Prize contests in Belgium: the complete guide

Promotion strategies and smart workarounds to navigate the regulatory landscape and win over Belgian consumers

Before we get into the details of Belgium’s prize contest regulations, there’s one thing worth stating upfront: not every promotion mechanic that works seamlessly elsewhere in Europe is legal in Belgium.

The country has its own restrictions, particularly around games of chance, that make it important to think about your mechanics before you even write the brief.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• The Belgian regulatory framework and key legislation around promotions
• The types of contests and promotions that are allowed, and those that aren’t
• The main restrictions and the legal alternatives you can consider
• Prizes and mechanics that perform well with Belgian audiences
• Case studies from international brands that adapted successfully to the Belgian market
• Operational best practices for promotional campaigns
• The most common mistakes to avoid

✈️Introduction: what you need to know before you start

Before you run any prize contests in Belgium, you need to familiarize yourself with the local regulations before anything else.

Unlike many other European markets, Belgian law prohibits all promotions that are purely based on chance. This means that you need to build your promotion around skill or merit.

In this guide, you’ll find out the contests that are allowed in Belgium, how to structure promotions to stay on the right side of the law, and the strategic approaches that tend to deliver real results.

Prize contests in Belgium: key rules and permitted mechanics

In Belgium, prize promotions are tightly regulated. All promotion mechanics that rely on pure chance are strictly prohibited.

What the law allows are skill or merit-based contests (including those tied to purchase) and promotional gifts.

The legislation that sets these conditions is the Act on Games of Chance, and the principles set out in the consumer protection code.

The prizes themselves can be goods, services, or cash, although physical kits (bundles of products) and cultural or sporting experiences tend to perform the best here.

🛂 The legal framework: what’s allowed and what isn’t

Let’s take a look at the types of promotions that are legal in Belgium, the legislation you need to consider, and the campaign specifics that work best with the Belgian market.

In Belgium, games that depend on pure luck to win are regulated by the Act on Games of Chance. The other types of promotions don’t have a dedicated law, but you still need to abide by the general principles of consumer protection and the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.

Within this framework, the following are permitted:

• Skill or merit-based contests – including those that require a purchase to enter
• Reward programs – either purchase-with-purchase or gift-with-purchase promotions.

The outright ban is only on contests that are based purely on chance, even if the promotion itself is free.

When it comes to the prizes, you can offer either cash, goods, or services. However, it’s good to note that Belgians respond better to physical prizes and sporting and cultural experiences.

In short: here’s what you can and can’t do

✅ Allowed in Belgium:

• Skill-based contests with merit-based judging
• Reward programs (after purchase)
• Cash prizes, goods, or services

❌ Not allowed in Belgium:

• Random draws
• Wheels of fortune and instant win formats
• Any promotion that’s based on pure chance

⚠️ Restrictions and prohibitions: the details

There’s one major restriction that shapes all promotional campaigns in Belgium.

A ban on games of chance

Belgium doesn’t allow any promotions based purely on luck. This means you can’t use mechnics like random draws, wheels of fortune, and instant wins.

Creative workarounds

The good news is that there are still some alternatives, but the right one will depend on your specific campaign type, product, and audience.

🎁 Prizes and mechanics that actually work in Belgium

What genuinely captures Belgian consumers’ attention? Here’s what our on-the-ground research has found.

Belgian audiences show a strong interest in:

• Physical prizes
• Experiences

When it comes to the promotion mechanics, the best performers are social media activations that require active participation, and purchase-linked promotions that give consumers a real reason to buy.

📬 Case studies: campaigns that got it right

Let’s look at some of the successful promotions that have been run by international brands to see how success is shaped in Belgium.

1.      “Toast the Summer With Us” – Alma Wines

Alma Wines ran a promotion in Belgium to promote their Alessandro Berselli Signature Collection. A Fiat 500 Hybrid was the headline prize. To take part, participants had to buy one of the five featured wines. They’d then need to register online with the proof of purchase and answer three questions.

The final question, which required answering the first three correctly, asked participants to guess the number of liters of Italian wine that had been sold at Delhaize in 2019. The person who came closest would be the winner.

💡 Key takeaway: When a contest requires participants to buy something and show a certain skill, it comfortably falls within Belgian regulations.

2.     “Gifts From the Dream Factory” – Alessi

Alessi ran a promotion that spanned multiple European countries. These are  Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In each, they adapted the mechanics to local laws. The first three worked well with a chance-based draw, but they switched to a reward program in Belgium. Customers who spent above the campaign’s threshold received a card with all the prizes, and they could choose any of them.

💡 Key takeaway: Even when you are running an international promotion, you can structure it to fit different markets. This doesn’t mean that you need to make the campaign completely different. For Belgium, you can add a simple buy-and-get element where everyone who purchases receives a gift. This will get rid of chance.

3.     BKT Sell Out Campaign

BKT, a major player in specialist tires, ran a purchase-linked contest across eight European countries. To accommodate the different legal environments, they used two separate mechanics. They ran a prize draw in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Slovakia. For Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Czech Republic, they modified it to a judged photo contest. The prizes were identical across all markets: a Yamaha quad bike and 10 Weber barbecues.

💡 Key takeaway: When running a promotion in multiple countries, it’s important to keep the prizes consistent. You can adapt the mechanics to suit the regulatory requirements, but have uniformity in the prizes. It’s usually important to avoid the perception that one country got a worse deal than another.

🧭 Four things worth keeping in mind

Here are some practical strategies for developing a contest that’s genuinely engaging and fully compliant with Belgian law.

Lean into social contests

Social mechanics with a skill or creativity component work particularly well here and give you strong engagement levers to pull.

Lean more toward physical prizes and experiences

Belgian consumers are drawn more towards physical prizes and experience than generic vouchers.

Consider strategic partnerships

When you collaborate with local non-profits, it gives you a bigger reach and adds a layer of genuine social value that Belgians tend to appreciate.

Turn the constraint into a creative brief

The ban on chance-based mechanics goes beyond compliance as it forces brands to create a more original campaign. The kind of creativity brands are pushed towards helps generate more engagement than a simple prize draw would have anyway.

🚫 Common mistakes that sink campaigns

Let’s look at some of the common errors that derail promotional campaigns in Belgium.

• Running a straight prize draw among all entrants. This is a pure chance-based selection, and it’s banned outright.
• Using a digital wheel of fortune to pick winners. This is also prohibited as the mechanic is based entirely on chance, regardless of how it’s packaged.
• Running a scratch-and-win promotion. The random element needs to be accompanied by genuine skill or merit. Otherwise, it can’t stand.

Every country has its own regulatory complexities, but you don’t have to navigate them alone. Our team has extensive experience in international promotions and can support you at every stage, from conception to awarding the final prize.

For specific questions or tailored advice, get in touch.