I've heard that all contests and competitions that have prize money are haram.

The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: No contest is allowed except in swordplay or horse or camel racing.^[0]

Even though the Prophet(S.A.W) explicitly said that, it's kind of ridicules to my mind that good competitions are not allowed.

Now my problem is that I've participated in a lot of contests, both online and offline; and I want to know the permissibility of such contests. (whether or not cash/gift is involved)

1. Free to enter online contests

These require no money to enter (Hence they can't be considered as a lottery/raffle). They range from contests of luck (not entirely, since most sweepstakes enable contestants of higher social interaction etc to have a higher probability of winning) to contests of skill. What about these two? (contests of luck and contests of skill).

2. Contests (of skill) that require a small registration fee

These variants have very little resemblance to raffles. Unlike raffles, these don't work as "pure chance". So it's clearly not gambling. eg. Technical Fests, Inter-College events, Developer conferences etc. Personally, I think these competitions can be beneficial in developing one's skills (since the competition is usually strong) even if nothing is won.

Citing a fatwa from the same source,

Giving prizes willingly from a participant in the competitions are also allowed but collecting the contribution from the participants to grant the prize to a winner is not allowed.^[0]

I could argue that some of these technical fest events simply collect a small registration fee in the form of donation. The prizes are often directly from the sponsors of the events, etc. Would it be halaal then?