Digital scratch-off games in sports are becoming more popular. It’s not surprising, because we are entering the participation age of sports sponsorships. Sponsors no longer want to just “Be Seen” by your fans.
The odd inventory that included stadium signs and scoreboard reads won’t cut it today if your sports team wants to drive new revenue from sponsors.
Today, sponsors want to connect with your fans in meaningful and memorable ways. With this need, it’s vital to have an arsenal of digital activations that can help your sponsors complete this goal.
Digital scratch-off games are the perfect tool to reach this goal for sponsors. The excitement of revealing your prize or sponsor coupon with the swipe of a finger brings instant engagement with fans and measurability to your sponsors.
I’ll dive in below on what a digital scratch-off game is all about and how you can leverage it to drive more sponsorship revenue for your sports team.
What is a digital scratch-off game?
We’ve all seen or played the lottery version of a scratch-off. There is mystery, excitement, and fun in every card that you buy.
Traditionally, paper scratch-off cards have prizes or money amounts printed on cards with scratchable material on top. Players can use their fingers, a coin, or other sturdy objects to scratch the top material off to reveal what they have won.
Every card purchased is an exciting mystery. You buy them in hopes that you’ve won the big money or a prize.
Digital scratch-off games bring the same excitement of a paper scratch card right to the fan’s phone and tie it to your team or sponsor prizes. Instead of cash, they can win a big sponsor discount, a player meet & greet, or even a signed jersey.
With the addition of smartphones and the ability to track where your finger “taps” the phone, we are able to digitize the scratch-off experience. No more cards to throw away…no more scratching material that gets all over your clothes or under your fingernails.
How they work
With the digital version of scratch-off cards, fans easily access it by clicking a link they see on a website or social media or scanning a QR code on a scoreboard or printed item.
Fans register by simply entering their email address (and other information if needed). Once registered, they receive a digital card that pops on the screen.
From there, they gently swipe their finger across the digital card to wipe away the top layer and reveal their prize.
Euphoria sets in, confetti falls, and the fan has turned mystery into elation as they confirm their email and watch as the offer is sent directly to their email inbox for easy redemption at the sponsor’s location.
Benefits
Outside of the fact that attention is glued to fans’ phones today, below are a few key benefits to digitizing your scratch-off campaigns.
- An exciting alternative to handing out paper coupons – Winning your coupon is a much better experience than handing out paper ones to fans. It brings more engagement & excitement. Digital scratch-offs are a perfect alternative to jazz up your coupon campaigns.
- They’re measurable for sponsors – Measurability is key to driving more sponsorship revenue for your team. By digitizing your scratch-off experience you can show sponsors how many fans played, won, and even provide emails to retarget for more business, all in real-time.
- Reduce waste & cost by eliminating paper cards – Printing paper scratch-off cards for fans to throw out (or even toss on the floor of your arena) is costly to the environment and your team/sponsor. By digitizing the experience you can save money on printing costs and make sure that prizes end up in the fan’s email inbox…not the landfill.
How digital scratch offs are used at sporting events
At SQWAD, we’ve launched digital scratch-offs with over 30 teams of all sizes ranging from Minor League Baseball to NFL teams. They are a great way to bring new and exciting inventory to your game day to drive participation.
The first focus is the excitement it creates with fans. Much like a lottery scratch-off, there is a thrill right before you scratch the card. Could I be the one to win the grand prize?! When you compare this to handing out paper coupons, there is a huge benefit to bringing excitement into the experience.
Even if a fan doesn’t win the grand prize, they can still win a sponsor offer. We’ve found that this actually drives up the redemption rate of these sponsor offers by 4X through digitizing the experience. It brings the idea that the fan won the sponsor offer or coupon rather than was given it. Psychologically, it ties us to that offer and brings a need to use it and benefit.
But how can I make sure my fans will play online scratch offs?
Well, with the emergence of QR codes, we’ve seen the most success with putting a QR code right on the scoreboard for fans to simply scan and watch as the scratch-off website appears on their phone. It’s the simplest way to make sure fans are ready and playing.
The best times to run a digital scratch-off promotion (also known as online scratch offs) are the breaks in your game. Say a TV time out, or in between quarters. This is when fans do one very vital thing…they pull out their phones and play the online scratch cards.
With a virtual scratch-off, you can grab that attention back and channel it to your team promotion and sponsor.
Not looking to promote it in your stadium? Not a problem. Only 10% of your total social following will ever walk through your stadium anyways. To reach your full fanbase with this exciting promotion you can simply post the digital scratch-off on your various social media outlets for fans to play.
This opens the exciting experience up to ALL your fans and not just the select few that walk through your doors.
How they have the potential to increase sponsorship revenue if used correctly
Anytime you can grab fan attention, connect it to your sponsor, and steer them to purchase with your sponsor…it will be something that every one of your corporate sponsors will want to take advantage of and purchase.
When your sponsors come to you with goals of driving traffic to their store and building an audience, a digital scratch-off game is a perfect vessel to help them reach both.
Use opt in form template to capture audience
Traditionally, handing out coupons was the number one way to go to try and drive value. This meant having to print thousands of paper coupons that eventually ended up on the floor of your stadium.
The consequence of this is you have fewer sponsor coupons & offers coming through the door to drive value and revenue.
Having a digital scratch-off game changes all of that. Fans play on their phone and when they win the offer or coupon is sent directly to their email inbox for email redemption.
What this means for your sponsor are more redemptions and sales. In turn, the more value you bring them, the more they are willing to spend as they are seeing the return on investment walk through their doors.
In short, having a digital scratch-off game helps your sponsor reach their goal (more traffic to their store) efficiently. This is why sponsors love digital promotions.
How SQWAD can help sponsors use scratch off games to increase revenue
At SQWAD, we’ve mastered the digital scratch-off games experience to ensure that your team and sponsors reach their goals of driving foot traffic while creating a great connection with your fans.
Our digital game is fully customizable so you can brand it around your team and sponsor for a fully immersive experience. Easily add prizes and you can even set up unique coupon codes to make tracking a breeze. Customize your digital scratch card games online.
The best part, you can set up scratch card games in less than a day.
With our digital scratch-off game, we can help your sponsors get your fans from the stadium seats to their storefront with the scratch of a finger. Transfer audience engagement into loyal customers with popular games and personalized content.
Our digital scratch-off game has a 74% email open rate on the offers sent with 56% of them being redeemed in the store. This equates to new customers enjoying customer rewards from online scratch games.
Better yet, it can help your team & sponsor build their audience. Of the fans who play our basic scratch-off game, 63% of them will opt-in to receive more promotional information from the sponsor & team, allowing you to reach the fan long after the game ends.
We’ve helped dozens of sports teams reach this goal for their sponsors, sending out over 2.8 million sponsor offers last year alone.
That added value has helped our clients as much as 3X their sponsorship revenue with a client. This shows the huge value of virtual scratch off tickets. A win-win for everyone involved.
Online scratch games reap rewards
Gone are the days of paper coupons. They’re costly to print, are a hassle to house, and when it comes to the redemption rates you can pretty much throw them in the garbage.
By digitizing players’ experience you bring value and efficiency to the main goal of sending out offers, getting them to drive fans to your sponsor’s storefront (or website).
More than the efficiency, it brings new excitement to your fans. The thrill of winning a big prize will only bring your fans closer to your team and sponsor…creating a bond that will help drive relationships and purchases, like with the fan below.
If you’re still handing out those pesky paper coupons & offers that end up littering the floor of your stadiums, take a look at how a digital scratch-off games (like we provide at SQWAD) can help you save money, enthrall fans, and drive more sponsorship revenue all at the same time.
Let SQWAD show you how your team can maximize your sponsorship revenue with our digital scratch-off activation.
Contact us for a free demo.
