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The North Carolina Education Lottery has launched its first university-branded scratch-offs, teaming with the state’s two flagship universities on a pair of $5 games. The Tar Heels and NC State tickets went on sale Tuesday, Sept. 29, according to a lottery news release.
One game represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the other represents North Carolina State University. Each offers two top prizes of $200,000, and the games’ combined prizes exceed $20 million. Each game comes in three ticket designs, which the lottery expects fans to collect as souvenirs.
Randy Spielman, chief product officer of the NC Education Lottery, said the games are meant to tap into fans’ loyalty to both schools. He said North Carolinians are “extremely passionate” about the rivalry and that the lottery expects Tar Heel and Wolfpack fans to show off their school pride.
Odds, prizes and second chances explained
The odds of winning any prize are 1 in 4.16 for each game, and the odds of winning a $200,000 top prize are 1 in 1.44 million.
Players whose tickets don’t win can still enter them in second-chance drawings. The lottery says three drawings will be held. Winners of the first two can receive football game tickets and $500 gift cards to the UNC and NC State team stores. Three winners of the third drawing will receive a grand prize package for football, basketball or baseball.
The deadline to enter the first drawing was Oct. 4, but tickets entered earlier remain eligible for later drawings.
Digital games reshape education funding
The new games follow a record year for the lottery, which was established in 2005. The lottery says preliminary figures show it raised an estimated $1.14 billion for education in fiscal year 2026, the fourth straight year above $1 billion.
But education’s share of each sales dollar is shrinking. A state audit found gross sales rose from about $4.3 billion in fiscal 2023 to $6.6 billion in fiscal 2025, while transfers to education rose only from about $1.02 billion to $1.08 billion.
Digital instant games, which had no sales in fiscal 2023, grew to about $2.6 billion, roughly 40% of all sales, by fiscal 2025. The audit did not accuse the lottery of misusing funds. The lottery has said the digital games helped offset declining sales of traditional products.
Digital instant games can include online scratch-offs but are different from standard online casino games.
Schools expand into lottery, liquor, betting
The scratch-offs follow recent alcohol ventures by both schools. NC State has a Wolfpack beer made with a local brewery, and UNC-Chapel Hill has launched its own line of liquor, The News & Observer reported.
An NC State spokesperson told the newspaper that royalties from the tickets will go toward student scholarships and other student support. The state budget passed this summer also directs sports betting revenue to UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State, the paper reported.
