Grand Designs Underground House competition relaunched

A few months ago, British couple Tim and Zoe Bawtree launched a win a house competition to give away their £745,000 home in Cheltenham. The property was featured in Channel 4's Grand Design show, which followed its construction from start to finish. Designed as an eco-home under the couple's original back garden, it was dubbed the 'Underground House' and won a number of awards. The Cheltenham House competition was originally very similar to the popular Oldborough Retreat competition, with a target of 49,000 tickets to be sold at a price of £25 each. It also relied on players answering a relatively simple question online about the Cheltenham Cup to become eligible for the prize.

The Bawtrees announced recently that it would be restructured to a "Spot the Frisbee" competition, which is based on the popular "Spot the Ball" game. Players are required to review a photograph where the frisbee has been digitally erased then; based on the information provided, designate where they believe the centre of the frisbee should be. Their answers will be assessed in comparison with that of a panel of judges and the closest set of coordinates will win the competition.

This follows the postponment of the Oldborough Retreat competition due to concerns expressed about its legality by the Gambling Commission. It seems that the Bawtrees may have been advised by their lawyers that they risked similar issues should they pursue with their competition and therefore decided to opt for an alternative solution. So far, the Commission has not specified which type of competition format would be deemed a legal form of prize competition.

It will be interesting to see how the Cheltenham House competition progresses given it may have lost some momentum as a result of this change. It is likely that a number of existing players may not wish to participate in the new competition, which may lead to the couple having to refund some tickets. At the same time, if the new competition structure remains unchallenged by the Gambling Commission, this could provide a useful reference point for other house competitions in the future.