The Oklahoma Lottery launched its first $20 instant ticket on December 20. Called Cash Explosion, it offers a $250,000 top prize. Prize payout is 76%.
“Players have been asking about higher price point games for years but old legislative restrictions made it impossible for us to offer anything above $5,” said Brandie Reisman, Director of Marketing, Oklahoma Lottery. “The change to our law in 2017 allowed us to offer our first $10 game and we wanted to be cautious in growing and developing that price point and player base before offering the $20. It’s important to move players up in price point while also maintaining a steady stream of players coming in at the lower price points to backfill the pipeline.”
As for the winter launch, Reisman noted that “we typically see an increase in sales in our third quarter and wanted to position this launch at a time when play engagement is high. We did capitalize on some last minute holiday shopping by launching a few days before Christmas.”
The lottery’s print run was 2,266,620 tickets so potential sales could exceed $45 million if Cash Explosion sells out. “Our goal was $15 million in total sales for the last half of the year. After the first five weeks we are averaging almost $1 million in sales weekly,” she said.
“We know that higher price points have been successful in driving top line sales in other jurisdictions,” said Reisman. “We have a large casino infrastructure in Oklahoma with the third most slot machines in the country behind Nevada and California so we know there is a large player base with a high propensity to gamble and a high desire for larger price points with larger payouts.”
Cash Explosion is a big seller for many U.S. lotteries. But Oklahoma Lottery didn’t base its choice by looking at the sales performance in other jurisdictions.
“We knew our game needed a strong cash theme with eye catching art and felt that the Cash Explosion name fit both of those categories,” said Reisman. “This ticket is larger in size than our other price points at 4-inch x 10-inch.”
The lottery placed a full media campaign behind this ticket. Reisman said it included “a 30-second TV spot, a 15-second radio spot, and both static and programmatic digital advertising. We dedicated one outdoor board specifically to this game and used metallic spangles to create a 3D effect. In-store we created playstation posters, tclips and a small 3D dangler that could be attached to the side of the instant dispenser.”
There is no decision yet whether the lottery will regularly sell a $20 ticket. “Currently we are monitoring the performance of this first game and I expect that we will continue to develop this price point within our product mix and increase the number of $20 facings that we offer as we have done with all of our price points,” said Reisman.
