Tips & Advice on Attempting Spot The Ball Competitions

Winners of ‘Spot the Ball’ competitions undoubtedly have luck on their side, but it is not all down to chance, there is certain amount of skill and technique involved too.

What is Spot the Ball?

Entrants to a ‘Spot the Ball’ competition are challenged to guess the position of a ball that has been removed from an action photo of a ball sport – most commonly football. It is not entirely down to guesswork as most contestants attempt to gauge the location using the positions and reactions of the sports people involved.

Although it’s still a popular prize game today - particularly on the internet - its heyday was during the 1980s, when it was a familiar feature of newspaper promotions. It was typical practice during this period for contestants to pay for a specific number of guesses, which would be then marked using a drawn cross. It was not unheard of for people to litter the picture with hundreds of crosses, using a special rubber stamp to help with the job.

The winner is the entrant whose guess is deemed to be the closest to the centre of the ball.

Online Spot the Ball

Spot the ball may have largely disappeared from our newspapers but it is an ever familiar presence in online games, where computer technology allows the contest to be carried out in a more accurate and user friendly manner.

Online action pictures are made up of thousands of individual pixels set out like a grid. Entrants can simply click on a point on the screen, and that will correspond to a pixel with its own unique set of grid coordinates. If the player picks the pixel that the judges have chosen, or the one closest to it, then they are the winner.

Guesswork or Skill?

Spot the ball is seen by some as a more skill-based prize game, because it suggests that an astute judge of the action scene will stand a much greater chance of winning than an entrant who randomly places their mark. In reality, there is a lot of luck involved than skill.

Due to rules stating that it is unlawful to gamble on events that have already happened, the game promoters are free to place the ball location anywhere they like. They might well use the original position of the ball, but crucially, they don’t have to. In theory the winning ball location could be at the opposite side of the picture from the real location. However, this would very misleading and unfair.

It is therefore important when playing spot the ball to use a certain amount of skilled judgement but not rely on it too much; spot the ball winners are not master physicists just very lucky people. During the spot the ball craze of the 80s, most hardcore players didn’t carefully choose their spot, they covered the picture with set patterns of crosses.

Techniques

Although luck certainly plays its part it is worthwhile to carefully choose your spot and not rely solely on chance. Some basic tips to help find that ball include:

• Observe the body language of the players. Considering the ball is the focus of play, where are all the players’ movements directed towards? Has somebody just headed or kicked the ball?
• Notice the eyes of the players. Which way is each of them looking? Do their lines of sight converge on a particular point? Mentally draw a line from each of their eyes.
• Bear in mind distance and perspective. The picture does not show a 2 dimensional scene so be sure to consider the depth of the action. For instance, is the ball nearer the camera than the player?
• Don’t forget that the picture will show a fast moving scene and so some players may be slower to react to the ball than others. The ball may have passed them before their eyes and body have had a chance to react.