Tom Seaver has been ingrained in the lottery industry for decades.
The Colorado Lottery Director has seen a lot of changes to the lottery landscape since he first started in 1985.
In the current time, Seaver feels its important for lotteries to offer “something for everyone.”
That includes online options like lottery courier services.
Seaver took time to talk to PlayiLottery about new innovations in the industry and what things could look like in the future when it comes to US lotteries.
Today’s lottery: Finding the right price point
Seaver has nearly 40 years of lottery experience to his credit.
Over that time, price points have greatly evolved. What started as mostly $1 to $2 options has grown to $50 in the state of Colorado, or even $100 in other markets.
While draw games still offer the jackpot appeal, Seaver knows higher-priced scratch games are still attractive to today’s customer:
“Players are looking for those big prizes and those games where, as the price points have gone up and the offers have gone up. Those games have gotten more and more participation.”
But, it isn’t just about winning big. Seaver noted one of Colorado’s top scratch games is “$500 Frenzy.”
In this $10 game, players can win between $10 and $500. There’s not a big top prize, but the game offers far more total prizes to win that can add a little extra cash to a customer’s bankroll than other options. As Seaver says,
“I think the players that like those games are the ones that just they know winning that top instant prize is very hard. The odds are long, so they’d rather have a decent chance at what we call it a mid-tier prize. That’s a $500, $100, or $50 prize. Those games have gotten more and more popular, so I think players are looking at that as a compromise.”
Keeping players invested with second-chance promotions
Another aspect that Seaver feels was key to bringing in new customers was altering the state’s second-chance promotions.
This fall, Colorado went from holding drawings for select games in the $10-$50 range to opening them up to all scratch options.
Also, instead of drawings that occur at random times, Colorado has a monthly second-chance drawing that will pay out $100,000 each time.
Seaver believes that was key to creating greater overall interest in the drawings.
“What we were finding is a lot of the same people were entering over and over and over again, and that it didn’t have the broad appeal, the broad reach that we would have liked.”
Now, a losing $1 ticket could still have $100,000 value in Colorado.
Tomorrow’s lottery: Online cooperation
Colorado is not among the states with online lotteries. However, Seaver is very much in tune with iLottery and its positive impact on the industry.
One way in which he believes online play has changed the game is that it utilizes multiple gaming studios. In retail, states tend to lock in with one game supplier and stick with it. However, states with iLotteries are able to work with various game studious to offer customers a large array of options:
“With the advent of iLottery, there are now so many studios and so many game generation sources that the iLottery providers are kind of becoming brokers. They’re kind of become clearinghouses for all these different games that may have initiated as slot machines, or they may have initiated as handheld games. So, many of the of the games that we’re seeing that come over through the iLottery side are coming from dozens of different development sources. That’s never been true before.”
“I think that’s huge progress for us, because we’ve been stuck kind of following one lane at a time, and that’s a big, big innovation for our industry.”
Couriers bring online sales to states without iLottery
Though the Colorado Lottery doesn’t offer online sales through its website, residents of the state do have online options.
Couriers Jackpocket and Lotto.com operate within the state. These third-party businesses provide online sales of Colorado Lottery retail tickets. Customers select which tickets they would like to buy and the courier makes the physical purchase at a retail location for the customer.
In the case of Colorado, that includes draw games and select scratch ticket options.
While online lottery couriers aren’t embraced in some states, Seaver sees them as a way to bring in new customers to the Colorado Lottery:
“I think it’s definitely more of an innovation than a concern. I mean, couriers are obviously most successful in states and jurisdictions that don’t have iLottery. So, I think they’re very opportunistic in a very smart way. If you look at what Jackpocket did at the beginning of this, they really saw an opportunity to serve customers. Players wanted to be able to play online, but they couldn’t through their own lottery. So, they created a niche that obviously, based on the sale of Jackpocket [to DraftKings], it was a huge hit. Players love it, and I think that’s our responsibility, to serve our players. I don’t think [lottery couriers] are taking sales away from brick-and-mortar. I think, if anything, they’re bringing new players into the game, and that’s a plus.”
Lottery’s future: National branding
As far as what the lottery landscape may look like in 5-10 years, Seaver believes there will be more of a unified effort across the board. Not just between state lotteries, but between the game operators as well.
Groups like the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) are working on ways to expand national draw games with the aid of leaders from state lotteries across the US.
One aspect Seaver believes could become the norm in years ahead is finding branding partnerships with major businesses and organizations:
“I think we’ll see the lotteries become more open minded to partnering with other businesses and other consumer goods, even gaming companies like DraftKings and FanDuel. I could see lotteries working with them to create promotions and create value for customers. I was part of a MUSL team that commissioned some research to look at the brand of Powerball, and what does it mean to people and what are some brands that it would logically associate with? So, you see major sports leagues jump out like NFL and NBA and MLB, but you also see companies like United Airlines and American Airlines and Delta and major hospitality companies like Marriott and IHG Hilton. I think the lotteries will become more engaged in traditional consumer good promotion in order to really create more of an identity and more brand value for our players.”
In recent years, state lotteries across the country have seen record sales. Colorado was no different, as it had a record $900.8 million in sales for fiscal year 2024. That led to over $196 million in contributions back to the state.
Seaver feels that these numbers will continue to grow for state lotteries as long as they remain open to new ideas that will appeal to their player base:
“I’m an optimist, so I think there is a good future for our business. But, a lot of it depends on our willingness to listen to what consumers want and give that to them. I think we’re trying to do a good job of that.”
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