Following the legal hurdles faced by Brian and Wendy Wilshaw in their Oldborough Retreat competition, a number of house competitions have changed their entry requirements for players to become eligible to win the top prize. Cheltenham House, one of the most memorable developments featured in Channel 4's Grand Designs TV show, is once again on offer via a re-launched property competition.

Cheltenham House is an impressive eco-house with 60% of the home built under the back garden. Complete with some of the latest technology and clever architectural features, the family home remains light and bright despite being built underground. The competition also features an Aga oven worth £4,200 as prize for the first runner-up, and a Grand Designs CD-ROM worth £199 as third prize.

After initially launching the competition in 2008 on the back of the success of the Devon Property with Fishing competition, The Cheltenham House raffle was halted due to concerns surrounding its legality. This original competition was very similar to Oldborough Retreat, with players required to ask a question relating to the Cheltenham Cup.

The competition was re-launched on 21 December 2008 under a different format, based on the popular 'Spot the Ball' game. Spot the Ball usually requires players to look at a football photo (or any other ball-based sports photo) where the ball has been erased from the scene. Players must click the photo to indicate where they believe the centre of the ball should be. The results are compared to the opinion provided by a panel of experts.

Tim and Zoe Bawtree, the couple running the Cheltenham House competition, followed their lawyers' advice to re-launch their raffle as a 'Spot the Frisbee' competition. The game is very similar to Spot the Ball, except players are shown a photo of the family trying to catch a frisbee which has been erased from the photo. In addition, a tie-breaker question is asked should there be more than one player in top place.

The Cheltenham House website features video interviews of both the Bawtrees and their lawyer explaining why they relaunched the competition, and why the competition does not fall foul of the UK Gambling Act 2005. According to the lawyers advising the Bawtrees, this competition format is not considered a form of lottery and hence falls outside of the jurisdiction of the Gambling Commission.

So far, the couple have successfully sold 3,300 of a potential 49,000 tickets. It will be interesting to see how this win a house competition progresses given the attractiveness and uniqueness of the property on offer.

Have you come across any other similar types of Spot the Ball property competitions online? If so, we would be interested to hear from you. We will continue to monitor this space to inform you of any further developments, including new property competition formats emerging online.

 Click here for more Win a House raffles and competitions