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 max-imizing 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.