Competition for a game. Free entry, $10k prizepool, legal?

[IRONFIST Studios]

Hi guys,

We are thinking about promoting a competition to help launch our mobile game.
The prizepool will be ~$10,000 USD and it will be free to enter.
It will be available worldwide and the winner will be paid through PayPal.

The winners will be decided based on skill - how well they score in our game.
We will verify results through Apple's Game Center.


My question is:
Is this legal and are there any fees/forms/certificates I need to attain to promote this competition?

Thanks!

 

[JohnSphericalgames]

I think this prize pool is far too large for a single competition.

You are better off putting $100, $50, $25 per competition for 1st, 2nd, 3rd prize and run it once a week.

If the game doesn't do so well then you can stop the mini-competitions having only spent one tenth of the amount. It also removes the temptation of not fixing it if you discover you are making less than the prize amount being given away.

I'm not sure what legal loop you have to go through but the Tax man will want some sort of proof that money is was used in competitions.