Public Gaming International Gaming July/August 2021

27 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2021 progress. The options of a third weekly drawing and Double Play rose to the top. The Powerball Product Group anticipates larger, faster-growing jackpots with the addition of the Monday drawing. The group also expects to see an increase in the number of cash prizes and jackpots awarded on an annual basis due to a higher frequency of play. In addition, ticket sales from a third weekly drawing and Double Play are expected to increase contributions to funding vital public programs and services in all U.S. lottery jurisdictions. “This is really a win-win for players,” noted MUSL Executive Director J. Bret Toyne. “Because we are not changing the matrix of the Powerball game, the game odds and set cash prizes will remain the same. There will just be more opportunities to play and bigger jackpots to play for.” The Double Play® add-on feature will be offered in 13 lottery jurisdictions at launch: Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Washington. Additional lotteries may choose to sell Double Play at a later date. Players can add the Double Play feature to their Powerball ticket for an additional $1 per play. The Double Play drawing will be held after every Powerball drawing on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Players will play the same set of numbers in both the main Powerball drawing and Double Play drawing, and Powerball tickets that include the Double Play add-on will be eligible to win prizes in both drawings. Double Play® will have a full production draw show at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee, where Powerball drawings are held. After the successful launch of a new Powerball draw show in September 2020, MUSL went back to source original music with the assistance of OH Partners, Arizona Lottery’s agency of record, and the graphics and animations with the assistance of Mike Vasilinda Productions, the Tallahassee-based production company of Powerball drawings. The new Double Play draw show incorporates Powerball’s signature brand colors of white and red into its color palette. To further differentiate from the main Powerball drawing, the draw machines were shifted to the right of the set, and a talent voiceover was utilized instead of a host. Black and red ball sets were also ordered to further distinguish the Double Play drawing from the Powerball drawing, which uses white and red ball sets. Players can watch the Double Play and Powerball drawings live online at Powerball.com with a new live stream feature that launched earlier this summer. The live stream is also available on several lottery websites, and MUSL anticipates expanding the service to additional lotteries depending on demand. Introducing players to the new draw night and Double Play concept was a major collaboration of MUSL member lotteries. In December 2020, Powerball Product Group Chair May Scheve Reardon, former DC Lottery Executive Director Beth Bresnahan and Oklahoma Lottery Executive Director Jay Finks formed a subgroup to develop a flexible media and marketing plan to assist lotteries with the rollout. The group established a timeline that targeted August 2 as a start date for a national media and player education campaign. Knowing some lotteries would have to inform lottery commissions and players sooner due to the rolldown of advance plays, the group developed talking points to help explain the changes and a technical release, followed by two additional news releases for national media. Meanwhile, Double Play lotteries began a collective effort of designing and selecting a Double Play logo. Lotteries submitted potential designs for group review, and ultimately, the winning logo came from the Pennsylvania Lottery. The Pennsylvania Lottery’s marketing team then produced art files and a Double Play Style Guide for participating lotteries to use. With the Double Play® logo finalized, the Oklahoma Lottery created marketing assets that were distributed to all 48 U.S. lotteries. Some of the assets were specific to Monday draws, Double Play or a combination of both. Lotteries were able to use the marketing assets as-is, customize them or use them as a springboard to develop other ideas and concepts. “Our goal was for the assets to be a conversation starter for lotteries,” Finks said. “By getting these in front of lotteries in early spring, we hope it got marketing teams thinking early about how to promote and explain these changes to their retailers and players.” With the front and back-end work complete by MUSL, lotteries and vendors, Powerball is finally ready to offer players a new day to play, and a new way to win. n