Fakenham friends of 20 years Chris Broughton and Mark Franks have given away £1.5million in luxury prizes through competition website Croc Comps
Have you and a friend ever had the “crazy” idea of starting a business together? Well, this duo have done exactly that and made it a success.
Chris Broughton, 44, and Mark Franks, 35, the owners of prize draw website Croc Comps, began their journey back in 2021 after becoming big fans of online competitions themselves.
The Fakenham pair started small but are now able to offer thousands of pounds’ worth of prizes every week, including holidays for two abroad, cash, TVs, days out, gadgets and even cars, for as little as 25p a ticket.
How did they do it?
“Chris turned to me when we were playing on a similar website and said, ‘Do you reckon you could do something like that?’ so we thought we’d have a go,” Mark said.
“I knew a local web developer who built us a website off the idea.
“He showed me how to use it, and away we went.
“The more prizes we did, the more and more confident I got in being able to do it.”
In the beginning, the pair - who met playing for the town’s football club nearly 20 years ago - were working from an iPad, giving away about £500 worth of prizes a week. Now, it’s more like £10,000.
“We lost money on the majority of prizes we did for four or five months at least,” Mark added.
But word slowly began to spread when they would head out to see their winners in person and post photos on Facebook.
“Those winners would tell their friends and people would recognise someone they knew in the pictures, so every week we would have more and more players.”
He explained that the more players they get, the bigger the prizes can be.
Since starting, Croc Comps has given away £1.5million worth of prizes in total, including six cars at £1 an entry, four of which have gone to one-ticket holders.
How do I play?
Users head to the website, register for a free account and choose which competitions to buy tickets for.
They are then prompted to answer a simple qualifying trivia question, such as “Which of these is a French city? London, Paris or Madrid?” before selecting how many entries they want to put in.
The winners are announced during a Facebook Live draw every Sunday, where a ticket holder is randomly selected for each prize using a number generator.
Winners who miss the live stream are immediately contacted afterwards.
“The more expensive the ticket price is, the fewer tickets there are, so you get better odds,” Mark said.
“Whereas for smaller prizes that are 25p, there are a lot more tickets available, but you’ve got to spend less money to enter the draw.”
More to offer
Recently, the two have expanded their offering, introducing instant wins to their website.
This means that users do not have to wait until the end of the week to find out if they have won something.
Instead, when customers buy a ticket, they are given a number, and if that matches one on the prize list, they instantly win that prize.
“With instant wins, it means we can keep people playing every day rather than just at the weekends when we do the main bulk of the draw.”
‘Changing somebody’s fortune is amazing’
As it stands, the site has nearly 8,000 registered accounts and comfortably gets a couple of thousand playing every week.
“Some people will put on 25p, and some people will put on a lot more.”
For both of them, a great part is the reactions that the players have when they win something.
“It’s amazing, one of the best feelings you get is when you change somebody’s fortune.
“We’ve had plenty of people cry down the phone because they didn’t know where their next rent payment would come from, and then they’ve won a car, so that’s a nice feeling.”
Others have been given life-long memories, such as holidays to Las Vegas and Dubai, as well as cruises.
Creating a community
The site has more than 5,300 Facebook followers who have been brought together by their shared experience.
“We have a lovely little community of players, so on a Sunday during the live draw, we all have a nice little chat with each other in the comments,” Mark said.
“There are lots of people who don’t always speak to anybody, and they’ll come on and interact with me and Chris and other players.
“There must be hundreds of comments on our lives of people talking to each other - it’s lovely.”
The pair behind the site
Mark, who has always lived in Fakenham, has a partner called Rachel as well as two sons and a step-daughter, aged 11, eight and three respectively.
He has been an electrician all of his working life, but also owns North Norfolk Paint and Body on Cattle Market, where he carries out aesthetic repairs.
He has also been the coach for the town’s Under 11 football team for five years, which he says is one of the things that inspires some of Croc Comps’ charity work.
“Sometimes you’ll see less fortunate children or children who get ill, so it’s nice to be able to help.
“I’m not saying we donate fortunes, but we do what we can wherever we can.”
Chris is originally from Lynn but moved to Fakenham some years ago.
He has two girls aged 16 and 14, and is married to Cathryn.
Like Mark, Chris also owns his own company, Fakenham Drywall & Plastering, and enjoys football as a Newcastle United fan.
What do the winners have to say?
The site has a five-star Trustpilot rating, and both Chris and Mark are proud to say they have never had a bad review.
One user said: “Absolutely brilliant pair of lads, we won the washing machine and tumble dryer plus a cash prize and a trip.
“Absolutely love watching the live draw and all the banter, cannot rate these two high enough.
“Have recommended these to several of our friends, and we play weekly, same as they do.”
Another added: “Wow guys, another £1,000 win, love playing and the live chats.
“You guys are great, and prizes are always paid swiftly - try your luck, people.”
Onward and upwards
“We’re not millionaires yet, we still have to do our jobs,” Mark joked.
“A lot of the bigger competition sites have tons of investment put in, whereas me and Chris have never had a penny.
“We started in a living room, now we have an office and the money we do make we just tend to put back in to make it bigger.”
In the future, the friends want to build on the value of the prizes with more expensive cars, better holidays further away, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
“The dream would be to raffle off a house one day.”
Those wanting to enter can do so by visiting the Croc Comps website here.
