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You don’t have to tally results or choose winners by hand. When a contest period ends, Referly picks the winners for you — it ranks everyone by the contest’s metric, matches each top position to its prize, and awards it automatically. This page explains exactly how that works and what happens next.

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How winners are chosen

At the end of a contest period, Referly looks at the final standings for that period and awards each ranked position the prize you set for it:
  • The affiliate in 1st gets the 1st-place prize, 2nd gets the second prize, and so on.
  • Only ranks with a prize win. If you set prizes for the top three, the top three finishers win and everyone else simply took part.
  • Each affiliate’s score is measured only over the contest period, using the ranking metric you chose — so contest standings can look different from your all-time leaderboard.
This happens on its own, at the moment the period ends. There’s nothing you need to press.

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When winners are picked

That timing follows the winner frequency you set when you created the contest:

At the end of the contest

A single set of winners is picked once, when the contest’s end date passes. The contest is then marked Completed.

Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly

Winners are picked at the end of every period. The same contest keeps crowning fresh winners each cycle until its final period, then it’s marked Completed.
Winners are only picked while a contest is live. If you pause a contest, results for that stretch wait until you resume it.

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What winners receive

The prize each winner gets depends on how you set it up:
  • Cash prizes are awarded automatically as a bonus. The amount lands in that affiliate’s rewards like any other commission, so it flows into your normal payout process — no manual payment needed. You’ll find it alongside your other bonuses.
  • Non-cash prizes are recorded against the winner with the description and any delivery note you added. Referly doesn’t ship these for you — you fulfill them, using your deliverable note as a reminder.
Winning affiliates are notified with a celebration in their portal, so they know right away that they placed.

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View the winners

Open Contests from the left sidebar and select View winners on any contest to see who won, their winning position, the metric they hit, and the prize awarded. For a recurring contest, winners are grouped by period, so you can see each cycle’s results.
Winners appear here once a contest period has ended and been finalized. Until then, the contest is still running and the list stays empty.

Create a contest

Set the prizes and winner frequency winners are drawn from.

Contests overview

How contests work from start to finish.

Managing bonuses

Where cash prizes show up as rewards.

Managing payouts

How prize bonuses get paid out.
Last modified on July 21, 2026