▣The Cover Slip Open the partner account
paid
Affiliate disclosure. The partner link in the masthead and in the bands beside the copy on this page is a sponsored link to a partner operator, and this site may be paid if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you. It carries rel="sponsored noopener" and opens in a new tab. That matters on this desk in particular: the subject is who carries the promise behind a promoted prize and what the transfer costs, and this site’s own revenue depends on a reader opening an account. No operator, insurer or promotion is named, rated or recommended anywhere on this site.
The Cover Slip / Reading it
Eight checks, in order

Reading a promotion

This is the practical page. Eight checks, in the order that matters, each of them answerable from what a promotion is supposed to publish anyway - and the two that most prizes turn on are the third and the eighth.

Open the partner accountRead a promotion first
Slip stub
Checks
8, in the order that matters
Answerable from
the promotion as published
The two that decide
the act, and what a stopped promoter leaves behind
Not needed
any of the twelve fields on the schedule
the perilOne stated act that must happen for the prize to be owed - and the estimate of how often it has
the retentionThe largest prize the promoter funds from the promoted product’s own margin, before any cover responds
the coverA schedule of twelve fields that indemnifies the promoter, and is never a reader’s protection
Desk The Cover Slip, cycle 62 · Page the reader’s checks · Count 8 checks, in order · Source the promotion itself, not the arrangement behind it
Direct answer Eight checks settle almost every promotion: name the promoter, confirm the prize is cash, write down the act, find who decides that it happened, note the claim window, note the route to claim, read the variation clause and ask what happens if the promoter stops trading. The last of those is the only risk no cover behind the promotion addresses.

Eight checks, in the order that matters

  1. Name the promoter. The business named on the offer owes the prize. If no business is named, the offer is not yet a term a reader can rely on.
  2. Confirm the shape of the prize. Cash, credit, a physical item or a service - and in what currency, paid by when. A prize paid as credit is a prize subject to another desk’s terms.
  3. Write the act down in the promotion’s own words. This is the definition of the peril. A loss in a cup tie is not a league season; the words are the contract.
  4. Find who decides that the act happened. Usually the promoter, certifying against an independent record of the result. A reader who disagrees with the record is arguing about evidence rather than about the term.
  5. Note the claim window, and diarise it. On the sample book a late notification is one of the two reasons a claim is actually declined.
  6. Note the route to claim and keep the promotion as published. A dated copy of the offer is the only document a reader is sure to be able to produce later.
  7. Read the variation clause. A clause that lets the promoter change or withdraw the offer before the act happens is common; whether it survives the act happening is the question worth asking.
  8. Ask what happens if the promoter stops trading. A prize is an unsecured promise. There is no fund held for winners, and no arrangement behind the promotion changes that.

What the checks reveal on the sample promotion

The sample offer names its promoter and states a cash prize, a single competition, a table-based act, the promoter as the certifier, a 30-day claim window and a route through the promoter’s own complaints process. All eight checks can be finished from the published text alone, in a few minutes.

What they cannot reveal, and does not matter

Whether the risk was kept or transferred, which insurer writes it, what the retention is and what the premium was. All four are invisible from the promotion and all four are irrelevant to a winner: the promise is the promoter’s on the day it is published and on the day it is won.

The checks against the sample promotion1 promoter named yes 2 prize form and currency cash, published currency 3 the act one competition, the league table 4 who certifies it happened the promoter, against the official record 5 claim window 30 days 6 route to claim the promoter's complaints route, in writing 7 variation clause the offer may be withdrawn before the act 8 if the promoter stops trading unsecured: there is no fund for winners checks answerable from the published offer: 8 of 8 checks needing the schedule behind it: 0
A reader who does the eight checks is doing the only work that changes the outcome. The same promotion is worth the same amount to a reader whether the promoter kept the risk or bought cover, so the arrangement is a curiosity and the eight fields are the contract.
8 checksact and windowstopped promoter0 need the schedule
The promise

The three fields that decide almost everything

When it goes wrong

The two declines, and how each check would have caught one