With 2023 wrapped, it’s a time of reflection, commitment to new resolutions and innovative ways to make 2024 an even better year. At Scientific Games, that means deep diving into data searching for the why inside top-performing games. We asked Rob Thompson, Director of Business Intelligence & Analytics at Scientific Games, who’s been studying data for 20+ years, to identify the “mega games” of 2023 – the instant game blockbusters that drove sales beyond what lottery product managers planned, or ever imagined. “Poring over graphs and charts for our customers’ scratch games, it is easy to forget that behind every number is a player. I can tell a game’s story using data and identify the products that emerged as mega games in 2023,” said Thompson, always keen to share his passion for the science of lottery play. And for the company’s global customers, the data is a blueprint for innovation in the coming year. Launched 2/7/2023 Yes, it’s Massachusetts but… The Billion Dollar Extravaganza game has the highest per capita sales ($3.93) in the first 16 weeks of sales of any game the Lottery has launched in the last 10 years – and maybe of all time! It’s an absolute category champion at the relatively new $50 price point. After concept versions on a dozen different papers, Scientific Games produced this blockbuster game on holographic stock featuring gold Premium Metallic Ink, a callout touting over $1 billion in total prizes (the highest of any game in the Mass Lottery’s history) and three bonus boxes. This is how it’s done. “It was imperative that our first $50 game present our players with a value proposition that exceeded anything they’ve ever seen, so we filled this ticket with superlatives: the biggest grand prize, the highest payout percentage, the largest amount of total prize money, and the most Second Chance Drawings ever offered in Mass Lottery history,” said Mark William Bracken, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Lottery. “Visually, the ticket exudes prestige, with regal gold and blue colors on holographic paper that reveals dollar signs in multiple sizes and colors. Player response was overwhelming, with weekly per capita sales at levels the industry has never seen before. The ticket almost single-handedly turned a year-over-year decrease in instant sales to a 3.3% increase in the category by fiscal year’s end.” From a launch standpoint, since the Mass. Lottery hadn’t introduced a new price point in more than eight years, the product team analyzed initial allocations of their $30 games to be sure that the first $50 game was allocated properly. Having the opportunity to review performance in states that already launched $50 games also allowed the team to take the best practices of the most successful game at the time (Florida Lottery’s 500X THE CASH), build upon those best practices and apply them to their market. Mass. also offered a second chance promotion featuring 10 drawings where players could win up to $50,000. In search of the science inside Rob Thompson Director of Business Intelligence & Analytics SCIENTIFIC GAMES Massachusetts Lottery – BILLION DOLLAR EXTRAVAGANZA
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4MTM=