Start with prizes, not just a list of people
A prize wheel answers “What does this participant receive?” Its entries are rewards such as a sticker, bookmark, or small notebook. A name wheel answers “Who receives this prize?” Both can be part of a party, livestream, or classroom activity, but they make different decisions. Decide which question you are spinning for before preparing the list.
Open the main WheelMigo wheel and choose Replace list. Enter one outcome per line, then choose Confirm list & new activity. The controls use words such as “names” and “roster,” but the entries can be prize labels. The import preview reports duplicate labels and keeps them; it does not silently combine matching prizes.
Templates include Classroom names, What to eat, Break the ice, Who goes first?, Brain break, Drawing prompts, and Chore picker. There is no dedicated prize template; start with your own rewards on the main wheel.
Design the prize mix and show the odds
WheelMigo gives each eligible entry the same chance. To make one prize category more common, repeat its label on separate lines. There is no separate weight control. With N eligible entries and k entries for a particular prize, its next-spin probability is k/N. Count eligible entries, including losing outcomes, rather than distinct labels.
This illustrative ten-entry setup is not an actual event report. Paste “Sticker” on five lines, “Bookmark” on three, “Notebook” on one, and “Thanks for playing” on one:
| Outcome | Entries | Chance on the first spin |
|---|---|---|
| Sticker | 5 | 5/10 = 50% |
| Bookmark | 3 | 3/10 = 30% |
| Notebook | 1 | 1/10 = 10% |
| Thanks for playing | 1 | 1/10 = 10% |
Nine of those ten entries award something, so the chance of receiving any prize is 9/10 = 90%. Add two more “Thanks for playing” lines and the wheel has twelve entries: the prize chance becomes 9/12 = 75%, and the notebook chance falls to 1/12, about 8.33%. Adding losing segments changes every prize’s odds, even though the prize lines themselves stay unchanged.
Tell participants what “Thanks for playing” means and whether another attempt is allowed. For a classroom celebration where everyone should receive something, leave losing outcomes out. With repeats enabled, these ratios describe each single spin while the eligible list stays unchanged; they do not guarantee exact quantities over a short event.
Choose: draw the person first or the prize first
- Person first: identify the participant by your announced queue or a separate name draw, then spin the prize list. This suits a booth or classroom where each person takes a turn. A losing segment means that participant receives no prize on that attempt.
- Prize first: announce a fixed prize, or draw one from the prize list, then select its recipient from an eligible participant list. This suits a livestream revealing gifts one at a time. If a prize spin lands on “Thanks for playing,” define beforehand whether that ends the attempt without drawing a recipient.
Keep the participant list and prize list separate. A prize result does not identify its recipient, and WheelMigo does not automatically pair two draws. Write that pairing in your own event log. If everyone should receive at most one prize, the participant selection needs its own no-repeat rule; no repeats on the prize wheel alone cannot enforce that.
Treat repeated prizes as stock or as probability
First choose what a repeated line represents. For finite stock, give each physical item its own entry: “Sticker 1,” “Sticker 2,” and so on. Enable No repeats this round before drawing. Once selected, that entry stays on the roster but is excluded from the remaining pool for the round. Do not start the next round unless those items are available again; starting it makes selected entries eligible again.
Matching labels still have separate IDs. Five entries called “Sticker” allow five sticker results in a no-repeat round. If your rule is instead “award this prize category only once,” draw singly and untick the category’s other entries in Attendance & names after it wins. A batch could select several of them before you can intervene.
For a reusable reward menu, repeated lines can simply set the odds. Leave repeats enabled only when you can honor another result of the same kind. The wheel does not track physical inventory. In the ten-entry example, if a sticker is drawn with no repeats enabled, four sticker entries remain among nine: the next sticker chance is 4/9, about 44.44%. Fixed starting ratios do not stay fixed as stock is drawn.
Handle several results without accidental repeats
Results per batch accepts 1 to 100, subject to how many eligible entries remain. Each batch draws distinct entries, even when repeats are otherwise enabled; separate batches can reuse them unless No repeats this round is on. Distinct entries can still share a prize label.
For a batch, assign recipients in advance and pair them with results in order. The animation shows only the first pick; the result list shows all picks. See “How to draw multiple winners at once (fair batch draws)” in Keep reading.
Let the audience see the setup and the spin
Show the prize list and, if drawing recipients, the participant list before the first official spin. The Entries preview shows only the first eight entries; open Attendance & names to review the complete list. Explain duplicate prizes, losing segments, and the repeat setting while the audience can see them.
For an online event, share your browser window through your meeting or streaming software, then use Present mode for the draw. Keep labels short: the wheel shortens long labels and hides segment text above forty eligible entries. Show the full list before switching views, and read out the result afterward.
WheelMigo selects entries using crypto.getRandomValues with rejection sampling. That supports equal odds per eligible entry, but a visible spin alone does not verify your list or event procedure. Announce which spin counts and keep any practice run separate from the official activity.
Save the setup and record the handoff
Save roster stores the list in this browser’s local storage system. Check the save status before relying on it. To show others the event, use screen sharing; sending the homepage address is not a transfer of your saved list. Export a JSON backup when you need a file copy.
After the draw, use Results → Export CSV. It records order, label, round, mode, and local-device ISO time. Keep a separate participant-to-prize log and note when each item is handed over. For a replay, use your device or streaming software to record the screen from the list review through the result; recording is a separate step.
Keep the activity proportional to the stakes
This setup fits small gifts, classroom rewards, and informal event games. Browser records and a recording are useful supporting notes, not independent certification of a formal draw. Prize promotions and draws have different rules in different regions; for a formal event, check local requirements and platform rules first.