How do viewers join a ByteMate giveaway?

There are two modes: Keyword mode lets viewers join by typing a keyword like !join in chat, and Active users mode automatically enters everyone who chats during the giveaway timeframe.

Can I restrict a giveaway to subs or followers only?

Yes. You can limit participation to subscribers only or to followers only, independently from the chosen mode.

Can I run a giveaway without a fixed duration?

Yes. You can set a duration between 1 and 1440 minutes, or leave the timer off entirely. Without a timer the giveaway stays open until you stop it manually.

How does the giveaway blocklist work?

The blocklist silently excludes individual viewers from all giveaways. Blocked viewers receive no feedback in chat – their !join is silently ignored, and they are filtered out when drawing a winner. You manage the list at the bottom of the Giveaways page in the dashboard.

Is there a giveaway wheel overlay for OBS?

Yes. Enable the wheel overlay on the Giveaways page and add the provided OBS link as a browser source. The overlay shows participants and the draw live on stream.

Giveaways

Giveaways automatically draw winners from chat and can show the draw as an overlay in OBS — either as a prize wheel or as a name reel. You control mode, participation, duration, and drawing directly in the dashboard.

Dashboard overview

The main view shows the participant list with a search field on the left and the embedded Twitch chat of your channel on the right — with sending, mod actions, emotes and cheers just like you're used to. So you see at a glance who's joining and what's happening in chat.

The gear icon in the top right opens the settings with mode, duration, visual draw, entry restrictions (subs/followers) and chat announcements. Bot messages, OBS browser source and the blocklist sit as collapsible sections below the main view.

Mode and participation

There are three modes: Keyword (join via a keyword like !join), Active users (participation through active chat during the timeframe) and Channel points (join by redeeming a channel points reward). You can also restrict participation to subs or followers.

Channel points mode

When you pick Channel points as the mode, a dropdown with your channel points rewards appears right below it. When a viewer redeems the selected reward while the giveaway is running, they're automatically added as a participant. Every additional redemption increases their winning chance – redeem three times and you get triple the chance.

A few things to note:

Permission: The bot needs to be allowed to read your channel points redemptions. If the permission is missing, the dashboard shows you (and only you, the streamer) a notice with a button to reconnect your Twitch account.
Set up the reward: In your Twitch settings, set the reward to "skip the request queue" (fulfill immediately) and only enable it while the giveaway is running. The bot only listens while the giveaway is live – redemptions outside a running giveaway are not captured.
Followers-only also works in channel points mode. Subs-only, however, is not available here, because Twitch doesn't include sub status with a redemption.
Don't use the same reward for the automatic VIP feature and a giveaway at the same time.

Duration and timer

You can set a duration in minutes (1 to 1440) or run the giveaway without a timer. Without a timer it stays open until you stop it manually.

Title (optional)

In the settings (gear icon) you can give the giveaway an optional title (e.g. "Steam key" or "Nitro month"). The title is available in all bot messages as the {title} placeholder. If you leave the field empty, the placeholder simply stays empty – no fallback text is inserted. The title is set on start and can't be changed while a giveaway is running.

Chat messages & placeholders

You can enable start, end and winner announcements and a join confirmation in keyword mode. Texts can be saved as templates or reset. Important placeholders:

Start (Keyword): {keyword}, {minutes}, {channel}, {title}
Start (Active): {minutes}, {channel}, {title}
End: {count}, {keyword}, {channel}, {title}
Winner: {login}, {display}, {channel}, {title}
Join confirmation: {login}, {display}, {keyword}, {channel}, {title}

End announcement

If your giveaway runs on a timer, the bot can announce that time is up and entries are closed — handy so nobody still tries to enter while you're drawing the winner. The {count} placeholder stands for the number of viewers who can still win at that moment.

The announcement is tied to the timer: it only fires when the time runs out on its own. If you stop the giveaway by hand or use Draw & stop, it stays quiet — otherwise a second bot message would land right before the winner announcement.

Drawing and winners

You can draw winners and decide whether to stop the giveaway afterwards. Winners are saved to prevent duplicate draws.

After a draw, a winner card appears above the chat with the winner's name, an inactivity timer, and all chat messages from that user. So you can immediately see whether the winner is present — as soon as they type something, the status flips to "active".

Multiple winners at once: You don't have to wait for one winner to respond. If you draw several times in a row, all drawn winners collect in a compact list — each entry with a status dot, timer and its own chat monitoring, always visible at a glance. Click an entry to expand that winner's chat messages. That lets you draw several people quickly while still keeping an eye on whether and when each of them shows up (handy when winners are away for a while). An entry stays green even after the winner responds, until you close it yourself — so you never lose track of who has already checked in. Use Close all to clear the list in one go.

If a winner doesn't respond, just close their card and draw a new one with the Draw button. If winner chat announcements are enabled, each drawn winner is announced individually in chat, and the card then also shows an "announced in chat" note.

The visual draw (if enabled) plays its animation on the first draw, while no card is open yet. If you then draw more winners in quick succession, their cards appear instantly — without replaying the animation.

Prize wheel or name reel

In the settings, Visual draw controls what the draw looks like:

None — no animation. The winner is decided instantly and the overlay stays empty.
Prize wheel — participants are spread across a wheel that spins and comes to rest on the winner.
Name reel — the names scroll past vertically like a slot machine and lock onto the winner.

Both styles run for the same length of time, and the bot holds the winner announcement back in chat until the animation has finished — so the name never appears in chat before your overlay has shown it. You can switch styles even while a giveaway is running; the overlay picks up the new one automatically.

Only viewers who can actually win are shown: subs only, followers only, the blocklist and any inactivity window filter the display exactly as they filter the draw itself.

Participant list & management

The participant list shows all entries and marks subs. A search field above the list helps you filter by username when there are many entries. Entries can be removed manually or sent straight to the blocklist. The Add button lets you add participants manually.

Blocklist

The blocklist lets you silently exclude individual users from all giveaways. Blocked users receive no feedback whatsoever — their !join is silently ignored and they cannot win a draw.

You find the blocklist as a collapsible panel below the main view. Enter a Twitch login (the @ sign is stripped automatically) and click Block. Use the ✕ next to an entry to unblock that user.

Blocked users are filtered out both when entering through chat and when drawing a winner.

Overlay

Enable the visual draw and use the OBS link as a browser source. The overlay shows participants and the draw live — as a prize wheel or a name reel, depending on your setting.