Trade show prize wheel with lead capture: prizes, odds, and setup

A prize wheel is the easiest way to get people to stop at a booth. It’s loud, it’s visible from the aisle, and nothing draws a crowd like someone else winning. Done well, it also collects a lead from every player.

Done badly, it hands out your best prize in the first hour and runs out of everything by lunch on day one. This guide covers the setup that avoids that: prize tiers, a simple way to set the odds, the lead form, and the booth Wi-Fi problem. If you’re still choosing between a wheel, a quiz, or a product showcase, start with four trade show lead capture ideas.

What you need at the booth

• A touchscreen. A 43-inch commercial screen on a floor stand is the usual choice. It’s big enough to be seen from the aisle and sturdy enough for two days of tapping.
• A computer to run it. A Mac mini, a small Windows PC, or a BrightSign player.
• The wheel itself. In Tellcase, the Prize Wheel template starts with a sample wheel. You rename the slices, set the odds, and add a photo of the prizes.
• The prizes, displayed where people can see them. A visible prize table sells the spin better than anything on the screen.

Plan your prizes in three tiers

Most good wheels have three tiers plus a few “Try again” slices:

Tier	Examples	How many slices
Grand prize	A product of yours, a gift card, a tablet	1
Mid prizes	Branded shirts, hats, water bottles	2 to 3
Small prizes	Stickers, pens, tote bags, candy	2 to 3
Try again	No prize, but a friendly message	1 to 2

Six to eight slices looks best on screen. Put the grand prize on the wheel even though it rarely lands. Seeing it is what makes people line up.

Set the odds so your prizes last

This is where most booth wheels go wrong. Equal slices mean equal chances, so a wheel with one grand prize out of eight slices gives it away about once every eight spins.

In Tellcase, each slice has odds, a number you set. A slice’s chance of landing is its odds divided by the total odds of all slices. A slice set to 2 lands twice as often as one set to 1, and a slice set to 0 never lands.

The simplest way to set them: make the odds add up to 100. Then each slice’s odds is its percent chance of landing.

1. Estimate your spins. Look at your booth traffic or badge scans from the last show. Say you expect about 400 spins over two days.
2. Count your prizes. Say you have 4 grand prizes, 40 mid prizes, and 240 small prizes.
3. Turn each count into a percent of your spins. 4 out of 400 is 1%, 40 is 10%, and 240 is 60%.
4. Give the rest to Try again. 100 minus 71 is 29.
5. Enter those as the odds. If a tier has more than one slice, split its number between them.

Slice	Odds	Chance per spin	Expected wins in 400 spins
Grand prize	1	1%	about 4
Mid prizes	10	10%	about 40
Small prizes	60	60%	about 240
Try again	29	29%	about 116

Your prizes now run out at roughly the same pace as your spins, so the last visitor on day two has a fair shot.

A few tips:

• Chance is chance. The grand prize can still land on the third spin. Bring a few extra small prizes, and check your counts at lunch.
• Need a prize rarer than 1 in 100? Odds go from 0 to 100 per slice, so raise everything else instead. For example, give the grand prize 1 and the other slices a total of 199 for a 1 in 200 chance.
• When a prize runs out, set its odds to 0 and publish. A connected kiosk picks up the change within minutes.
• Adjust between days. If day one was slower than expected, lower the Try again odds overnight so more people win.

Put the lead form before the spin

Turn on the lead form, and every spin starts with a short sign-up. People happily trade an email for a turn, and you capture every player, not just the winners.

• Ask for less. Name and email are enough for most booths. Add company or phone only if your sales team will use it.
• Ask for permission. Write a short permission statement visitors tick before they can spin. Tellcase saves the exact wording each person agreed to with their lead.
• No keyboard needed. An on-screen keyboard appears on the kiosk.
• Know who won what. The prize each person landed on is saved with their lead, so you can check winners at the prize table and follow up differently with each group.

Keep it fair

• Free to play. Don’t require a purchase to spin.
• Post simple rules at the booth: who can play, one spin per person, and how prizes are claimed.
• Check the show’s rules. Some shows limit games, noise, or giveaways.

Rules for games of chance vary by state and country. This isn’t legal advice, so check with your legal team before the show.

Don’t trust the convention center Wi-Fi

Booth internet is famously unreliable. A connected Tellcase kiosk keeps the wheel spinning when the network drops, saves new leads on the device, and sends them when it reconnects. If the booth has no internet at all, run the wheel from an offline package and connect the computer afterward to deliver the leads.

After the show

1. Download your leads as a spreadsheet the same night. It imports into most CRM and email tools.
2. Sort by prize. Grand prize winners, people who left with a T-shirt, and Try again players can each get a different first email.
3. Follow up within a day or two, while they still remember your booth.

Try it

Spin the sample prize wheel on the live demo, then see how the wheel, quiz, and product showcase work together as trade show touchscreen games that collect leads. Plans start at $49 a month, with a 14-day free trial and no card needed, so you can set up and test the wheel before the show.