Saturday, June 10
    LOG IN: Purchases & Subscriptions
    0 Shopping Cart
    0 Shopping Cart

    March/April 2023’s “The Lottery Biz”

    Facebook
    Twitter
    LinkedIn

    Montana Lottery Launches Retailer Training Video Series

    By Daniel Iverson, Content Manager, Montana Lottery

    While some challenges vary by jurisdiction, others apply to all lotteries universally: For example, retailer employee turnover is high, and time to train them is short. For the past year, the Montana Lottery has been addressing these challenges with a series of training videos to educate retailer employees on everything lottery.

    The content team produces the videos, but multiple departments contribute to the process. The sales team identifies and prioritizes topics based on reports from the field, while other teams help with the scripts.

    The Lottery has produced approximately a dozen videos so far, with another dozen or more planned. All use the same visual style and music for consistency. To encourage watching the whole thing, most of the videos run for only 60 to 90 seconds depending on the topic’s complexity. Videos live on YouTube under a playlist specifically for retailers. Topics include everything from accounting procedures to product information to terminal operations.

    “If you’re a retail employee serving a steady stream of customers, then you don’t have a lot of time to spare to learn the ins and outs of lottery products, procedures, and technology,” said Montana Lottery Director Scott Sales. “Quick training resources at their fingertips help to empower retailers for success and might even save you a service call.”

    While it’s one thing to have such a resource available, it’s another thing to spread the word about it and get people to use it. To do so, the Lottery has promoted the video series via email campaigns, postcards, and most importantly, behind the counter at the point of sale.

    With the help of Montana Lottery’s customer service technicians, lottery terminals across the state have been equipped with a decal featuring a QR code employees may scan to access the videos directly from their own mobile phones—although it also includes the destination URL (shortened with Bitly so it’s easy to remember or write down) for others who might prefer to access them from a computer instead.

    Although there’s always room to grow larger audiences, initial response to the video series has been positive and effective. On several occasions, for example, the Lottery has sent a link to a video about signing up for the Retailer Portal and then only minutes later received notice the retailer created an account.

    Get inspired to create training videos of your own by visiting YouTube.com/mtlottery and finding the “Sales Agent Resources” playlist.

    Challenges and Opportunities: Quick Draw’s Launch and Expansion

    By John Gilliland, Public Information Officer, Arizona Lottery

    The Arizona Lottery consistently researches new games to better serve players and deliver new products that align with the ways they want to play. After considerable research, the Arizona Lottery developed and implemented Quick Draw, a collection of around-the-clock draw games that allows players to continually play and win exciting draw games multiple times every day. This entirely new category consists of rapid-draw games that can be enjoyed in both traditional and non-traditional retail settings while staying within the confines of our state’s gaming compacts. These compacts regulate the ways that tribal casino gaming, sports betting, and Lottery can each operate.

    While Quick Draw is falling short of initial revenue projections, it’s important to keep this category in perspective. Unlike traditional draw, instant, or even Fast Play, the Quick Draw concept is unique and unfamiliar to players, so it may take more time to inform them about these games. The speed at which these new games were launched into the market was also different, with traditional draw games historically launching one game at a time with full marketing support, whereas Quick Draw launched with two games followed by four additional games in a nine-month period. While the full category received marketing support at the onset, each individual game has not had a turn in the spotlight. Retailers have shared that game education is an issue, and staffing difficulties make it challenging to launch a new game category. The Arizona Lottery is addressing these issues by offering more information to both players and retailers alike.

    Despite these challenges, Quick Draw helps the Arizona Lottery make gains in non-traditional retailers—including bars and restaurants. The expansion has been evolving through a team effort between Marketing and Sales, resulting in a lead generation program that includes direct mail and response that carefully vets prospect lists in advance. Second, all lotteries have enjoyed widespread success with previous products, so the industry expectation is just that. Entrepreneurial thinking and action are not in the collective DNA of the lottery industry, so there is an opportunity to learn from modest successes and even the occasional failure.

    To that end, the Arizona Lottery continues to expand our Quick Draw lineup, now at six games that draw hourly. These games have launched every six months since December 2021, with “Two to Win” and “Money Roll” launched in January 2023. We are carefully planning our next launch, but ultimately, this category needs to support the Arizona Lottery’s mission to support public programs by responsibly maximizing net revenue. The Arizona Lottery is committed to making Quick Draw successful for as long as it continues to move the needle toward that goal.

    $100 Oklahoma Scratcher

    The Oklahoma Lottery launched its first $100 instant ticket, Deluxe Gold, at the end of February. It is the second $100 ticket in the United States, following Texas, and the fifth $100 ticket in North America.

    To promote the new scratcher, the Oklahoma Lottery has skinned its website to look like the $100 ticket. In late May, the lottery will run a three-week ticket-for-entry promotion, with one prize of $100,000 up for grabs.

    “This is the largest promotion prize we have ever done,” Abby Morgan, Director of Marketing & Product Development, Oklahoma Lottery, said. “We have a large digital and TV campaign starting on March 13th to help support awareness of the ticket and we plan to launch a large enter-to-win promotion in late May.”

    The Deluxe Gold $100 scratcher is a limited-edition product, which is a departure from the lottery’s usual strategy. “This is very different for us and from what I can tell, very different from what any other state has done. I did an extremely limited print quantity on this in hopes to drive urgency and give it something a little more special,” Morgan said.

    Compared to the Texas Lottery’s $100 scratcher, which had a print run of 10,379,010 tickets and Oklahoma’s $50 game, which had a print run of 3,600,000 tickets, the Oklahoma Lottery only printed 492,204 Deluxe Gold tickets.
    “I think this is a great opportunity to see what the market will do with a $100 option out there,” Morgan said.

    Florida Lottery Boosts FANTASY 5 Sales with Midday Draws and Brand Refresh

    In March, Florida Lottery enhanced one of its legacy product offerings with the introduction of midday draws and a brand refresh for FANTASY 5.

    “Preserving core players with the same trusted game, while advertising to a mass audience the additional daily chances to play and win, with a fresh, updated look, creates an exciting opportunity to strengthen the product’s popularity and sales,” said Diane Wieczork, Senior Product Manager, Florida Lottery.

    “To further fuel excitement of the additional daily drawing and incentivize FANTASY 5 midday sales, beginning at launch for a limited-time only, the Lottery will conduct in-store, instant-win promotions to reward players who make qualifying purchases of FANTASY 5 and other midday game tickets during specified hours with cash prizes and Lottery coupons. These promotions are intended to promote trial play and encourage cross-play with the already-established midday player base, while captivating new and occasional players,” she added.

    Massachusetts Lottery Launches First Paid Ad Campaign for The Numbers Game in Years, Introduces New Game “Wheel of Luck”

    The Massachusetts Lottery is running its first paid advertising campaign for The Numbers Game in years.

    “The new slogan for the game is ‘Everybody has a number, Play yours.’ It is designed to attract players from all walks of life, and remind them that everyone has a special number that holds significance to them and that inspiration for numbers can be found in many places. This campaign will include associated promotions,” said Shane Taylor, Product Manager, Massachusetts Lottery.

    In addition, the Lottery launched a roulette-style game called The Wheel of Luck on January 19 to complement its popular Keno game. “Games are displayed on monitors alongside Keno at participating retailers. Retail locations without monitors offer Wheel of Luck To Go, which gives customers the opportunity to buy their tickets at a retail location and then watch the games on the Mass Lottery’s app or website after a drawing takes place,” said Stacey Farrell, Product Manager, Monitor Games, Massachusetts Lottery.

    There are three ways to play Wheel of Luck. Players can choose a number or numbers between 1 and 36, select red or black, or select odd or even. They also have the option of playing two or all three of these options on the same bet slip. There is no “Quic Pic” option.

    Missouri Lottery Launches Wild Ball™ Add-On Option for Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawings

    The Missouri Lottery now offers Wild Ball™, a new add-on option, for each of the two daily numbers drawings for Pick 3 and Pick 4.

    “To celebrate the launch of Wild Ball, we’re giving customers an opportunity to try Wild Ball for free. Players who purchase $5 of Pick 3 or $5 of Pick 4 on a single ticket between March 20 and April 1, 2023, will receive a FREE ticket with the new Wild Ball™ add-on option – a $2 value!” said Tyler Luetkemeyer, Promotions Manager, Missouri Lottery.

    New Mexico Draw Games

    The New Mexico Lottery ran two big draw game promotions in the first quarter of calendar 2022.
    The Mega Millions Bonus Promotion began January 30th with $50,000 in prizes. Players who purchase $6 or more in Mega Millions or Just the Jackpot on one ticket receive a coupon for entry. Forty players will win $1,000 each and one lucky player will win $10,000.

    “In March, the Lottery will feature the Roadrunner Cash Bonus Promotion. Players who purchase $5 or more in Roadrunner Cash on one ticket will receive an entry coupon for a chance to win cash prizes,” said Wendy Ahlm, Director, Advertising & Marketing, New Mexico Lottery.

    Oregon’s Scan More Campaign

    The Oregon Lottery’s winter 2023 marketing is focused on Second Chance and Mobile App adoption.

    “We’re dedicated to growing our 1:1 relationship with our players. The holiday season exposes our games and our brand to many new and lapsed players, so Q1 is an opportunity to extend that conversation. Our mobile app is an excellent customer experience and it provides the easiest way to help players enter their non-winning tickets into our Second Chance drawings. It also creates a registration and personalization opportunity that helps us stay connected beyond just the holiday season,” said Shad Barnes, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, Oregon Lottery.

    So our current campaign is a simple message that tells consumers to ‘Scan for More Ways to Win’ with visuals that feature a mobile device and our app doing just that. The campaign is mainly digital with OOH, in-store POP, ESMM and several owned-channel placements.”

    BCLC’s Omni-Channel Game

    BCLC launched its sixth omni-channel ticket, 88 Fortunes, in January.

    “This [$5] ticket targets those who play or are interested in playing across our three channels: retail lottery, casinos, and e-gaming. Designed to drive engagement with these high-value players, this ticket offers chances to win cash prizes, free play credits for digital games on PlayNow.com and free play on slots at Casinos in BC,” said Shirley Park, Senior Product Specialist, BCLC.

    BCLC offers a suite of e-games and slots games from the 88 Fortunes family on PlayNow.com and at select locations of casinos in BC. The instant ticket payout on cash prizing is 68%.

    “This ticket is actively selling from our warehouse for 18 weeks with a print run of 800,00 and estimated weekly sales of $170,0000,” said Park.

    In terms of marketing and promotions, the ticket is promoted through digital signage and posters at retailers, Casino POS, paid social media posts, and a converged landing page on PlayNow.com, highlighting the three ways to play.

    Purrfect RG Campaign

    The Pennsylvania Lottery used a feline theme for its “Lottery Literacy – Curiosity” Responsible Gambling campaign. It launched in late August 2022.

    The lottery leveraged paid social videos as its media strategy to direct consumers to the Pennsylvania Lottery website to learn more.

    “To tap into the viral nature of social media channels, the creative team leveraged the current social media user obsession over animal-themed content, specifically the ‘cat memes’ trend. The cat theme also ties into the campaign name, ‘Curiosity,’ and goal of educating Pennsylvanians because cats are known to be curious animals,” said Stephanie Weyant, Deputy Executive Director, Marketing & Product Development, Pennsylvania Lottery.

    The 9Rooftops creative team was tasked with creating an engaging “Lottery Literacy” content series that educates Pennsylvanians on responsible gambling practices. “Our inspirational theme was ‘Games are more fun when you know how to play: The PA Lottery is making it easier to learn how to play your best,’”explained Weyant.

    9Rooftops utilized insights from Scientific Games research, as well as 9Rooftops research on behalf of the lottery.

    “Through this research, we found that Pennsylvanians have some understanding of lottery rules and best practices, but there are some areas for improvement: While the PA Lottery prominently displays age and odds information on tickets and advertising assets, surveys still showed a lack of awareness and retention. Our goal was to address these education gaps by developing a flexible creative platform from which relevant, helpful, and lasting content can exist for players in Pennsylvania. The campaign also aimed to support the Pennsylvania Lottery’s brand positioning, ‘a distinctive burst of fun and excitement’ and deliver this message in a way that the consumer can digest and understand while also being catchy and engaging,” said Weyant.

    She said the “‘Lottery Literacy – Curiosity’ is an awareness campaign with the primary KPI being reach.”

    The three overarching video concepts, “What Are The Chances,” “Underage & Responsible Gambling,” and “Myths & Misperceptions,” are all on the PA Lottery’s YouTube channel.

    The Lottery used a series of three cat-themed videos—“Chances,” “Answers,” and “Curious”—on paid social that direct the consumer to the PA Lottery website (https://www.palottery.state.pa.us/Misc/Stay-Curious.aspx).

    On the dedicated landing page, PA Lottery players can learn more through the three long-form videos that align with the social videos: “Chances,” “Underage & Responsible Gambling,” and “Myths & Misperceptions.”

    “The Lottery Literacy campaign has been well received by players and has generated great engagement on the Lottery’s social media channels,” said Weyant.

    If other lotteries wanted to borrow this creative to run in their jurisdiction, Weyant said “we are open to sharing this creative with other lotteries; however, there would be editing as well as other costs as Pennsylvania Lottery branding is throughout the video, visually and in the voice-overs.”

    California’s Licensed Games

    The California Lottery relaunched one of its most popular licensed property (LP) games, LOTERIA™, with a fresh color pulse in March.

    “In addition to $3 LOTERIA™ (SGI) in March 2023, the Lottery will also be launching two other licensed games in April 2023, which reflect California’s brand initiative for instant games: $2 – UNO™ (SGI) and $5 – Magic 8 Ball™ (SGI). We are excited to integrate these popular franchises into the Scratchers® lineup for the very first time and offer players the fun nostalgia and playfulness of these LPs,” said Whitney Alderson, Assistant Deputy Director of Marketing, California Lottery.

    The California Lottery’s long-term strategy to reposition the Scratchers product line with a Scratchers® brand initiative began in 2021. “This initiative places emphasis on the entire Scratchers® category, rather than marketing a single game or theme, and positions Scratchers as the perfect way to add a little unexpected fun to your day. The initiative features the memorable tagline, A Little Play Can Make Your Day, that comes to life through a variety of creative marketing and advertising tactics across paid, owned and retail channels,” said Alderson.

    The winter 2023 marketing flight for this initiative airs from February 20 to April 3, 2023.

    Québec’s $100 Scratcher

    Loto-Québec will launch its $100 Ultime instant ticket on April 3.

    “The $100 Ultime ticket is players’ best shot at winning $1 million with a Québec scratch ticket. As its name suggests, the ticket will be priced at $100. Tickets may be purchased by one or more players (say a couple or a group), given how much higher the price for this ticket is compared to the others we usually sell. The RTP is 66.13% (including free tickets),” said Amélie Lalancette, Product Manager, Loto-Québec.

    The lottery estimates weekly sales should average $5,000,000 and $0.60 per capita per week.

    “The launch will be supported by a full-blown ad campaign, including various commercial activities, POS ads, and social media posts,” said Lalancette.

    “An ad campaign will air during the marketing phase to support the launch and to remind customers of the urgency to purchase the ticket before the sales end date, which is expected to be in late May 2023,” she added.
    The French slogan for the advertising campaign is written on the ticket and is the crux of the lottery’s messaging. It translates to: “100$ Ultime: Your best shot at becoming a millionaire.”

    Kentucky Lottery Runs March Madness Promotions for Keno and Cash Pop

    The Missouri Lottery now offers Wild Ball™, a new add-on option, for each of the two daily numbers drawings for Pick 3 and Pick 4.

    “To celebrate the launch of Wild Ball, we’re giving customers an opportunity to try Wild Ball for free. Players who purchase $5 of Pick 3 or $5 of Pick 4 on a single ticket between March 20 and April 1, 2023, will receive a FREE ticket with the new Wild Ball™ add-on option – a $2 value!” said Tyler Luetkemeyer, Promotions Manager, Missouri Lottery.

    MS Cash Pop

    A new draw game “popped” into the “Magnolia State” in the autumn when the Mississippi Lottery Corp. launched Cash Pop. There are two Cash Pop drawings a day (2:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.). “We launched Cash Pop in November 2022 so we still have a focus on driving sales for this new game,” said Angie DiGrazia Senior Manager of Products, Mississippi Lottery Corp.

    ALC’s Mega 360

    In June 2023, Atlantic Lottery Corp. (ALC) will launch Mega 360 as a Scratch’N Win ticket and an Instant Wins game on alc.ca.

    “This game will be our first true multi-channel game. Several other Canadian jurisdictions have launched this type of game (The Big Spin, The Bigger Spin, etc.) and saw great success so we are very excited to soon be launching it in our market,” said Ashley Legere, Product Manager, ALC.

    Mega 360 is a three-step experience where you scratch, watch and spin with a similar theme to the Price is Right game.

    “We are estimating $177K in sales per week and $0.07 weekly per capita sales,” said Legere.

    Players will be able to enter their Mega 360 Scratch’N Win ticket in Atlantic Lottery’s 2Chance contest. The ticket price is $5. The prize payout is 68%. The top prize is C$500,000. The overall odds of winning is 1 in 3.96.

    Like this content? Subscribe for more interesting lottery news and data!

    * indicates required