Posted on: August 14, 2022, 11:12h.
Last updated on: August 14, 2022, 11:12h.
A Louisville-based gaming technology company will provide the Michigan Lottery with games for its iLottery platform.
EQL Games announced the deal this past week. It includes offering instant games developed by Present Creative as well as the ability to create new games for the state lottery.
“We are thrilled to be working with the Michigan Lottery, especially in the digital space where so much is possible,” said EQL Games CEO Brad Cummings said in a statement. “With this agreement, we look forward to providing exciting new content for the Michigan Lottery for years to come and helping them maintain their market leader status.”
EQL Games’ deal with the Michigan Lottery came just a couple of weeks after International Game Technology announced a similar agreement to provide online gaming content for the country’s ninth largest lottery in terms of sales. According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL), the Michigan Lottery registered $5.05 billion in sales for 2021.
Michigan’s iLottery currently offers more than 160 games to residents, with most being “instant” games that are a cross between lottery scratch-off tickets and slot machines.
EQL Games Partners with Present Creative
The Michigan Lottery deal was announced just two days after EQL Games revealed its partnership with Present Creative, a San Francisco-based company with experience developing casino and iGaming games. The company also has a background in creating games for casual and social gaming operators, including Big Fish, Disney, GSN, and Zynga.
Cummings said online casinos and sportsbooks present a challenge for lotteries to gain and retain players. That also has led his company, which has offered sports-based lottery draw games, to get involved in iLottery.
When we met the Present Creative team and saw the games they were building for the iLottery market, we knew we had to work with them,” Cummings said. “Their unique perspective on designing lottery games fits perfectly within our lottery content strategy.”
Present Creative CEO Ben Sutherland said he’s excited about iLottery’s potential.
“Present Creative wants to help lotteries attract and retain customers through offering the best original content available,” Sutherland said. “Working with EQL Games, we know that we can provide customers with games and technology that will drive customer acquisition and revenue.”
About EQL Games
Previously known as EquiLottery Games, the company launched “Win Place Show,” a horse racing-based lottery draw game, in March 2019. Later that same year, it partnered with MLB for a quick-draw game.
The sports-based draw games use the outcomes from games rather than numbers that pop out of a machine to determine winners. EQL Games has since developed similar games for basketball, football, and ice hockey.
