DIGIWHEEL
SPINNING AROUND M
any years ago, John Purcell, DigiWheel CEO had been touring Norway visiting several bingo locations where he noticed that every bingo hall had one or two wooden money / prize wheels that were used for different
games, bonuses and prizes for customers. John thought, ‘why can’t this be digital?’ This would save operators the expense of having to replace each and every wheel across the estate of bingo halls which would in turn reduce costs, boost profits and also allow venues to utilise the screen for promotions when not being used for a game. Fast forward to 2018, when the very first DigiWheel was
manufactured and delivered to Cork, Ireland (after many, many years of trial and error) . Technology was - and still is - ever- changing so this birthed a new iteration of DigiWheel each time until the product was market-ready. In October 2019 DigiWheel was introduced to the market at G2E Las Vegas by John and his two sons, Phillip & John Jnr, on a small 20’ x 10’ stand to gauge initial interest in the product, which was a massive hit to those who visited the booth. Potential clients asked questions like
‘how has this not been done before?’ and (most importantly) ‘how fast can this be installed?’. Whilst DigiWheel was in its early stages and very much pre-revenue for the company, this was a welcome reception from the industry and filled the Purcell family with the confidence that they had something special, coming 6th in line for Best New Product at the show. After returning from Las Vegas,
John Purcell gives a pre-ICE 2023 brief
DigiWheel had to get the product to the point where it could be on-site and performing for a property. With this in
mind, more product was manufactured and finished to a higher standard, and officially launched at ICE 2020 with huge interest from all levels of companies, with some major global companies openly admitting to having tried the concept before and abandoning the project after many years (and many millions) spent in product development. COVID-19 arrived on everyone’s doorsteps and stopped the momentum DigiWheel had been building in its tracks. During lockdown, John had been listening to a podcast called ‘MaxBet Media’ hosted by Landon Jones and Mike McKiski. This particular episode featured some prominent names from the gaming industry, including Kevin Sweet, formerly of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, and Todd Haushalte, Chief
46 APRIL 2023
In 2018 the very first DigiWheel was manufactured and delivered after many, many years of trial and error. This is DigiWheel’s incredible story.
Product Officer at Evolution. Todd happened to voice his interest in spinning wheel technology, to which John said ‘I have spinning wheel technology!’ and, after a few phone calls, a meeting was scheduled in early 2021 with Todd. Fast forward six months and DigiWheel is the sixth brand added to the portfolio within Evolution. Combining DigiWheel’s technology with Evolution’s massively-popular wheel-based games online now gives operators in the land-based space something quite special. DigiWheel has grown from a pre-revenue company with no employees to a proud team of almost thirty in just over one year. Looking to the future, DigiWheel remains true to its vision which hasn’t changed since its inception, namely to see DigiWheel in every major gaming facility in the world. This is made all the more possible with the marriage of leading technology with some of the world’s highest-performing and most successful wheel-based games from the online world.
John Purcell and Evolution’s Todd Haushalter
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