The Ohio Lottery’s EZPLAY® sales increased 45.9% to $139.6 million in calendar 2015, up $43.9 million from calendar 2014. This represents combined sales for EZPLAY Games and EZPLAY Tap.
Traditional EZPLAY Game sales involve the generation of a paper ticket generated out of the lottery retailer terminal that contains an instant win game feature. EZPLAY was introduced in 2008.
EZPLAY Tap is a game played by tapping on a video screen to see the outcome results. Tap games are played on a self-service machine that uses a
graphical interface with the player. They do not generate paper tickets. EZPLAY Tap was introduced in 2014. The Ohio Lottery leveraged the
name recognition for EZPLAY when its launched its TAP game product line. In calendar 2015, monthly EZPLAY sales averaged $8.9 million while EZPLAY Tap sales averaged $2.7 million.
“EZPLAY games are an easy sell for bars, taverns, restaurants and clubs that tend to shy away from selling instant games,” said Dennis Berg, Executive
Director of the Ohio Lottery. “As the style and price points of EZPLAY Games have expanded, especially the advent of EZPLAY progressive games, this game segment has taken off.”
Currently, Ohio Lottery is working with its system vendor INTRALOT for new innovations for the EZPLAY product suite. Depending on which price point is
played, a jackpot winner can win either 10%, 50% or 100% of the progressive jackpot.
“The Ohio Lottery just released Quick Spot, its first progressive jackpot EZPLAY Game that’s available in $1, $5 and $10 price points,” said Berg. “Each
game funds the game’s progressive jackpot with a $1 Quick Spot wager eligible for 10% of the jackpot, a $5 Quick Spot wager eligible for 50% of the jackpot and a $10 Quick Spot wager eligible for 100% of the jackpot.”
The lottery uses its players’ club to promote EZPLAY through special promotions (second-chance drawings and coupons) plus earning points.
The Ohio Lottery continues to grow traditional EZPLAY sales through new product development and higher price point rollouts.
The growth in the more mature traditional EZPLAY games are due to new innovative games launched within the EZPLAY product line, primarily the progressive jackpot features.
In addition, the lottery launched a $20 Red Hot Numbers game. This was the Ohio Lottery’s first foray into the $20 price point.”
Higher price points are popular with players. “In fiscal 2015, after progressive games, the top EZPLAY Games were $10 Tens of Thousands game, $10 Match 5 Doubler and $20 Red Hot Numbers wee this category’s top selling games.”
Ohio Lottery is also a lottery leader in the variety of EZPLAY products offered. “The Ohio Lottery currently has 18 EZPLAY Games on sales and 15 in the
EZPLAY Tap game segment,” reported Berg.
The best selling EZPLAY games are progressives. “The best selling progressive games were $5 EZPLAY Going Pro, $2 Perfect Game 300 and $1 Rock’n 777’s,” said Berg.
The progressive feature is a big reason behind EZPLAY’s popularity with players. EZPLAY is a hybrid online game with an instant win play style. They
are simple to play and do not require scratching latex coverings. Players really have embraced the progressive jackpot features on some of the games available to purchase.
For a lottery interested in diversifying its draw game product mix, Berg recommends launching EZPLAY games. The Ohio Lottery has been quite successful selling these hybrid games and they compliment the self-service vending machines by giving the consumer more product choices that offer instant win
attributes.
“EZPLAY Games perform best if treated a lot like instant games, with a variety of price points and styles, including seasonal games and progressive
jackpot games to pull the category along. At the same time, lotteries should take some chances with EZPLAY Games, putting in some unique play styles to keep customers engaged,” said Berg.
In addition, investment in EZPLAY games is minimal. If a game does not sell well, it’s no big loss to pull the game. The Ohio Lottery will continue
to climb the price point ladder with its traditional EZPLAY Games. “A $20 in-state progressive EZPLAY Game is being planned for later this year,” said Berg. “The Ohio Lottery is in a building mode for its EZPLAY Tap game portfolio.”
In addition, there may be changes ahead for the Countdown Games. “The Ohio Lottery is considering a change to its Countdown Game groups, combining and therefore reducing the number of groups,” said Berg. “The lottery may also open up the game to all retailers.”
Multi-State EZPlay
The 12 U.S. lotteries selling instant terminal draw games (also known as Fast Play) raked in over $200 million in sales in calendar 2015, according to La Fleur’s Magazine. Given the product’s popularity as a hybrid draw game, it could become a multi-state offering. INTRALOT is working with several lotteries on a multi- state progressive Fast Play concept. This could allow jackpots to grow faster and higher than solely operating the game in-state