14 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2026 Every Product Needs a Reason to Exist You seem to return repeatedly to the importance of value propositions. Is that really the heart of modern portfolio management? T. Seaver: I think it is. We spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about what motivates players and what forms of value resonate with different segments. Colorado was among the first states to introduce a $50 scratch ticket. The assumption had always been that nobody would spend fifty dollars on a lottery ticket. Today we may have four separate $50 products in the market at the same time. The lesson is that player preferences evolve, and lottery products must evolve with them. Lower-price-point products continue to play an essential role within the portfolio, but consumer behavior clearly demonstrates that many players are willing to spend more when the value proposition is compelling. Every game should have a reason to exist, and preferably an identity that differentiates it from others. Powerball offers enormous jackpots. Colorado Lotto Plus offers better odds and local winners. Millionaire For Life delivers a lifetimeincome proposition. Experiential products offer opportunities and access that cannot easily be purchased. Each game occupies its own position within the portfolio and should solve a different problem or meet a different need. Attempting to make every game appeal to every consumer often results in products that lack a clear identity. Millionaire For Life and Player Segmentation Millionaire-for-Life seems to illustrate many of these ideas. What did you learn from that game? T. Seaver: We were replacing Cash-for-Life and Lucky-for-Life, and we conducted extensive research before making that decision. One of the most interesting findings involved younger players. If you are twenty-five years old, the idea of receiving one million dollars a year for life means something very different than it does for someone who is sixty-five. A younger player may receive those payments for forty or fifty years, and the lifetime-income proposition becomes extraordinarily compelling. That insight influenced how we thought about the product and how we positioned it. We wanted to preserve the appeal for existing players while also creating something that might resonate with younger consumers. States that offer the game through digital channels are already seeing evidence that younger players, a profile we are always stretching to connect with, are helping drive performance. The broader lesson is that products need clear identities and clearly understood value propositions. I think of Millionaire For Life as the "forever jackpot." The top prize never changes. If someone wins it today, the same prize is available tomorrow. There is no jackpot fatigue because the prize does not continue escalating and resetting. The product offers certainty rather than volatility, and that differentiates it from Powerball and Mega Millions. Innovation and Product Life Cycles How do you think about innovation and keeping products relevant over time? T. Seaver: The current challenges facing Mega Millions illustrate why portfolio management is an ongoing process. The price increase from two dollars to five dollars did not produce the results that designers hoped for, leaving one of the industry's flagship products searching for renewed momentum. I do not view that as evidence of failure. Rather, it is a reminder that products evolve, consumer preferences change, and lotteries must continually reassess the value propositions they offer. A mature game can experience something of a midlife crisis. That may mean that eventually it should be retired, but the better approach may be to adjust, rethink, and innovate to extend the life cycle of successful products. Experiential products represent another avenue for creating value. Colorado has seen success with Game of Thrones products, sports partnerships involving the Denver Broncos and Denver Nuggets, and the shopping spree game. The strongest experiential products offer something consumers cannot, or wouldn’t purchase for themselves, almost regardless of how much money they have. Some earlier products offered trips or vacations that consumers could theoretically buy. The newer experiences often involve access, opportunities, embedded games or interactions that simply cannot be purchased. Those products may appeal to consumers who would not otherwise purchase a traditional lottery ticket, allowing the portfolio to reach entirely different audiences. Retail Still Matters The industry spends considerable time discussing digital channels, yet retail still drives the overwhelming majority of sales. How do you think about retail today? T. Seaver: We are still very much a retail business. Digital channels are important and will become increasingly important, but scratch products continue to depend upon retail execution. Colorado has invested heavily in retail modernization, including upgraded equipment, digital menu boards, improved signage, and expanded implementation of SciQ®. These investments make transactions easier for consumers while improving inventory management, accountability, and security for retailers. One of the most important developments has been the shift toward inventory management and product velocity. Historically, lotteries printed games, took delivery of tickets, and sold them until they were gone. Some games remained in dispensers long after players had lost interest because nobody wanted to destroy inventory. Today the focus is very different. Products that fall below performance thresholds are removed and replaced with fresh inventory. Retailers benefit because inventory turns faster, players benefit because they encounter new products, and the lottery benefits because shelves are stocked with the strongest products to drive sales. The movement toward sales-based vendor contracts has reinforced this approach. Instead of focusing primarily on print quantities, lotteries and vendors increasingly share incentives around sales performance and product velocity. Everyone benefits from maintaining fresh products and stronger sales. Continued on page 37
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