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// Public Gaming International // March/April 2015
The Path To Saving Powerball
by Susan Golightly, Principal, CODEI
A rather dramatic head-
line and a bit of hyperbole.
Powerball and Mega Mil-
lions combined generated
more than $8B in sales in
FY14. The longevity of
both games, is testament to
their popularity and stay-
ing power. That said, sales
were down more than 30%
through the first half of
FY15. To be clear, while
downward trends are con-
cerning (alarming for some), Powerball and its sister game Mega
Millions are not in danger of going away anytime soon. There is
still revenue to be gained through deploying of traditional tactics,
including jackpot awareness, brand messaging, retailer incentives
and product modifications. But that won’t be enough. The path
that got the industry (and Powerball) to its place of dominance
as a preferred entertainment choice, is not the same path that will
deliver sustained, responsible and profitable growth into the future.
Given the importance of bloc lotto games to net income produc-
tion and the fact that playership trends and sales rates have shown
weakness for at least some lotteries for some time, it isn’t surprising
that the games have received a significant amount of industry at-
tention and resources. While much of the work has yielded positive
results, more recently some of the efforts are yielding disappointing
results or delivering diminishing returns. Most critically, the stub-
born downward participation/frequency/spend trends quickly re-
turn (or never leave) for many lotteries and jurisdictions. Given the
rapidly changing customer landscape, the answer is not simply more
of the same. Screaming louder won’t do it. At least not on its own.
Driving sales at lower (or any) jackpot levels for games such as
Powerball is less about awareness and more about convincing the
right audience at the right time in the right place, that they want to
play this game (or any lottery game) more than anything else compet-
ing for their entertainment dollar. And there is a lot of competition.
More of the same isn’t the answer, so what has to change to get
to the new?
Put the Customer At The Center
To consumers and to retailers, lottery products compete for the
same discretionary dollars and have the same sets of expectations
as other consumer goods. Granted, because lottery is gaming and
because it is offered by the state, there are additional security, re-
sponsible gaming, performance and responsiveness expectations.
