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Last week the Michigan Lottery announced it will be turning its online affiliate program over to Income Access. It is a first-of-its-kind agreement for a US lottery.
This deal opens a new door for Income Access and online gaming affiliates.
“Michigan Lottery is an important partnership as we look to extend our influence in the iLottery vertical beyond Europe,” said Lorenzo Pellegrino, CEO of Income Access and Digital Wallets at Paysafe said. “The brand’s stature and long history of success provide a unique opening for affiliates looking to broaden their player base.”
The Michigan Lottery is good, but could be even better
Michigan’s online lottery first launched in 2014. It is the runaway top performer of the four states offering online lotteries.
These are Q2 2017 results for state online lotteries, according to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming Lottery Tracker:
- Michigan Lottery: $19.7 million
- Georgia Lottery: $8.9 million
- Illinois Lottery: $6.2 million
- Kentucky Lottery: $2.3 million
Despite its early success, the Michigan Lottery thinks it can do much better. Amanda Perkins, the digital marketing & analytics manager at Michigan Lottery, explains:
“We have partnered with Income Access to launch our affiliate program given the company’s excellent reputation in the affiliate marketing space.We expect this affiliate program to open a new pathway to acquiring players and play a key role in the Lottery’s overall player acquisition strategy.”
According to Perkins there is still a lot of room for growth. Only about 8 percent of eligible players in Michigan are registered to play online. The Lottery hopes Income Access improves that number.
IA and the Michigan Lottery discussed how they will accomplish this in a press release announcing the deal:
“Through a combination of dedicated affiliate manager support, an in-house creative team charged with maintaining a consistent flow of new and custom assets, and strong player incentives, affiliates are provided with key resources to successfully promote the brand.”
The press release provides an example of this strategy, a 50 percent bonus on first-time deposits up to $100.
Interview with Erica Anderson of Income Access
To better understand how the new Michigan Lottery affiliate program will work, Play USA spoke to Erica Anderson, marketing manager at Income Access.
How an affiliate program for a state lottery works…
“The key goal of an affiliate program for a state lottery is essentially the same as a program for a brand in any online gambling vertical (such as a European sportsbook or an online casino or poker site) and geographical market. Marketing teams remain focused on promoting the brand through reliable and relevant affiliate sites and publishers.
“Compared to European iGaming brands, the main difference when promoting a US state iLottery is that there tends to be more limitations on the marketing tactics affiliate teams can deploy. The type of deals that can be offered, specific affiliates and publishers that affiliate managers can partner with, and even payment processing, are all more restricted, given the regulatory environment.
“However, the US online lottery space offers huge potential for affiliates, with state iLotteries like Michigan Lottery enjoying very strong growth since launch. The landscape also continues to evolve. Pennsylvania’s iGaming legislation, which allows the state lottery to launch an online lottery offering, is just one recent development in this expanding space. The fifth US state iLottery could go live as early as this spring.”
The benefits Michigan Lottery can expect from the new program…
“Denmark’s state-owned lottery Danske Spil has leveraged the Income Access affiliate platform since 2012. For a number of years we managed the affiliate program of the UK’s the Health Lottery, which remains an affiliate technology partner today. In addition, our affiliate team continue to manage the program for LiveLotto, which also focuses on the UK market. Over the last 12 months, we have signed a number of major lottery partnerships, including with Lottoland and IGT’s Lottomatica.it.
“All of our long-term and ongoing experience in a range of European and global lottery markets means that we have wide-ranging and very established relationships with international lottery affiliates. In addition, we’ve been supporting brands in the US real-money iGaming market since it began re-emerging in 2013. This has allowed us to develop enduring relationships with leading online casino and poker affiliates, which are increasingly looking to diversify to enter the new US iLottery space.
“All these diverse affiliate relationships will ensure that the new Michigan Lottery affiliate program experiences strong and sustainable growth from its launch onwards.
The possibility of partnering with other online lottery states…
“We are currently discussing our technology solutions and marketing services with a number of other North American lotteries as well as other global lottery organizations.”
Photo by iyd39 / Shutterstock.com
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