BOTB

Yes. I absolutely love BOTB, I think it’s one of the greatest games in the world. I know I’m not going to win, but I still can’t help how I think I’d react if Christian ever popped round with his camera crew one Tuesday morning.

BOTB, has absolutely captured the obsession people have with:

a. cars

b. the thrill of losing

Firstly people are absolutely obsessive about cars, especially ones they can’t afford. Even if they can afford them there are many other things that have to be priorities above a sports car. School fees, family holidays, rent, mortgages, children’s shoes.

Even if you could, in theory, buy a sports car on tick, most people would rather spend £5k a year on a glorious summer holiday than GTR repayments. After all, memories last forever, a sports car costs a fortune to run, is highly impractical and if we’re honest is never really going to get used.

Secondly, gambling is still fun if you lose. Ok, BOTB is not strictly gambling because you are playing “spot the ball” which is a game of skill and therefore not classed as gambling by the Gambling Commission. But, nevertheless, you still pays your money, and you take your chances”.

As stated by Mark Griffiths on the BBC, who conducted a study on gamblers at the Nottingham Trent University

Even when you’re losing while you’re gambling, your body is still producing adrenalin and endorphins.

The trill of maybe winning is almost as powerful as when you win. It’s why the roulette wheel is so addictive. All you have to do is watch any video of a BOTB being surprised, they all say how they’ve played the moment over in their head over and over again.

Anticipation is a powerful draw!

But anyway, the problem is that gambling is fun (until the fun stops, then you must stop) and long term successful investing is boring.

Talk to any fund manager, read any investment book or look at the track record of any investor that actually makes money. The key to investment success is to invet and do nothing.

Why am I saying this?

Because, if you’ve been trying to win BOTB and playing each week with the intention of betting a little and winning a lot, you should have been investing a little, doing nothing, then you by now could have bought a brand new Ferrari and still had a decent chunk of change for family holidays, paying off some of your mortgage, and sending your children to private school.

BOTB first listed on AIM in 2006 the shares in 2006 and had a bit of a shakey start, but recently, especially since the boom in social media and move to online playing they have “gone to the moon”.

Is BOTB a scam?

Spot the ball competitions have been a popular feature in newspapers for decades. The prizes have been getting better over the years, and now you can win a supercar in weekly online competitions run by Best of the Best (BOTB). This article looks at the history of the game, how to play, its cost and just what you can win.

History

Best of the Best was launched in 1999, and in the 20 years that have followed, it has given out an astonishing £25m in prizes with hundreds of delighted winners. The company was launched by William Hindmarch, a long-time lover of cars, and their head office is in Parsons Green in South West London.

The business has grown steadily to the stage where it is now listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. That’s important to know as it means they must adhere to legal and audit standards of the highest level. You need not be concerned that this is one of those nasty internet scams.

You should have bought shares instead of tickets…

Bad news for regular players of BOTB I’m afraid. If you’ve been a loyal player (like me) for the last 15 years or so you could have bought any car you fancied and still had change left over.

If instead of buying £30 worth of tickets each week (which is probably on average about right for me), you would have (as of 19th May 2020) a whopping £350,000 worth of shares. That’s based on you buying shares through Hargreaves Lansdown and paying the £11.95 transaction fee for each deal. In total you’d have made 719 deals, paying nearly £8,600 in commission. The cost of buying those 45,447 shares would have cost you a princely £21,570.

Unfortunately, now BOTB is delisted so you can’t trade the shares. plus shortly afterwards the directors sold out at the very top and the shares crashed shortly afterwards. The remaining 70% stake was then bought up by Teddy Sagi.

Where can BOTB tickets be purchased?

For many years BOTB sold tickets at airports around the UK. They have now moved online, but they still have a stand in the departure lounge at Birmingham Airport. They also attend motoring events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

How to win car at BOTB

There are some fantastic prizes to be won at BOTB. However, this isn’t a lottery or a prize draw. To be a winner, a game of skill must be played and, in this case, it’s Spot the Ball. The game shows a photograph of a football match with one vital ingredient missing, namely the ball.

Every week on the BOTB site, there is a Dream Car competition. You have a whole week to stare at that photograph and try to work out just where you think the centre of the ball is using (x, y) coordinates. What makes this game a bit different, however, is it’s one of skill between the player of the game and professional judges employed by BOTB.
Entries close at midnight on Sunday and Monday morning sees a judge being shown the same photo and making their decision on where the centre of the ball is. An independent lawyer is present, so everything is above board.

The panel of judges includes those who have played and refereed the game. Former England international Sol Campbell, ex pro player Lee Donnellan and pro referee Matt Cannon are on the list. The winner is the entry that is closest to the judged position. Then it’s time to tell the winner the great news, in person within two days.
They post results on their website, and it’s also possible for those who didn’t win to log into their account and find out just how close they were.

Tiebreakers on BOTB

What happens if there are two or more players that are deemed to be closest to the judge’s ball position? Well, there can be only one winner, so it goes down to the second closest entry made by the players still in contention.

If one of them only made a single entry, then a decider Spot the Ball competition is held to find the winner. They get the car, while the other entrant(s) receive £500 in cash and another £500 in Dream Car Credit. For the Lifestyle Competition, it’s £200 in cash and a further £200 in Dream Car Credit.

There isn’t just one competition at BOTB but three of them. There’s the Dream Car Competition, the Lifestyle Competition and the Superdrives.

What is the BOTB Dream Car Competition?

If it’s a car you want to win, then this is the competition to enter. There are over 180 of them up for grabs, all on a tempting list on the website. They range from cars that cost less than £20,000 to those that would set you back over £100,000. Both left hand and right-hand drives are available with a year’s free servicing and insurance. Free shipping is available for overseas winners.

With all the different cars available, there is a price structure in place for the tickets you need to buy. The idea is that you select the car you would like to win and then make your entry. For example, if you want to win a Suzuki Swift Sport, then your entry fee is only 85p. Winning a car for less than a pound is a dream!
Then there are the real dream cars, and a Bentley Continental GT W12 could be yours, but it’ll cost £7.80 for each entry.

You can only buy 150 tickets a week for this and the Lifestyle Competition. Just ensure that you don’t spend money on this game that you cannot afford to lose.

If you don’t want to win a car, you can take a cash alternative, worked out at 80% of the UK RRP and can be up to £130,000. All the cash alternative prices are on the website.

BOTB Lifestyle Competition

It’s not just about winning a car at the BOTB site. Every week there is a Lifestyle competition winner with over 200 prizes on offer. It’s run over the same timescale and is also a Spot the Ball competition.
Tickets begin at just 15p. The prizes include motorbikes, holidays, cameras and watches. That 15p could turn into an Asprilla Motorbike or a Dyson bundle. 55p might win you a luxury Las Vegas holiday for two. You could try to win some cash with a successful 25p entry winning £5,000, 50p winning you £10,000 and a 75p entry a tasty £15,000.

Chances of winning BOTB lifestyle competition

BOTB has never revealed the odds of winning the lifestyle competition or spot the ball competition as it would discourage people from playing. I even asked William Hindmarch the CEO about this when I interviewed him in 2018 (he dodged the question). The more people play the lower your chances of winning are.

Your chances of winning the mid-week lifestyle competition are different to the spot-the-ball competition as it is based on a random selection of correct answers rather than how close you are to where the judges think the ball will be.

Based on the popularity of the BOTB website, your chances are getting better than they were during it’s peak through Covid.

Joining The BOTB Supercharged Club

The Supercharged Club is found in the BOTB Extra section and is a loyalty program. There are three levels to make your way through, namely Bronze, Silver and Gold. If you spend £10 on tickets over four weeks, this takes you into the Bronze level. £20 in four weeks sees you at the silver level and £40 in that period makes you a Gold member.
Benefits include free entries into the Superdrives competition (again it’s Spot the Ball). The prizes in that competition include the chance to drive a Ferrari in Monaco. You can also get between £10 and £30 credit for the closest ticket per prize in the Dream Car Competition

For more information, look through their FAQs. You can email them at info@botb.com or follow them at

BOTB_Supercars on twitter or at BOTB dreamcars on Facebook.

What is BOTB Dream Car Credit?

A near miss is so frustrating, but at least with BOTB, there is something given if you put in a great entry. Dream Car Credit is handed out, and this can be used to enter future competitions. You can only use them for the Dream Car Competition as a part or full payment. They’re not allowed for the Lifestyle Competition. Make sure that you use the credit though as there is an expiry date on them.

BOTB Previous Winners

If there are any doubts over the legitimacy of these competitions, they are ruled out by all the details of previous winners. The site shows videos of shocked winners unveiling their great fortune. There’s also a page full of comments from those lucky people, and it’s a page where you’d love to see yourself one day.

BOTB Spot the ball tips

How do you work out where the ball might be? One possible way is to study the eyes of the most important players and where they are looking. Using a ruler is another advised technique as the judges often use them to try and work out the location of the ball with again those eye lines coming into play. The ability to zoom in on the photo can also help you in making your decision.
Try to enter as many times as you can. The more experience you gain, the better. Making more than one entry is important, too, considering the tiebreaker rules in these competitions. You can find more tips online to help you get better.

One useful suggestion is to watch this official video of one of the BOTB judging sessions, where the judges explain their thought processes. Get inside their minds and you might be on to a winner!

Are There Any BOTB Alternatives

BOTB is a one of a kind competition where you can win a car by playing spot the ball. As such there are no real alternatives.

Conclusion – is it woth playing BOTB?

If owning a dream car, winning lots of cash or going on a luxury holiday is your desire, then this is a great site for you. Every week they give out some great prizes, and it’s 100% legitimate. So, it’s time to learn how to spot that ball and become their next winner.

What would be useful on the site, though, is an indication of the winning odds. Lottery sites have a section that gives details of the chances of you winning, one at BOTB would be a good addition. A page on responsible gambling would also be good to see. Players are being offered ‘dream’ prizes here and could be tempted to make plenty of entries hoping to get that car or another prize.

What is the BOTB Supercharged Club?

Basically, the more you play the cheaper tickets are. There are three levels Bronze, Silver and Gold.