Public Gaming International Gaming July/August 2021

44 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2021 that amount, you need to modify the games to engage players longer,” explains Patrick Bentley, IGT Director of Sale Development. For the past six years, IGT has collaborated with the lottery’s product development team to develop the prize structures for the Michigan Lottery’s new instant games. After the concept and artwork for a specific game have been finalized, IGT analyzes what type of prize structure will best serve the market at the time of launch, to be implemented by the printer. “We know players like to win, and we have a unique design strategy to optimize the prize structure by putting more of the prize money into prize tiers that are more meaningful to players than break-even prizes, but easier to win than the top prize,” says Bentley. “Where we’ve done that, players have responded positively.” n Addition of the $30 Price Point Michigan was an early adopter of the $30 price point in 2014, and IGT has done extensive analysis on $30 games to refine and optimize their prize structures, as well as to determine the best way to position multiple games at this price point in the market. IGT helps to assess the demand for the games and ensure that the Lottery is launching enough and at long enough print runs to meet the demand in the market. DISTRIBUTION AND SALES n Planogram Development and Compliance Enforcement The Michigan Lottery began using a planogram for all of its retailers in 2013 and defined compliance benchmarks for its sales reps and the IGT merchandisers. “You can see how compliance improved over a few years and has now reached the highest possible rate and been maintained there,” says Bentley. n New Game Activation The first week of a new game’s sales can affect the whole month. The positive impact on sales will be stronger if players see the new product in stores immediately when it becomes available. The Lottery implemented an incentive for both the retailers and sales reps aimed at activating books in the first four days of the week of a new game’s introduction. Where in the past it might have taken the Lottery a full month to get a new game activated, Michigan regularly has more than 95% of its retailers activate new games within a week and often within a few days of launch. n Merchandiser Sales Program to Support the Lottery’s Sales Force The Michigan Lottery operates its own sales force, and in collaboration with the Lottery, IGT created a Merchandiser program in 2009 to supplement their work by making sure instant products are loaded in the bins of the vending machines for planogram compliance and the equipment is running correctly. “Our team supports the Lottery’s sales staff by helping ensure that retailers get frequent visits, the correct games are being displayed, and there are limited out-of-stocks,” says Steve Foust , who leads IGT’s Instant Ticket Specialist, Merchandiser Sales, and Special Events teams. The Lottery’s sales force and IGT’s merchandiser program contributed to the Lottery’s success in activating games in the first week.