Out-of-home agency calls for disclosure standards as prize draw operators move into billboard advertising

LONDON, UK, 7th August 2026

Loud! OOH has set out four disclosure asks for UK media owners ahead of an expected rise in outdoor advertising from prize draw and competition operators, a category recently found to take an estimated £1.3 billion a year from UK consumers.

Independent out-of-home agency Loud! OOH has called on UK media owners to agree voluntary disclosure standards for prize draw and competition advertising, ahead of what it expects to be a significant increase in outdoor bookings from the sector over the next year.

The agency has published four asks it believes should apply as standard to any prize draw booking:

• The free entry route made legible on the creative itself, rather than referenced in terms and conditions
• Odds, or the total entry cap, stated alongside the advertised prize
• Any cash alternative disclosed where a physical prize is shown
• Sites screened for proximity to schools and colleges, as though the CAP gambling rules applied

The sector has grown quickly and has only recently begun to formalise. The government’s Voluntary Code of Good Practice for Prize Draw Operators came into force on 20 May 2026, and in July around fifty operators formed the Prize Competition Council, the first trade association the sector has had. Research commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport found that approximately 7.4 million UK adults had entered a prize draw or competition in the preceding year, spending an estimated £1.3 billion, and observed that operators sitting outside the Gambling Act are free to spend heavily on advertising in order to grow.

Loud! OOH argues that out-of-home is the natural next channel for a category whose primary obstacle is consumer trust. Paid social reaches one person on a private screen and cannot vouch for the advertiser. A billboard is public, dated, sold through a named media owner and verifiable by anyone who passes it, which is precisely the reassurance these operators need to buy.

Jamie Roberts, founder of Loud! OOH, said: “If the free entry route is the only reason a prize draw poster is legal, it should be readable from the top deck of a bus, not buried three clicks into a terms page."

He added: “I am arguing for constraints on business my own agency could take, and I am comfortable with that. Out-of-home has arrived late to this conversation before, with gambling and with high fat, salt and sugar advertising, and each time the position got set by somebody else after the posters were already up. The medium sells itself on being seen in public and being accountable for what it shows. That is worth more than any single category of spend.

The agency has previously planned outdoor campaigns where the objective was public comprehension rather than direct response, including the the Flood Re “The Living Room” campaign, a flood risk awareness campaign delivered through 3D anamorphic digital EcoVan in Manchester. It also publishes how billboard pricing works across UK formats and a breakdown of costs for London Underground advertising as a free public resource.

About Loud! OOH

Loud! OOH is an independent out-of-home advertising agency with offices in Leeds and London, launched in 2026. The agency publishes its complete rate card publicly and charges no markup on media, with 48-sheet regional billboards listed from £325. Clients include Flood Re, Renegade, Volvo, the Scotch Whisky Association and Mulberry Homes.

Founder Jamie Roberts has 20 years in advertising, including six in out-of-home, and previously worked on Google’s AdWords team covering the UK and Ireland.

Sources reference:

Voluntary Code of Good Practice for Prize Draw Operators, DCMS, in force 20 May 2026

Prize Competition Council, established July 2026

Online prize draws and competitions: market study, assessment of harm and review of potential interventions, London Economics for DCMS, published June 2025Contact

Jamie Roberts, Founder, Loud! OOH - loudooh.co.uk