How to Pick a Random Winner Fairly (and Prove It)

Whether it's a social media giveaway, an office raffle or a prize for your newsletter subscribers, picking a winner takes seconds. Convincing everyone that the pick was fair is what takes effort. The good news: if you plan the draw properly, you never have to ask people to simply trust you.

Write the rules before anyone enters

Fairness starts long before the draw. Publish the rules up front and don't change them afterwards:

• What the prize is and how many winners there will be.
• How to enter, and whether multiple entries are allowed.
• The exact closing date and time.
• When and how the winner will be announced.
• What happens if the winner doesn't respond (alternates).

Freeze the entry list

When entries close, lock the list. Remove entries that don't meet the rules, decide how to handle duplicates and don't add anyone late. A frozen list is the foundation of a draw that can be verified later.

Use a random name picker

Paste the entries into the Random Name Picker, one per line, or import a .txt or .csv file. Choose the number of winners and alternates, and turn on “One entry per person” if each person should only count once — duplicates are removed automatically and the tool tells you how many were removed.

Under the hood, the entries are shuffled with the Fisher–Yates algorithm using your browser's cryptographically secure random number generator, so every entry has exactly the same chance of ending up first.

Share a result that can't be edited

Screenshots are easy to fake. Instead, every draw on Çekilişyap.org creates a result link that can't be changed afterwards. Anyone who opens it can see:

• How many entries took part.
• The date and time of the draw.
• The winners and alternates, in order.
• The full list of entries.

That way, people who entered can check that they were on the list, and nobody has to take your word for it.

Make the draw itself visible

For extra transparency, keep the countdown on and screen-record the draw, or run it live on stream. People who missed it can open the result link later and watch the same reveal animation.

Several prizes?

If you're giving away first, second and third prizes, use Multiple Prizes mode. You create a group for each prize, winners are drawn group by group, and the same person can't win twice.