Winners of skill contests based on Spot the Ball have been awarded hundreds of prizes in recent years, ranging from dream supercars to luxury holidays, Apple gadgets and fashion accessories. Although anyone can play, it takes a certain amount of technique and judgement to win a Spot the Ball prize competition. What is Spot the Ball, why is it popular online and what tips can you pick up to increase your chances of winning a car prize?

What is Spot the Ball?

A Spot the Ball competition requires players to determine the position of a ball which has been removed from a photograph - usually related to football, cricket or in some cases golf.

Each spot represents where players think the centre of the ball should be based on the evidence provided in the photograph, including movement, the relative position of players and where they are looking.

Spot the Ball was particularly popular in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was used as a promotional tool by newspapers and tabloids.

Readers would pay for entries and mark a photograph with crosses before sending it by post to the promoters. Some players even used special rubber stamps to save time and increase their chances of winning.

The player whose coordinates are the same or the closest to those picked by a panel of experts (usually football referees) wins the competition.

Online Spot the Ball competitions

Spot the Ball has evolved significantly in recent years and become popular once again in digital form.

Each photograph being composed of a number of unique pixels, this allows the organisers to run a competition more accurately and to process more entries efficiently, including running instant Spot the Ball games.

Playing Spot the Ball online is just as easy as the traditional paper format. Players click on the photograph using their mouse, generating a unique set of reference coordinates every time. The distance between each set of coordinates and the panel's winning coordinates can be calculated precisely.

Skill based prize competitions

The game of Spot the Ball is considered a genuine exercise of skill in a number of countries, including the UK where pay to enter lotteries and games of chance are considered forms of gambling.

Companies like Best of the Best use the game to give away prizes like cars, holidays, electronics and luxury goods, while some football clubs use it to raise money from their fans.

In the UK, rules specify that it is unlawful to gamble on past events. This means the winning coordinates are usually determined by a panel of experts by playing the same game as the competition entrants.

In some cases, this means that the coordinates they end up picking are not the same as the actual centre of the ball before it was erased from the picture - the idea being that players must demonstrate skill and judgement by interpreting the visual clues in the picture, rather than by knowledge of what was actually photographed.

Tips for winning a Spot the Ball contest

While the game may seem intuitive, a handful of techniques can help improve your chances of winning this type of competition:

• Focus on players' body language. Do they appear to be moving, kicking, heading or running towards a certain point in the photograph?
• Look at their eyes. Inevitably, at least one player (usually more than one) will be looking at the ball. Try to project their lines of sight to find a converging spot.
• Consider distance and perspective. For example, do you think the ball is moving towards the camera or players, or further away?
• Anticipate unusual situations. Although most photos used in Spot the Ball games are relatively standard, some organisers pick slightly more tricky scenes where the ball may not be where you first expect it. Take time to consider various scenarios before submitting your entries.
• Don't forget the crowd. If you're lucky, there may be spectators or photographers in the scene. Just like players, follow their line of sight or where the cameras are pointing as an extra visual clue.
• Look out for any referees. They may be close to the focus of attention and provide more information to help you triangulate the position of the ball.
• Check for any errors in the photo. If you're lucky, the organisers could have forgotten a detail when erasing the ball from the photo. Look out for any unusual patterns or parts of the picture that are identical to others, which suggests they may have been copied and pasted over the ball.

Do you remember entering Spot the Ball competitions in newspapers when you were younger? How do current versions of the game compare in your opinion? If you have any other advice to share with other players, feel free to leave a comment below.

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