Prize Wheel

Give your visitors a spin to win. Prize Wheel puts a prize wheel (or a scratch card) on any page: visitors enter with their email address, spin, and win a discount code, a freebie or a "better luck next time". You decide the prizes, the odds and how many of each there are. Prize Wheel is a Pro Tool, and can be gifted to a site.

What it does

• A wheel or a scratch card. The same prizes and odds either way. The wheel turns and stops on the prize; the scratch card is scratched with a finger or the mouse (or revealed with a button) to show it.
• 3 to 12 slices, each with a label, a colour, a chance and what it gives.
• What a slice gives:
  • Nothing - "Better luck next time!" (or your own words).
  • A message - for example "Show this screen at the till for a free coffee".
  • A code everyone shares - the same code for every winner of that slice, such as SPIN10.
  • A unique code from my list - paste your own codes (gift card numbers, one-off vouchers); each winner gets the next one, and no code is ever given twice.
  • A single-use Shop discount code - with the Shopping Cart Pro Tool, a new code is made in your Shop for each winner: a percentage or an amount off, an optional minimum spend, and how many days it lasts. It shows in Shop > Discounts, and works once.
• How many of each prize: leave it empty for no limit, or give a number. When a prize runs out (or its list of codes does) it is never drawn again, and its share of the chances goes to the other slices.
• Chances you can see. Each slice's chance is a weight: 20 is twice as likely as 10. The editor shows each slice's real chance as a percentage, worked out from what is left. Switch on Show the odds to players to list them under the wheel.
• Fair by design. The prize is picked on the server, with a secure random number, before the wheel starts to turn. The wheel then turns to the prize it was given. Nobody can see or change what the wheel will land on, and two people spinning at the same moment can never both take the last prize.

Getting started

1. Switch Prize Wheel on in Tools.
2. Open Tools > Games > Prize Wheel and choose New prize wheel. A new wheel starts with six example slices - change them to your own.
3. Give it a title, set the prizes and their chances, and check the Preview. Try a spin turns the preview to a slice picked by your chances (nothing is saved or won).
4. Press Test and spin it yourself (see below).
5. Set the status to Open and save.
6. Put it on any page:

[prize-wheel id="spin-to-win" /]

The id is the wheel's Short name, shown with its shortcode in the editor and the list.

Who can spin

• Ask for an email address (on unless you switch it off). This is the real limit: spins are counted per address.
• Consent box under the email address: it must be ticked to spin, or can be left unticked. The wording comes from the settings (the cog), or give a wheel its own.
• Ask for a name - optional for the player.
• Spins each, each day or ever - for example one spin a day each, or three spins each in all.
• Also limit each browser - the browser remembers its own spins and shows the last result again. This is a soft check (a private window gets round it), so keep the email address on when the prizes matter.
• Spins a day in all - stop the wheel for the day after so many spins. 0 means no limit.
• Spins a day per connection (in the settings, for every wheel) - the most spins one internet connection can have on a wheel in a day, whatever addresses or browsers it uses (20 unless you change it, 0 for no limit). It stops a script from emptying your prizes. Keep it generous: everyone on a cafe's Wi-Fi shares one connection. The connection's address is never stored.
• If a wheel gives unique or Shop codes but does not ask for an email address, the editor warns you: only the browser and the per-connection limit would stand in the way.
• Opens and Closes - optional times. A draft wheel is not shown at all; a closed one says it has closed.
• A hidden field catches robots, and each visitor can spin at most 10 times a minute.

After a spin

The player sees what they won, with the code in large letters and a Copy button. A Shop code shows what it is worth and the last day to use it. If the site can send email and Email winners their prize is on (in the settings), the winner is emailed the code too, with your terms, and the screen says so.

Entries

Entries (on each wheel in the list, and on the editor's banner) shows every spin, newest first: when, the email address and name, the prize and the code.

• Shop codes show whether they have been used at checkout.
• For other codes, tick Redeemed when the winner uses theirs (in store, say).
• Stock lists how many of each prize have been won and how many are left.
• Download CSV saves every entry for your records or mailing list. Only use the addresses as your consent wording said.
• Deleting an entry does not put its code back.

Testing a wheel

Test spins the saved wheel right there in the Tool, exactly as your players see it, with the prize drawn by the server the same way. A test spin takes nothing: no stock, no code from your list and no Shop code (a made-up TEST code shows instead). Only the latest test spin is kept on the Entries screen, marked Test, and it never counts towards any limit. With unsaved changes the button says Save and test.

Settings (the cog)

These apply to every wheel:

• Consent wording - the words beside the tick box, unless a wheel has its own.
• Email winners their prize - send the code (or message) by email after a winning spin. Needs the site's mail server, under System > Site Settings > Email.
• Email subject - {site} becomes your site's name.
• Spins a day per connection - see Who can spin.
• Running low at - when a prize (or its list of codes) has this many or fewer left, the sidebar badge shows it and the admins get a notice.

Topping up and running low

The sidebar shows how many prizes are running low on open wheels. Hover it for the list. To top up, open the wheel: raise How many, or paste more codes into the slice's code box (codes already given out are never added again). Clear the codes left removes the unused codes from a slice when you save.

Notifications

• Prize Wheel winners - someone has won a prize (not "better luck next time"). Off unless you switch it on in your notification settings.
• Prize Wheel prizes running low - a prize or its codes are running low, or have run out.

Export and import

• Export (a wheel's menu, or the editor's banner) saves one wheel as a file; Export all saves every wheel.
• Import adds the wheels in a file as drafts, beside the ones you have.
• A file carries the wheel and its prizes only - never the entries, never how many have been won, and never the unique codes not yet given out (a file gets passed around, and a code in it could be used by anyone). Paste the codes again after importing.

Gifting

Prize Wheel can be given to a site as a gift, for good or for a number of days, as well as bought.