The Lottery loves college athletics!

Players can find the Lottery’s Events team at a number of Virginia events from the Richmond NASCAR® race and the State Fair of Virginia to multiple outdoor festivals such as Norfolk Harborfest® and the Richmond Jazz and Music Festival. But there’s one kind of event that is special for its palpable excitement: college athletics. Football games, basketball games and other sporting events are the perfect venue for the fun that the Lottery loves to generate.

To understand why the Lottery loves these events, let’s check in with Tyra Wilkins, experiential marketing specialist at the Lottery. The Lottery has been partnering with public colleges and universities in Virginia for more than 20 years and has a sports-marketing agreement with 14 of the public institutions, Wilkins reported. The Lottery attends college sporting events for three reasons.

1. They allow us to meet our current players and engage with a new and younger audience (18 and older only, of course).
2. We know players love sports, and we love being where our players are having fun.
3. The games are a great way to remind people about how the Lottery gives back to public education in Virginia.

During calendar year 2019, the Lottery did 19 events at the 14 public institutions, so you can likely find us at a school near you at some point during the year (and not just football and basketball games either – look for the Lottery at other games).

If you see the Lottery at a sporting event, the Events team likely will have something fun planned. Wilkins said don’t be surprised if you see people winning Lottery swag and promotional Scratchers by playing Football/Basketball Plinko or spinning the oversized Event Prize Wheel, which is always a hit. You might even see students singing along on the mobile Lottery karaoke machine.

Wilkins said that the Win A Spin event at a 2018 Virginia Tech football game was awesome; giving away money in front of 66,000+ fans was a rush! She mentioned the 2017 Ride into Fall promotion in which the Lottery gave away a scooter as one to remember. The promotion netted over 1,700 entries (entries were taken via tablet at different events around the commonwealth) and led to one Old Dominion student winning a scooter. Delivering the prize was a ton of fun too, Wilkins said.

Sounds like there’s a lot to look forward to if you see that the Lottery will be at a college athletics event near you. So come check one out, and get in on the fun.

_{Last updated 2/28/20}