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Types of giveaways PickerToolbox supports

Why fairness and transparency matter for giveaways

When you run a public giveaway, participants need to believe the draw is genuine. A screenshot of a "random" result, or a winner announcement with no evidence of how the draw was conducted, will always attract suspicion — and justifiably so. The fairest draws are the ones conducted live and in public, with a verifiable method.

PickerToolbox addresses this in two ways. First, the wheel URL encodes your full entry list — you can share this URL before the draw, and anyone who opens it can verify that all entrants are included and that no names are duplicated or weighted unfairly. Second, the wheel spin animation is designed to be conducted live: the wheel spins visibly, decelerates naturally, and the winner appears in a large popup. There is no hidden pre-selection — the randomness happens during the spin, in the browser, using crypto.getRandomValues().

Weighted entries — more tickets, more chances

If your giveaway gives certain participants more entries than others — for example, one entry for a like and three entries for a share — PickerToolbox supports this through the wheel's weight system. In advanced mode, you can set a custom weight for each entry. An entry with weight 3 is exactly three times as likely to be selected as one with weight 1. This replicates the traditional "more tickets in the hat" mechanic accurately.

Drawing multiple winners

For multi-prize giveaways, there are two approaches. The quickest is to use the List Picker's multi-draw feature: set the number of picks before clicking, and all winners are drawn simultaneously with no duplicates. For a more dramatic sequential draw — where you reveal one winner at a time, with the remaining entrants still in play — use the wheel with Remove Winner enabled. Each spin removes the winner from the wheel, so the remaining entrants become slightly more likely to be picked next.

Raffle mode in the List Picker draws winners one at a time in a cycling animation, eliminating each winner before the next draw. This is the most engaging approach for a multi-prize live stream draw.

How to conduct a giveaway draw step by step

1. Open PickerToolbox and add all your entrants to the wheel or list
2. If some entrants have multiple tickets, switch to Advanced mode and set weights
3. Copy the URL from your browser address bar and share it publicly before the draw — this commits you to the exact entry list
4. Go live on your chosen platform, or share your screen
5. Click SPIN! or press Space to conduct the draw in full view
6. Announce the winner from the popup
7. For multiple prizes: enable Remove Winner and repeat from step 5

A worked example: a 200-entry Instagram giveaway

Here's how a small business ran a product giveaway from start to finish using only PickerToolbox and a spreadsheet.

The giveaway rules were: one entry for following the account, plus one bonus entry for tagging a friend in the comments. Over the entry period, the team collected 168 unique followers who entered, of whom 54 also tagged a friend and earned a second entry. Rather than manually duplicating those 54 names, the team used PickerToolbox's Advanced mode: they entered all 168 names once, then set a weight of 2 for the 54 who completed the bonus action and a weight of 1 for everyone else — giving a total of 222 effective entries without retyping anyone.

Two days before the live draw, the team copied the PickerToolbox URL (which encoded all 168 names and their weights) and pinned it as a comment on the giveaway post, inviting anyone to check that their name and weighting were correct. This surfaced two spelling corrections, which the team fixed before the live draw.

On draw day, the team went live on Instagram, shared their screen showing the wheel, read out the entrant count one more time, and spun. The winner was announced on screen and confirmed via a follow-up post linking back to the same wheel URL, so anyone could see the exact list the winner was drawn from.

Copy-paste giveaway rules template

Clear, written rules posted alongside your giveaway reduce disputes and help participants trust the process. Copy and adapt this template for your next giveaway:

• Eligibility: "Open to [region/age requirement]. One entry per person unless otherwise stated."
• How to enter: "To enter, [follow/comment/tag a friend/subscribe]. Each completed action listed above counts as one entry."
• Entry deadline: "Entries close at [date and time, with timezone]. Entries received after this time will not be counted."
• How the winner is chosen: "All eligible entries will be added to PickerToolbox, a random selection tool using cryptographically secure randomization. The draw will be conducted live on [date/platform] and the entry list will be shared beforehand for verification."
• Prize and delivery: "The winner will receive [prize] and will be contacted via [method] within [timeframe]. If the winner does not respond within [X days], a new winner will be drawn."

Posting these rules before you open entries — and keeping a copy of the entry list you used — gives you a clear record if anyone ever questions the result.

Frequently asked questions