Following the introductions, the contestants each secretly look at their own back-row balls and announce the contents; they may either tell the truth or lie as they see fit.

If every contestant receives one vote, all four continue their discussion; the first three to reach an agreement on who should be eliminated advance to the next round.

Each contestant receives five balls, placing two on their front row and three on their back, and play proceeds as in Round 1.

Starting with the contestant who brought more money into this round, each first chooses one ball to "bin" (eliminate) and then one to "win" (place in the jackpot).

Each contestant is given a set of two balls, one each marked "Split" and "Steal," and must secretly choose one to indicate their intentions after looking inside to confirm which is which.

[2][3][4] A team of economists including Richard Thaler have analysed the decisions of the final contestants and found, among other things, the following: Two evolutionary biologists, including Stuart West, have also analysed the correlates of decisions of the final contestants and found similar results.

In the same 17:00 timeslot, eight of the first eleven episodes beat Channel 4's Richard & Judy, and The Weakest Link on BBC Two also took a dent from the show's success.

[1][5] British psychologist Adrian Raine criticised the show, arguing that it "encourages deceitfulness", and that many of its contestants are celebrated for displaying "characteristics of psychopathy".

[6] In a review of another ITV quiz show—The Colour of Money—Charlie Brooker criticised Golden Balls' rules, saying that "[Golden Balls] has more rules and clauses than the European Convention on Human Rights"[7] A video game was released on the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms, and another version for mobile devices was released in November 2008 by Mindscape.