How to Run an Online Competition Without Losing Entrants at the Form

To run an online competition, choose a prize your audience wants, publish clear terms, set a hard closing time, and build an entry flow short enough to finish on a phone. Ask only for what you need to pick, contact and verify a winner. Skip account creation and email confirmation, because every extra step costs entrants who already wanted in.

What should an online competition entry ask for?

An online competition entry should ask for two things: the entrant's answer or prediction, and enough identity to verify and contact a winner. Everything else is a reason to quit. Most competition entry forms I see ask for name, email, phone number, date of birth, province and marketing tick boxes. The entrant only wants to enter.

In South Africa, plan for that entrant to be on a phone. DataReportal's Digital 2026 report for South Africa counts 51.7 million internet users at the end of 2025, an online penetration of 79.6 percent, and 127 million cellular mobile connections. Your competition link arrives in a WhatsApp group or a social feed, opens in a phone browser, and gets one short chance. Mobile first design here means a form built for a thumb, on mobile data, filled in between two other things the person is doing.

Why forcing an account is the most expensive entry mistake

Asking entrants to register an account or confirm their email before they can enter is the most expensive mistake in competition design. To the entrant, an account is homework before the fun part.

Checkout research shows the same pattern. Baymard Institute's cart abandonment research found that 18% of US online shoppers who abandoned an order did so because the site wanted them to create an account, and 17% left because the checkout was too long or complicated. That is ecommerce, not competitions, and not South Africa. But a shopper abandoning a cart has already chosen a product. A competition entrant has committed to nothing yet, so the patience is lower, not higher. The same logic applies to apps, which is why I argue for letting users skip sign-up during onboarding.

We built a sports prediction game for a client where the entry flow was deliberately kept short. The web entry is mobile-first and does one job: land, pick a sport, enter half-time and full-time predictions, enter a national ID number, and choose whether to join a premium tier. There is no account registration and no email confirmation. The ID is the ticket, not a separate form. If a verification step fails, the entrant is sent to a support channel instead of a dead end. Every entry still carries a national ID, and nobody was asked to sign up for anything.

How to plan the entry flow before you brief a developer

Write down every field on your form and next to it, the reason you need it to pick or pay a winner. If the reason is "marketing wants it for later", cut the field or move it to after the entry is saved. Then open the draft on a mid-range Android phone on mobile data. If you get bored, your entrants will too.

Ask whoever builds it some direct questions. What happens when a verification or payment step fails, and where does the entrant land? Is the closing time enforced on the server, so a late entry is impossible rather than just discouraged? We cover that in detail in how to prevent late entries in an online competition. And can the same system run next season's competition without a rebuild? A single promotion is fine on a form tool. If you plan to run competitions every season, a proper web app built around your entry flow is worth it, because the data and the logic stay yours.

Founders and marketing teams running one promotion should strip the form and use an off-the-shelf tool. Businesses that run competitions repeatedly, or need verified winners because real money changes hands, should treat the entry flow as software and design it before anything else.

Questions about running an online competition

How do you run an online competition?

Choose a prize your audience wants, publish clear terms, set a closing time enforced on the server, and build a short entry form that works on a phone. Ask only for the answer and the identity details you need to verify and contact a winner. Notify winners on the channel they used, and record every prize paid.

What are the legal requirements for running a competition in South Africa?

Promotional competitions in South Africa are regulated by section 36 of the Consumer Protection Act and its regulations. Publish your terms before launch and have a lawyer review them against your entry mechanic. Do this before you promote the competition anywhere, so the terms entrants see on the first day are terms you can stand behind.

Should entrants have to create an account to enter an online competition?

No. Account creation is a barrier before the entrant gets anything, and Baymard Institute's checkout research names forced account creation as one of the most cited reasons US shoppers abandon an order. On a sports prediction game we built, entrants submit predictions and a national ID number with no registration and no email confirmation. The ID works as the ticket.

What should a competition entry form ask for?

A competition entry form should ask for the entry itself, such as an answer or prediction, plus the minimum identity needed to verify and contact a winner. Drop fields like date of birth, province or address unless the prize or the law requires them. Marketing opt-ins should be optional and never block the entry from being submitted.

Can you run a competition on WhatsApp in South Africa?

Yes, and some South African brands already take competition entries over WhatsApp. The safest setup sends WhatsApp entries and web entries into the same database, so one closing time and one set of rules apply to everyone. Make sure your terms explain the WhatsApp entry steps clearly.

How do you notify competition winners?

Notify winners quickly, on the channel they entered through, with everything needed to claim. One message should give the prize value, a reference code and the steps to claim. At redemption, check the winner's ID against the entry and mark the prize as paid in the same system, so nobody can claim it twice.