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Every winner is selected by a cryptographically secure random process. Here’s exactly how — and why we built it this way.
Every prize at Hittin It Big is awarded in accordance with the laws of chance. Winners are selected by an automated computer process that produces verifiably random and auditable results. No employee, director, or third party chooses winners or influences the outcome of any draw.
We built it this way because we think you deserve to know that when you enter a competition, the only thing that decides whether you win is luck.
Whether you enter by purchasing a ticket or by using our free entry route, every entry has an equal chance of winning each available prize. The selection process treats all valid entries identically — paid and free — and does not distinguish between them in any way.
Details of the free entry route are published in our Competition Terms & Conditions.
Every paid and free entry is recorded against the competition with a unique ticket number issued by the system. Each entry is stored in a database with the time of purchase, the entrant, and the ticket number received.
For each competition the system generates a cryptographic fingerprint (a SHA-256 hash) of the final ticket pool. This fingerprint is recorded before the winner is selected and cannot be changed afterwards. It proves the pool of entries used in the draw is the same pool that existed when the competition closed.
When the draw runs, the system generates a winning position within the entry pool using a certified random number generator (AES-256 in counter mode). The number is produced from a freshly generated cryptographic key that exists only for the duration of the draw and is then discarded.
The entry sitting at the generated position in the pool is declared the winner. No re-rolls. No exclusions. No manual review of the result.
Every draw writes a permanent audit record containing the competition, the total entries, the selected position, the winning ticket, the time of the draw, the pool fingerprint, and a cryptographic hash binding all of these together. This record cannot be altered after the draw without invalidating its hash.
The winning position is generated using AES-256 in counter mode (AES-256-CTR), a cryptographic algorithm published by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology as Federal Information Processing Standard 197 (FIPS 197). The same algorithm secures HTTPS connections across the internet, including online banking and government services.
We chose AES-256 because it’s public, peer-reviewed, and has been examined by cryptographers for over twenty years without a viable attack. There is no proprietary trick or hidden parameter — the algorithm is the same one used to protect data of every kind, available for any competent reviewer to verify.
Each draw uses a fresh 256-bit cryptographic key generated immediately before the draw runs. The key never leaves system memory and is destroyed once the winning position has been calculated. Selection is performed with unbiased rejection sampling, so every position in the pool has exactly the same probability of being chosen.
The same algorithm is used in three places across our platform:
Every cryptographic operation passes through a single piece of code with no parallel paths or fallbacks. The same standard. The same guarantees. The same audit trail at every stage.
Currently undergoing independent certification: Our random number generator is being audited by an independent testing laboratory specialising in gaming and lottery systems. Certification details will be published here once issued.
Every draw conducted using this mechanism leaves a permanent record. Each record contains, at minimum:
The audit record is the source of truth for every draw. Any change to the data in the record would change its hash and break the chain of evidence.
Once a draw has completed and the audit record has been written, the winner is contacted directly using the contact details provided at entry. Winners are also displayed on our Winners page, and where appropriate, in the competition’s draw reveal.
We do not reduce a prize, change the date of a draw, or cancel a draw due to low ticket sales. Once a competition is open, the advertised prize is awarded.
Some competitions include instant win prizes attached to specific ticket numbers within the pool. The prize positions are set when the competition is created — before any tickets are sold and before any entries are received. The full list of which ticket numbers carry instant win prizes is recorded at that moment and does not change for the life of the competition.
What cannot be influenced is who receives those tickets. The ticket pool is cryptographically shuffled using AES-256-CTR before sales begin, and each buyer is allocated tickets from the shuffled pool by the same algorithm at the point of purchase. Neither we nor anyone else can predict which shuffled position the next entry will land on, which means instant win tickets cannot be steered toward any particular player.
Every instant win allocation is recorded in the same audit trail as every other draw. Every entry has the same chance of receiving a winning ticket number, whether purchased or entered via the free entry route.
Because the winner-selection process is fully computer-based and produces verifiably random and auditable results, draws do not require human supervision. The audit trail provides the equivalent function: every draw can be reconstructed and verified from its recorded data, end to end.
Our wider compliance commitments are set out in our Compliance Monitoring Policy.
If you have questions about how a specific draw was conducted, or wish to request information about the audit record of any draw, please contact us at [email protected].
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