Jason Lisiecki, Digital Products Director, Michigan Lottery, gave an update on the Michigan iLottery initiative.
The lottery made key decisions during the startup to ensure its iLottery launch was a success, such as instant game prize structures, mobile launch, player registration and “thinking outside the traditional box.” For instance, the iLottery team is small, only 20 people. Also because results come in immediately, the lottery sets its sales goals on a monthly basis rather than a yearly one.
When the Michigan Lottery launched a Super Bowl ad, there was a massive increase in monthly sales, jumping from $25 million to $40 million. “One of the takeaways I’ve seen—getting a little from a lot of players. We expanded our sales in a responsible manner,” Lisiecki said.
To acquire players initially, Michigan had an online game card that players could purchase at retail to put money into their online wallet. In the beginning it was very successful, representing about ¼ of the players who joined. But they were beginning to lose market penetration and started selling game codes that could be printed out of the draw terminals.
A few interesting notes on the distribution of what players are attracted to which channels: The mobile player is much younger than the desktop player. However, only 6% play both. “Another product attribute that has worked well for us, bonus games. When you reveal a winning … You win a bonus prize. We have 4 games that have bonus games, those games represent 42% of our total sales,” Lisiecki said.
