Vicky Scott, Director of Product Development
We’re most excited about our third $50 launch on First Tuesday in October of the Ultimate Blowout game. Our scratch-off players like our Blowout game theme. The Ultimate Blowout game will have only three prize tiers and arrives loaded with $250, $500, and $5,000 prizes. How loaded? The game offers 3,240 prizes of $5,000. The game provides the same unique value proposition as our other Blowout games. Our $10 Blowout game has been a staple in our scratch-off portfolio for the past five years. Last year, we saw great success with the launch of a $20 version. The $20 Blowout became the best-selling $20 game launched in the past two years. We expect the new $50 price point also to perform exceptionally well.
New technology deployed in many of our retail locations will also support more effective marking of our instant tickets. The rollout of the new SciQ Scratch-off Management and Merchandising System is well underway, boosting scratch-off facings to an average of 36, where deployed. Eventually, SciQ systems will be in 1,000 stores, helping us sustain and grow scratch-off sales.
We’re changing the size of packs of tickets for $10 games. Beginning in September, each $10 pack of games will contain 60 tickets, or $600 per pack, up from 30 tickets, or $300 per pack. The change will help keep $10 games in the dispenser, reducing times when they are out of stock. The higher commissions from $10 packs should also encourage our retailers to carry more $10 games.
The mainstays of our marketing and advertising programs supporting scratch-off games continue with our First Tuesday and Winner’s Club campaign. Scratch-off launches get support every month. New scratch-offs are featured on TV, radio, social media, blog posts, website banners, multi-media, and in-store point of sale. We also do email campaigns among our opted-in Lucke-Rewards members, highlighting new scratch-offs a week before launch and on First Tuesday.
This year, the marketing of scratch-offs will go to the next level with the rollout of a comprehensive retail digital signage program at many of our stores, harnessing new technology to support our sales. Our plan calls for the installation of digital menu boards at up to 1,500 retail locations. It’s a digital world, and our lottery presence at retail locations should reflect that. As we enter the new fiscal year, we will produce seven different digital shows for the technologies we utilize in retail. We expect a nice sales lift at stores that receive the new 50-inch digital menu boards. These investments will increase ticket sales, provide more flexible marketing options, and enhance player engagement.