Colorado Lottery and Scientific Games are “tech-ing” it to the limit together. With already almost a 40-year partnership behind them, the Colorado Lottery and Scientific Games are contractually extending it into the future.
The Lottery and Scientific Games will introduce the new Scientific Games Enhanced Partnership (SGEP) program. This means the Lottery will be using Scientific Games’ new SCIQ retail technology for instant games.
It will also bring new jobs to the state and a new office near the Lottery’s headquarters in Lakewood.
What this also means for the Colorado Lottery is access to Scientific Games’:
- Leading game design
- Portfolio management services
- Tech-driven insights and analytics
- Advance logistics via the patented Scitrak and Ordercast systems that help with instant-game inventory management and allocation.
- Marketing
- Sales support
- Game manufacturing
And very importantly, the new contract means 500 SciQ units available among Colorado Lottery’s more than 3,000 retailers.
SciQ has broken new technological ground and will give the Lottery and its retailers new and novel real-time visibility. It also gives them control of those retail stores’ instant-game inventories.
According to the press release, the extended partnership is part of an “overall growth plan.” They hope the partnership will “drive maximum contributions” to the state’s public institutions as part of a dedication to responsible gaming.
Scientific Games is the leading provider of instant games
Scientific Games ranks as the world’s largest creator, producer, and services provider in the instant games arena. They provide retail and digital games, plus services and technology worldwide.
Their customers/partners include 130 lotteries in 50 countries. Most North American lotteries use Scientific Games’ products and services.
Many of the Top 10 instant-game performers globally use the Scientific Games Enhanced Partnership program. That’s according to La Fleur’s 2022 World Lottery Almanac.
SGEP accounts for 40% better outcomes in instant-game weekly per capita retail sales. In contrast to lotteries without it in the United States.
Heads of both entities spoke enthusiastically in the wake of the extension.
Tom Seaver, Director of the Colorado Lottery, said the extended partnership will bring:
“operational efficiencies to the Lottery and retailers. He also said they are “focused on responsibly growing our Scratch game product category for the enjoyment of Colorado players and maximizing our returns to good cause programs in the state.”
John Schulz, President, Americas and Global Instant Products for Scientific Games, sees good things ahead, as well.
“This is an exciting opportunity for the Colorado Lottery and Scientific Games teams to expand our work together to entertain players and benefit environmental and education programs in the state.
We look forward to taking our collaborative efforts to the next level through an SGEP partnership that includes our SCiQ technology.”
Meet Sci-Q
Scientific Games pilot tested this new technology in concert with 7-Eleven, Kroger, Big Apple, and Circle K in 2018. The results were promising.
Now put on your science (or “tech”) hat. A SciQ dispensing bin sits in, atop, under, or next to a retailer’s counter and displays instant games. A customer has a choice of pre-ordering games via a mobile app. Or just asking the store’s clerk, and the games will dispense.
Then the tech kicks into higher gear with two converging data paths. First, an information path (Scientific Games’ MAP™ System Analysis Insight data). And then, transaction details at the single game level. The two paths track and reconcile game sales.
Jim Kennedy, EVP, Group Chief Executive, Lottery at Scientific Games explained to European Gaming that:
“(SCiQ) takes away the major pain points, improves the technology, and dramatically enhances the aesthetic execution—the branding.
It allows us—the collective industry—to treat the lottery as a media channel… Lottery as a retail product category has been slowed down and inhibited because of its inability to be properly executed.”
Putting it more simply, “What we are doing is improving retailers’ financial performance by providing technology that saves them money,” Kennedy went on.
Jeff Sinacori, Vice President of Retail Sales Development at Scientific Games, spoke of the new tech’s ability to mitigate problems with theft and loss that retailers are vulnerable to.
“Unburdening the retailers of these operating challenges is key to improving their financial performance. That’s why SCiQ is so revolutionary.”
Colorado Lottery started from scratch
The Colorado legislature passed a lottery bill in the summer of 1982.
The first ticket sales, starting in January of 1983, were for Instant Money Made from Scratch, a scratch game. It realized $137 million in sales in its first five months – more than twice what had been predicted.
Until 1989, the Lottery offered only scratch games.
- In 1989, it added Lotto
- Keno in 1991
- Cash 5 in 1996
- Powerball in 2001
- Mega Millions in 2010
While the Colorado Lottery has a comparatively limited game portfolio, it’s known for innovation and creative marketing.
A Colorado scratch ticket player could win up to $3 million these days.
