What are mop-up draws, late-entry draws & re-draws?
If you enjoy entering prize promotions advertised on packaging and in the supermarket, you’ve probably encountered mentions of wrap-up draws, mop-up draws, sweep-up draws, catch-all draws and late entry draws in the small print or the online terms and conditions. You might have entered an early entry draw – or perhaps you’ve received a text message to let you know that you’re a winner in a re-draw!
But what exactly are these extra opportunities to win prizes – and how likely are you to be a winner in one of these draws? In this blog post I’ll explain the different types of extra draw and where you are likely to encounter them – several promotions listed on the SuperLucky Compers Shopping List feature late entry and mop-up draws (when they switch from the main promotion to a late draw, they move to the Compers Shopping List archive which has details of what prizes can be won in the extra draw).
I’ve given explanations for the most common use of all these terms – but you’ll notice occasionally that the phrases mop-up, wrap-up, and sweep-up are interchangeable in T&Cs, so it can be rather confusing!
What is a late entry draw?
On-pack promotions only run for a limited time – depending on the shelf life of the product, this could be anywhere between a couple of months, to a whole year. But the problem is that special flashed packaging, neck collars or stickers often remain on the shelves for some time after the closing date of the promotion – and if a shopper buys a product specifically due to on-pack advertising, they will be disappointed to find out that it’s too late for them to enter. This is why many brands have a ‘late entry’ draw – so any shopper who buys late still has a chance to win a prize, although they have missed the main promotional period. Usually a late entry prize draw will follow a main promotion with an instant win or a daily prize draw format. Late entry draws are sometimes referred to as ‘catch-all’ draws, as they catch all late entries!
You might have noticed new promotional stock sitting alongside old stock on the supermarket shelves – this is usually the case with Cadbury’s football promotions.
For late entry draws, there’s a set number of prizes – for example Cadbury usually give away a single cash prize, and will usually only have one late entry draw. Nestlé, on the other hand, usually have multiple late entry draws. A Nestlé Ticketmaster promotion had daily draws until 6 November 2022, but then it also had two late entry draws closing in February and September 2023 – so the promo packs were on the shelves for almost a year!
How to enter a late entry or catch-all draw
Buy a promotional product with flashed packaging, then go to the competition website and enter your unique code, barcode or batch code details after the main promotion ends, and before the late entry draw closing date!
What is a mop-up draw?
Some promotions have a ‘mop-up’ or ‘sweep-up’ draw, to award prizes that weren’t given away during an instant win promotion (so, the prizes are mopped up or swept up into a final draw!). This could be for many reasons:
- a winner did not claim their prize in time
- a winner was disqualified (for example they tried to claim too many prizes or did not adhere to T&Cs)
- no prize was won between one winning moment and the next
- there weren’t enough eligible entries (eg. a Cadbury & WHSmith instant win, where only NHS staff could take part, was likely to have more prizes than entries)
Mop-up draws are always mentioned in T&Cs, and there will be at least one guaranteed prize. Sometimes all losing entrants from the main promotion will be automatically entered, and sometimes entrants will need to opt into the draw by ticking a box after entering. The Mr Kipling winning moments promotion ran regularly for several years, and each time they assigned all unclaimed prizes to a ‘sweep-up’ draw which losing entrants could opt in for.
What is a wrap-up draw?
Rather confusingly, the term ‘wrap-up draw’ can be used to refer to a late entry draw or a mop-up draw.
The San Miguel Summer Sundown instant win promotion had a wrap-up draw in January 2023. There was a single guaranteed prize of a cooler bag – plus any prizes not given away in the main promotion. No opt-in was required for this – all losing entries went into the draw automatically.
The 2021 Bake for Love promotion had both a wrap-up draw AND a mop-up draw! The wrap-up draw had a hundred prizes of cake tins for people who entered late, and the mop-up draw chose winners for any prizes that weren’t claimed from the wrap-up draw.
The Ambrosia Moley promotion combined a mop-up and a wrap-up draw! If you didn’t win a Moley toy instantly in the main promotion (which ended on 3 Jan 2023), you could opt in to the wrap-up draw. There were ten guaranteed Moley prizes in this draw, plus any unclaimed instant win Moleys. Late entrants who took part after the main promotion closing date (between 4 Jan and 29 March 2023) were entered into this draw too.
What is a re-draw?
A re-draw is never detailed in T&Cs, as promoters hope they don’t need to have one! A re-draw is conducted if a prize draw winner has been informed, but has refused their prize or failed to claim it in time. Because there are so many scammers about, people are cynical about winning notifications and may not respond to a genuine one – but as a result, lots of SuperLucky readers have been winning in re-draws this year!
In a re-draw, a new winner is drawn from the original entries – there’s no need to enter again. Most promoters allow up to 4 weeks for a winner to accept (claim) their prize, so a re-draw can happen months after a closing date. This is why you should never give your proof of purchase (receipt) to someone who has lost theirs – because you could win that prize if there’s a re-draw, and will need the receipt!
Tesco text to win prize draws often need to be re-drawn. Many people think the winning text is a scam, so don’t respond. For scan-to-win or swipe-to-win prize draws, many winners don’t even realise they’ve entered, and the promoter struggles to contact them because their contact details are out of date on their profiles (make sure you don’t suffer the same problem – check my blog post about Swipe to win promotions for more on this!)
A major re-draw in 2022 was the Amazon Prime Day Sweepstakes. Winners were contacted via email, and had to go to a special claim portal – any winners that didn’t do this within the specified time forfeited their prizes. Many winners probably thought the winning email was a scam – or perhaps didn’t even receive it in their inbox, as there were hundreds of winners in the re-draw a couple of weeks later. I received a £500 re-drawn prize!
Re-draws may have to be conducted several times until all prizes are successfully awarded, which is why it can take a while for a winners list to be made available for some promotions!
What is an early entry draw?
An early entry draw was something Mars used for their Win!Win! promotion. This is sometimes used when promotional packaging appears in the shops for a while before the main promotion starts. It wouldn’t be fair to advertise the promotion on pack, and then not actually allow the consumer to take part until the official launch date.
In most cases, the shopper has to hang on to their receipt and packaging and then enter when the promotion begins. Alternatively, the promoter can offer a chance to win in an early draw which closes the day before the main promotion starts. For the Mars promotion, an early draw wasn’t even mentioned on the packs – but was detailed in the T&Cs on the promotional website.
What chance do I have of winning in a late draw?
With a late entry draw that has a low number of prizes, and a long entry window – such as Cadbury or Nestlé – you really don’t have much of a chance of winning a prize, especially as the promotional packaging remains on the shelves for a long time. It’s not worth entering daily over 4 months for a single £500 prize – it’s better to focus your attention on current winning moment or daily draw promotions from the Compers Shopping List.
For mop-up draws that include unclaimed instant win prizes, you have a better chance of winning. Especially if the promotional packs were late arriving on shelves – there would have been no winners for early ‘winning moments’, so the prizes will go into the mop-up draw!
For promotions on short-dated products like chilled yogurt or desserts, these tend to disappear off the shelves quite quickly so it’s worth holding on to one of your codes to enter in a late draw, as it could be that very few people can actually get hold of a promotional pack during the late entry period.
How long should I keep my receipts and packaging for?
If you enter a late draw, you should keep your receipts and packaging for at least a month or two beyond the final late entry draw date – just in case the winner doesn’t respond, and they need to re-draw!
I keep receipts and packaging in an expanding file with 12 monthly sections. At the end of the year I put the file away, and I start a second file. The following year I clear out the older file, and start again. This means I always have my receipts, etc. for at least a year – just in case! Generally I never need to take anything out of the file as I take photos of everything and a photo is usually sufficient to send to a promoter.
What about on-pack promotions with no late entry draw?
Check the T&Cs of new purchase necessary promotions carefully. For unique code instant win or daily/weekly draws without a late entry draw advertised, we can expect products with flashed packaging to disappear off the shelves long before the closing date. In this case it’s a good idea to buy early and then hold back a couple of unique codes to enter towards the end of the promotion when it’s much harder to find the products in store!
Hopefully this information has helped you to understand the various prize draw formats. You might find these posts interesting too:
