our regulatory commitments (DCMS code).
  • Marketing — only if you opt in (double opt-in), and every message includes one-click unsubscribe. Bounce and complaint signals from our email provider automatically stop us emailing addresses that don't want or can't receive mail. Legal basis: consent, withdrawable at any time.
  • Fraud prevention and security — spotting duplicate accounts, bulk entry, payment fraud and attacks on the platform. Legal basis: legitimate interests.

4. Who we share it with

We never sell personal data. We share it only with:

  • Payment providers — to take payment and handle refunds.
  • Our email provider — to send receipts, entry confirmations, sign-in codes and (if opted in) marketing.
  • Our age-verification provider — to run the 18+ check.
  • Microsoft Azure — our hosting and database provider (UK region).
  • Delivery partners — name and address, to deliver a prize you've won.
  • Professional advisers, and authorities — where the law requires it or we need to enforce our terms.
  • Our payment provider, regulators and auditors, on request — if you win, we may have to evidence that the prize was real, fairly drawn and delivered. That evidence pack contains the competition record, the draw verification data, your published name, winning ticket and the delivery details recorded at entry — never a copy of your ID, and never your date of birth. Every disclosure is logged with who received it and why.

Some providers process data outside the UK. Where that happens we rely on UK-approved safeguards (adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses).

5. How long we keep it

  • Account data — while your account is open, then 7 years after closure, in line with accountancy record-keeping practice.
  • Entries, the free-entry register and the draw audit trail — 7 years from the draw, so results remain verifiable and we can meet legal and tax obligations. This record is kept even if you close your account — it is the evidence the draw was fair.
  • Prize evidence (invoices, ownership transfer, delivery proof) — 7 years from the draw, alongside the draw record.
  • Marketing preferences — until you withdraw consent; the record that you unsubscribed is itself kept so we don't email you again.
  • Server logs — 2 years.

6. Your rights

You can ask us to access, correct, delete, or restrict our use of your personal data, ask for a portable copy, object to processing based on legitimate interests, and withdraw consent at any time. Two honest limits:

  • We cannot delete the draw audit trail or free-entry register early — a draw's fairness must stay verifiable — but we will tell you exactly what is held there about you.
  • Deleting your account does not delete the record of prizes you won where the result has been published.

To exercise any right, email hello@prizecentre.co.uk. If you're unhappy with our answer you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

7. Under-18s

Prize Centre is for adults only. We verify age before entry, close any account found to belong to someone under 18, and delete its data.

8. Cookies

We use only essential cookies — the ones that keep you signed in and keep the site secure. There are no advertising or third-party analytics cookies, which is why there is no cookie banner.

9. Changes

We'll update this notice if what we do with data changes, and the current version always lives at this address. Significant changes are flagged to signed-in players.