Technology gives boost to size of 50/50 jackpots
Toronto sports fans who win the 50/ 50 jackpots at Air Canada Centre are walking out with a lot more cash now than they were a year ago.
Jackpots at Maple Leafs and Raptors games in the 2014-2015 season are up 40 and 55 per cent respectively over the previous year, according to the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Foundation. The boost is thanks in part to an electronic ticketing system introduced as a pilot project this year.
“The technology allows us to be in the arena selling tickets longer. That’s the main reason,” said Michael Bartlett, executive director of the MLSE Foundation.
Prior to this season, 50/50 lottery sales held at the ACC operated on paper tickets that were audited, placed in the drum and drawn.
“We needed the second and third period in their entirety and third and fourth quarter in their entirety to be able to . . . get the draw done in time,” Bartlett said.
Now, electronic kiosks and handheld devices used by vendors process the sales, allowing for an extra period of selling along with live updates of the jackpot total. The result, said Bartlett, is a system with more in- centive for fans to buy in.
“Someone who wasn’t necessarily perhaps going to buy a ticket might look up at the scoreboard and say ‘Oh it’s worth me buying a ticket right now’.”
The rest of Canada already uses an electronic system, but the Ontario government prohibits it as per its interpretation of the Criminal Code around gambling and charities.
If this year’s pilot is deemed successful, the change could become permanent, according to Bartlett.
Monday’s Hockey World Junior Championship set a new record in 50/50 sales at the ACC, with the winner taking home $90,150, accumulated through the bronze and gold medal games.
The highest prize given away at a Leafs game this season was $26,316.
Accounting for the discrepancy, Bartlett said 50/50s are a bigger part of junior hockey.
“It’s just part of the culture in a world junior hockey environment,” he said, adding the same is true in Western Canada, where 50/50 jackpots tend to be much higher.
The national record for a 50/50 jackpot, $348,534, was set at a CFL game last summer between the Calgary Stampeders and the Edmonton Eskimos.