Online Buxton competition company has given away over £1m worth of prizes

For Charlie Edwards 2020 was the year of the gap year in Australia however covid lockdowns brought him and he had no job so decided to turn his hand to online raffles and competitions.

Since then Easy Winning has grown and earlier in the month the company hit the £1m of prizes which had been given away.

The 25-year-old from Buxton said: “I can’t really believe it, it seems a little bit mad but here we are.

“Competition sites seemed to really take off during lockdown and I couldn’t see anything in our area so decided to give it a go.”Charlie, who runs the company on his own, says he started in Buxton and it has grown organically over the three years but still 80 per cent of those who win are based in the High Peak.

He said: “The first giveaway was a pair of apple air pods and then an apple watch.

“Now it has gotten so big that people are winning £20,000 cash or an Audi or a Mercedes.

“I know times are hard and so I keep all the ticket prizes really low like 15p or 99p for a bigger prize.

“If people don’t want a car they can take the cash and I go and swap the car for the next one and we go again.

“I’ve built a brand up and I’m so proud of my journey.”He says it is a lot of work as the big prizes also have small instant wins and there can be hundreds of people who need paying in one day and he also likes to go out and meet the big winners in person.

“I’m probably working 12 to 14 hours a day - it is a lot but I really love it.

“My parents didn’t quite get it at first as they were from the generation of going out to work and doing the traditional nine to five but they can now see how it works and how big it has become.”

To learn more about Charlie’s online competition site visit easywinning.co.uk