Two things have changed in the NAP Competition, and between them they make it a different game. Your picks no longer have to be win-only, and you no longer need an X account to take part.
Win, Place or Each-Way on every pick
You get 3 picks a day: your NAP, your NB and your 3B. Each of those can now be backed 3 ways, chosen on the slip underneath the selection.
- Win scores if the horse wins. This is the default and it is what the competition has always been.
- Place scores if the horse is placed.
- Each-Way is half win and half place, so a placed horse still rewards you and a winner rewards you more.
You can mix them. There is nothing stopping you having a win-only NAP at a short price, an each-way NB at 12/1 and a place-only 3B in a big field.
The one rule to know
Place and Each-Way need at least 5 declared runners. Below that there is no place market to speak of, so those options are not offered.
How many places count follows the usual terms:
| Declared runners | Places that count |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | Win only |
| 5 to 7 | 2 places |
| 8 or more | 3 places |
| Handicaps of 16 or more | 4 places |
Your slip shows the place odds and how many places apply for each pick before you submit, so you are never guessing.
This changes how the competition is played more than it might look. A win-only competition pushes everybody towards short prices, because a 20/1 shot is usually a wasted pick. With a place option, a big-priced horse in a 16-runner handicap paying 4 places becomes a perfectly sensible selection, and the each-way option lets you take the swing without giving up on the win.
You no longer need an X account to enter
This is the bigger change. Anyone can now enter the NAP Competition without linking an X account.
It used to be that a free member had to connect X before they could submit a pick, because the entry is posted publicly before the off. That put a wall in front of people who simply do not use X, and a lot of them got as far as the entry screen and stopped there. So we took the wall down. Choose to enter without X and your picks are recorded exactly as anybody else’s, they just are not tweeted.
And yes, you can win without X
Anyone can win the prizes. Entering without X does not put you in a lesser competition. Your picks are locked and timestamped the moment you submit, and they appear on Today’s NAP Entries for every other player to see. That is the open, public record a tipping competition needs, and the site now keeps it itself, so there is no longer any need for the picks to sit on X.
Linking X is still worth doing if you use it. Your entries post from your own account, you pick up followers from the other players, you get non-runner alerts on X, and Free members unlock the 5-day Premium welcome trial. None of that is a condition of winning. There is a full set of rules here, including the requirement to play at least 4 times a week or 15 times a month to qualify for the cash.
What you are playing for
The prizes are open to every tier, Free included, and paid members are not shut out of them either.
- Weekly: £20 cash, a £25 free bet, a month of ratings and a winners mug.
- Monthly: £50 cash, a £50 free bet, 2 months of ratings and a winners mug.
If a paid member wins a month of Premium, we credit it rather than waste it, so nobody is worse off for already subscribing.
There are a couple of extras that only Free members can win, and that is deliberate: topping the daily board gets you the next day’s full ratings, and there is a Saturday draw for a Free member who entered every day from Sunday to Friday. Both exist to put a full day of Premium in front of people who have not paid for one.
How to play
Pick your 3 horses from any of the day’s cards using the NAP column on the racecard, choose Win, Place or E/W under each one, and submit before the first of your selections runs. Entries lock once submitted.
The step-by-step version, with screenshots, is in our help article on playing the competition. If a selection becomes a non-runner you can swap it for another horse.
It is free on every membership, it always has been, and now there is nothing standing between you and an entry.