Difference between Chance and Skills competitions

If there’s one topic designed to stir emotions within lovers of competitions, it’s which is better, chance or skills competitions. To those of you that don’t know, both chance and skills competitions are poles apart, and refer to the different ways in which a competition is drawn or judged.

Chance competitions as you would imagine, have an element of chance involved. They are technically random, and require an entry to be drawn in an unbiased fashion. All entries must have an equal chance of winning.

Chance competitions are heavily governed, and you’ll note that the bottom of terms and conditions (all the fine print) should contain a series of permit numbers from different states and territories. These are required because chance competitions are a lottery and are treated seriously by permit offices.

Skills competitions rely much more on the ability of an entrant to stand out to the judges. Similar to a sporting contest, the outcome is decided based on the skill of the entrant to size up the task and enter accordingly.

In Australia the most common type of skills competitions are words-or-less, in other words, write an answer within the required word limitation and you are within the rules of entry.

You will notice at CompetitionsGuide.com.au that many competitions are what we call “WOL” (words or less). These vary in popularity, many entrants avoid them because of the perceived skill required to enter.

We believe that WOL competitions present some of the best opportunities. You don’t need to be a wordsmith, author or (especially) a poet.

Avoiding WOL competitions means cutting out way more than half of all competitions available. Our best advice is to judge each competition on its own merit, and learn the tactics for winning all.

*Want to know more about how to win online competitions? - You can buy "Competitions - The Book" online here for only $13.95 including delivery. Click here to order

©Craig Bradley Market Engineering Pty Ltd. 2009. All articles are original content and opinions of the author Craig Seitam. Copying of all or part of any content without the expressed permission of the author is prohibited.