Lottery
Pollard Banknote Awarded Five-Year Primary Contract by Michigan Lottery for Instant Game Tickets
Pollard Banknote Limited is pleased to announce that, following a competitive procurement process, it has been awarded a primary contract from the Michigan Lottery (“the Lottery”) to provide instant game tickets. This marks the extension of a long-standing partnership between Pollard Banknote and the Michigan Lottery. Under this most recent agreement, Pollard Banknote will provide approximately 90% of the Lottery’s instant tickets per contract year. The initial contract term is five years, with the option to renew in one-year increments for up to five additional years. In addition to instant game tickets, the Lottery also awarded Pollard Banknote a contract to supply validation pull-tab tickets.
As a partner to the Michigan Lottery since 1996, Pollard Banknote is immensely proud of the role it has played in supporting the Lottery over the years, providing a wide range of instant games, retail solutions, and omnichannel products. From fiscal year (“FY”) 2013 to FY 2023, Pollard Banknote printed approximately 90% of the Lottery’s instant games. The Lottery earned the distinction of the fastest-growing U.S. lottery in terms of instant ticket sales per capita, with a phenomenal 182% increase during that time; this is particularly impressive when compared to the average U.S. lottery growth of 66% in instant ticket sales per capita. This growth catapulted the Lottery’s per capita sales ranking to seventh among U.S. lotteries over the same 10-year period.
Combining their years of expertise, Pollard Banknote has collaborated with the Michigan Lottery to curate an outstanding portfolio of games. In 2022, the Lottery’s first $50 game, $300,000,000 Diamond Riches, leveraged Scratch FX® to bring vibrancy to its diamond theme, helping drive strong sales and engagement with players. In addition, Pollard Banknote has worked closely with the Lottery to optimize its $20 price point to offer a diverse selection of games, including a variety of unique print innovations and enticing prize structures, to appeal to a broad spectrum of players. As a result, the Lottery’s $20 price point has grown a remarkable 385% from FY 2013 to FY 2023, making it the fastest growing among U.S. lotteries. Pollard Banknote has also been instrumental in the strategic development of the Lottery’s core game category, including Cashword and Wild Time, leading to a 106% increase in Cashword sales and a 204% increase in Wild Time sales from FY 2013 to FY 2023.
Pollard Banknote has also supported many retail initiatives over the years. The Lottery utilizes a variety of innovative products from Pollard Banknote’s Schafer Retail Solutions + (“SRS+”) portfolio to strengthen its retail footprint throughout the state, including over 2,300 Lighted Ticket Menu Boards and All-in-Ones, Outdoor Fuel Menu Boards, and a variety of dispensers.
The partnership between Pollard Banknote and the Lottery is further solidified by the company’s deep roots in Michigan. With an established and robust footprint in the state, including a full instant ticket manufacturing facility in Ypsilanti and nearly 350 Michigan based employees, Pollard Banknote plays an active role in creating job opportunities, generating tax revenue, and supporting other local businesses, which contributes to positive economic growth. In fact, according to a recent economic report by East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group, in 2022 alone, Pollard Banknote created 475 jobs in the state and spent more than $92.6 million USD operating and investing in its Michigan facilities, generating a total of $51.7 million USD in economic activity.
At its manufacturing plant in Ypsilanti, Pollard Banknote produced approximately seven billion ESS (equivalent single size or 2″ by 4″) instant tickets for lotteries around the globe in 2023, including the majority of the Michigan Lottery’s tickets. As evidence of the company’s commitment to continuous improvement, between 2015 and 2022, Pollard Banknote made nearly $30 million USD worth of major capital investments at this facility, including a $20-million state-of-the-art TRESU press.
“We are honored to be selected as the primary supplier of instant game tickets to the Michigan Lottery,” said Doug Pollard, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Pollard Banknote. “We deeply value the relationship we have built with both the Michigan Lottery and the communities in which we operate within the state. As a testament to our successful collaboration and efforts to deliver outstanding games and innovative retail solutions into the Michigan market, we take pride in having contributed to four-fold sales growth since the start of our partnership almost 30 years ago. We look forward to continued success and growth in the years to come.”
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EQL Games and Gaming Corps Announce Agreement to Deliver Innovative Gaming Solutions to State Lotteries
EQL Games has secured another strong content partnership with Gaming Corps, a listed innovative iGaming studio out of Sweden. With an emphasis on creating thrilling and unique adventures with mesmerizing graphics, every product Gaming Corps creates is designed to transport its players into a unique world of fun and excitement. EQL Games believes these games will be a great addition to the U.S. Lottery market knowing they’ll lead to uncharted realms of entertainment.
“Bringing Gaming Corps on as a provider to the EQL Games iLottery Aggregator represents an exciting step forward in our mission to bring unique, high-quality content to state lotteries,” said Brad Cummings, CEO of EQL Games. “Gaming Corps’ expertise in iGaming, along with their vibrant game portfolio, aligns perfectly with our vision of enhancing the lottery experience through dynamic, engaging content. Together, we’re creating new opportunities to engage lottery players with distinctive and immersive game experiences.”
Gaming Corps’ portfolio is a captivating mosaic of themes, stories, and adventures, with games designed for players across all demographics. From the mysteries of ancient civilizations to the frontiers of space exploration, the games span a diverse universe of themes that are sure to resonate with U.S. lottery players. While these products can currently be found in some of the top iGaming markets in the world, this agreement with EQL Games marks the first time their content will find a home in the lottery vertical.
“The US has always been a bit of a holy grail for game developers like us, which has been further reinforced as several state markets have been regulated,” said Juha Kauppinen, CEO of Gaming Corps. “The potential in the American market is enormous and we are thrilled to partner up with EQL Games and their impressive iLottery aggregation platform. We have high hopes that it will have a significant positive impact on our revenues. We are now working hard to make all our games available to US lotteries via the EQL Games platform.”
This is the 17th studio partner EQL Games has added in support of its lottery-only aggregator. Built specifically with the needs of government lotteries in mind, this first-of-its-kind product is about more than product distribution. The EQL Aggregator is designed to allow lotteries to enjoy content from multiple studios while only having to interact with a single point of contact. This simplifies the process of adding new content to a lottery’s digital portfolio without having to scale up operations to meet the needs of multiple studio partners. The EQL Aggregator is currently operating in lotteries across two continents and will see further expansion throughout the next year.
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Jackpot.com Launches in Colorado Providing Consumers Mobile Lottery Access Across the Centennial State
Today, Jackpot.com, the online platform and app that allows individuals to safely and securely order official state lottery tickets and scratchers from their mobile phone and other devices, announced its launch in Colorado. On the heels of the Colorado Lottery’s 40th anniversary last year, the Centennial State will feature both draw games and Scratchers (digital scratch off games).
With Jackpot.com, Colorado players can instantly buy tickets for nationwide games such as Mega Millions and Powerball, as well as their favorite state lottery games, including Cash 5, Pick 3, Lucky 4 Life, and more. The innovative platform purchases tickets on behalf of its customers from an official state lottery retailer, displaying a scan of their ticket and transferring winnings under $600 in real-time to their account. For prizes greater than $600, Jackpot.com securely delivers the ticket to the winning player so they can collect the winnings from the Colorado Lottery.
“At Jackpot.com, we remain committed to growing the safe and secure access to the lottery across the country and we could not be more excited to add Colorado as our seventh state,” said Jackpot.com CEO and co-founder, Akshay Khanna. “Last year, the Colorado Lottery reached $4 billion in proceeds and they give back millions of dollars each year to state parks, schools, and various projects. They’re also notably invested in responsible gaming, which has been a staple at Jackpot.com since its inception. We can’t wait to become part of the Colorado community and provide an accessible and reliable lottery experience for players.”
Not only will Colorado residents have access to their favorite state lottery games, they’ll also have access to Scratchers – the digital scratch ticket offering focused on expediting the convenience and the processing times of scratch-off games. Jackpot.com will launch with five of the most popular scratchers in Colorado, including $3,000,000 Supreme, Casino Ca$h Chips, $250,000 ORO, and more. Customers simply have to “scratch” their device screen with their finger or mouse to reveal their scanned ticket and potential winnings. Jackpot.com delivers the industry’s fastest online lottery scratch card experience after undergoing a comprehensive business process review by Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), which ensures its method for ordering and processing lottery scratch tickets is accurate and functions as expected for both Jackpot.com and the player.
This year marks the Colorado Lottery’s fourth consecutive year generating a new sales record, amassing over $900 million in revenue. This year’s success translates to more than $196 million in funds allocated to beneficiaries throughout the state. Since its first ticket sale in 1983, the Lottery has allocated over $4.2 billion to good causes across the state.
Jackpot.com has continued to raise the bar for responsible gaming through the integration of modern conveniences and safety guardrails, one of the key distinctive features of digital lottery platforms. The company has significantly invested in responsible gaming protections by allowing customers to set spend limits, setting default limits on daily deposits, providing access to local and national responsible gambling resources, self-exclusion, self-suspension and automated notifications that offer help should problematic behavior be detected. Jackpot.com is the only lottery courier service to launch with iCap certification from the National Council on Problem Gambling.
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Leading Brazilian Lottery Operator Grupo da Sorte Selects Optimove as CRM Marketing Solution to Accelerate Growth through Personalized Journey Orchestration
Grupo da Sorte, a leading Brazilian lottery operator, has chosen Optimove, the #1 CRM Marketing solution for iGaming, to enhance player engagement and retention, helping accelerate the operator’s rapid growth. With Optimove’s advanced CRM Marketing capabilities, Grupo da Sorte is empowered to deliver optimized player journeys with personalized experiences across a broad range of digital touchpoints, enhancing player satisfaction, engagement, retention, and lifetime value.
Optimove, the only CRM Marketing Solution approved as an official European Lotteries Association Associate Member, is the #1 CRM Marketing solution used by digital lottery operators across the globe. The company empowers digital lottery operators – such as Sisal, Scientific Games, Connecticut Lottery, Kentucky Lottery, Pennsylvania Lottery, Maryland Lottery, La Tinka, and more – to achieve growth through their existing players. Optimove is used by 56% of iGaming operators in EGR’s Power 50 Ranking 2024, including bet365, Kindred Group, Lottomatica, and Entain.
The strategic integration bolsters Grupo da Sorte’s mobile marketing engagement strategies through OptiMobile, Optimove’s native mobile marketing solution. OptiMobile empowers the brand to send personalized rich media mobile push messages directly to players’ devices at optimal engagement times. The lottery operator will also leverage OptiGenie to optimize marketing workflows from insight to creation and through orchestration empowering its marketing team to deliver personalized, relevant player messages at the speed of a player’s interaction with the brand.
Grupo da Sorte will gain key capabilities via Optimove:
- Advanced marketing AI capabilities: Providing AI-driven insights to improve player understanding, streamline content creation, and optimize campaign orchestration for delivering enhanced personalized experiences across channels and player touchpoints.
- Enriched customer profiles: Unifying all historical, predictive, and real-time player data from sources such as CRM, service clouds, and data warehouses via Optimove to create a comprehensive single-player view.
- Multichannel personalization and orchestration: Orchestrating hundreds of campaigns seamlessly by leveraging Optimove’s AI-mapped CRM Journeys to deliver personalized player communications across any channel.
- A continuous optimization loop: Leverage Optimove’s productized experimentation tools to measure the incremental uplift of each campaign, journey, and strategy to continuously optimize CRM Marketing performance.
Said Tom Santos, group commercial director, “With Optimove’s industry-leading CRM Marketing capabilities, we can now provide personalized, timely player interactions that match the fast-paced nature of lottery gaming. Their AI-driven solutions empower us to anticipate each player’s needs and deliver the most relevant experiences across every touchpoint. Optimove reinforces our dedication to exceeding our players’ expectations and driving long-term engagement and loyalty.”
“At Optimove, we thrive when working with forward-thinking clients, and we’re thrilled to partner with Grupo da Sorte on their exciting growth journey,” said Felipe Costa Nadalini, Account Executive at Optimove. “The team at Grupo da Sorte recognizes the impact that exceptional player experiences can have on driving business growth. As they focus on attracting and converting more players, we’re dedicated to helping them enhance player engagement and build lasting retention.”
Optimove will attend and exhibit at SBC Latinoamerica Summit Miami, October 29-31.
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