Changing Backgrounds

You can change (& upload) the background when the race is live – and you can change it as often as you like. Why not change the background on a regular basis whilst your race is live, you can upload your own or use the pre-uploaded library. See examples of uploaded backgrounds here.

After you’ve uploaded or selected an image make sure you hit the green tick and then save:

The selected image will have a dark blue frame:

We recommend you upload your backgrounds sized to 1920px x 1600px. Uploading images to a website is not a thing to try on your mobile phone – use a PC or Mac.

Make sure there are no spaces in your file name. For example “My Background.png” will not be accepted but “MyBackground.png” will. Avoid long file names with spaces and random characters (why not rename your file “background.png”).

If your file is not a .png open it and export as .png

Whatever backgrounds you upload it’s never going to be perfect on all devices. It has to work on mobile, PC & tablet. Whatever image you upload will “tile” if you zoom out enough.
The best solution is a seamless image (like the Mario background) – when it’s tiled it stitched together so looks OK.

Balloon Race Background

Tiled effect after zooming out:


Or – if you had Blue sea all around an island image that would work OK.
75% Of people that use the site are on mobile (a vertical screen) so we tried to make it work better on mobile.


The race had a single treasure island background for 12 years. I added the custom backgrounds for fun but I can’t edit, size and upload all your images. Below is the library of backgrounds you can use as well as uploading your own. You can change the background as often as you like and during the live race.

It’s always best to make sure you have permission to use the image you upload (if it’s a photo you shot that should be fine). All the library images are purchased from shutterstock and are licenced.

The below seamless backgrounds were added to the library recently. Why not change the background regularly to keep it interesting. You can change the background when the race is live.

Changing Backgrounds