The North Carolina Lottery has been busy making headlines this week.
Sales continue to grow behind its Digital Instants product. However, the NC Lottery is making other moves that will impact its retail business and online lottery games.
A new 10-year contract has been agreed to with IGT.
On top of that, North Carolina is in a pilot program with Scientific Games’ technology.
In addition to all that, the state lottery is set to debut a new draw game in November.
New 10-year IGT contract to begin in FY27
During Wednesday’s NC Lottery Commission committee meetings, a vote was taken on a new 10-year host gaming system services and equipment contract with IGT.
The approved contract, which begins at the start of FY27, was put together over the last year and will see IGT fully refresh all retail equipment. That includes all NC Lottery retail locations.
Also in the contract is an additional 500 GT28 units at no expense. These are 6-foot tall self-service kiosks that will be dispensed around the state. The machines will have a cashless feature available.
Terri Rose, Chief Branding Officer of the North Carolina Lottery, expressed the importance of getting these additional machines during the meeting:
“We’re seeing a lot of growth in those machines, so it was very important to us to be able to expand those in retail.”
Perhaps the biggest detail of the new contract is that North Carolina was able to significantly reduce the scratch fees it pays to IGT.
In 2016, a 10-year deal was negotiated between the two that saw IGT receive 1.15% of gross scratch sales. This new agreement will see IGT receive just .0785% of the sales.
Estimated savings over the new fee is expected to be at least $110 million for the North Carolina Lottery.
Rose explained how North Carolina was able to make the deal happen:
“We did a survey. We found all of the data for all of the prices that other lotteries paid and we compared ourselves to our peers. Now, we are a top-5 lottery in the country. We knew that (other states’) rates were closer to the rates you see reflected here. We are a more mature lottery now, so (IGT) knows a little more about what they are getting into. They know what sort of revenue we can drive, so that made it a bit more favorable.”
As part of the contract, an additional Customer Acceptance Testing Lab is also included. This is expected to help expedite the process of bringing in new games, promotions, and enhancements to players.
SCiQ pilot program underway in North Carolina
Aside from the IGT news, the North Carolina Lottery is undergoing a pilot program with Scientific Games’ SCiQ technology systems.
These vendor machines are able to dispense scratch and instant games. On top of that, they also automatically keep track of sales trends and data.
That takes away some of the extra legwork for retailers, while also providing them with information on which games are trending and selling well at their locations.
SCiQ ecosystems offer visual enhancements with digital menu boards, as well. These are easy for customers to read and follow.
These machines take up less space, which allows retailers to provide more lottery games to their customers without needing a large sale area.
All-in-all, NC Lottery’s Deputy Executive Director of Sales Terri Avery said this is moving retailers toward the new age of lottery sales:
“It puts us one step (closer) to where retailers are starting to get into their digital age.”
The pilot program is taking place throughout September at 50 retail locations in Raleigh and Charlotte.
Cash Pop coming to NC Lottery in November
North Carolina also announced it is going to be the latest state to add Cash Pop to its draw games library.
Cash Pop is a game produced by IGT that first debuted in New Jersey in September 2019.
Players just have to match one number from a field of 1-15 to win a prize. Price points for the North Carolina version will be $1, $2, $5, and $10.
Drawings are held multiple times daily, depending on the state. In North Carolina, Cash Pop will be drawn five times per day:
- 9 a.m.
- 1 p.m.
- 5 p.m.
- 8 p.m.
- 11:58 p.m.
Cash Pop will start in North Carolina on Nov. 17.
Photo by Talaj via Shutterstock
Graphics from the North Carolina Lottery and IGT
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