An interactive lotto game that leverages mobile communications to engage players by giving them choices, and enables pooling across social networks.

1. Game of Shares
Interactive Lotto for the 21st Century
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.
August 2016

2. Key benefits of Game of Shares
• Members of social networks of any size can play together as a pool
• Every player has the opportunity to make a strategic choice
• Players receive rapid feedback about choices other players are
making, providing social context
• Subtle modification of familiar Lotto-type games
• Engages players through mobile communications
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.: Game of Shares, August 2016

3. Key Innovations in Game of Shares
• Define a Lotto game of two fields, three numbers to be picked from
each field (example: 3/20, 3/50)
• The Lottery draws the result for the first field and announces the
result, starting a time-limited Choice Window during which each
player can make and transact with the Lottery a strategic choice,
before the second field is drawn:
• Tickets that match all three numbers from the first field are specially
privileged, sure winners of some prize, and can choose to Hold or Share
• Tickets that match 0,1,or 2 numbers have the choice to Buy a Multiplier
against winnings that depend on the outcome of drawing the second field.
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.: Game of Shares, August 2016

4. Social Dimension- Hold or Share
• Share (verb): to contribute half the eventual final value of the ticket
to a winners’ cooperative pool, retaining the other half. After the
second field is drawn, each ticket in the pool gets an equal share of all
winnings accruing to the pool Complementary to Hold: to play the
individual Lotto ticket as usual
• During the Choice Window, the Lottery continuously updates rich
information about what other players are doing, e.g.
• How many tickets are eligible to share? Where are they?
• What numbers do those tickets have in the second field?
• How many players have already chosen to Share?
• How much time remains to choose?
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.: Game of Shares, August 2016

5. Strategic Aspect- Hold or Share
• Players making the personal choice to Hold or Share might consider :
• All tickets that are eligible to share are winners
• Those who choose to share usually win about ten times as much as those
who do not. This is because significant prizes for matching one or two
numbers in the second field reliably accrue to the cooperative pool.
• Those who choose to share give up half the value of their individual ticket.
• The more tickets in the pool, the greater the likelihood that the pool will win a
significant prize.
• The more tickets in the pool, the smaller the share payable to each ticket.
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.: Game of Shares, August 2016

6. Social Dimension- Buy a Multiplier
• Tickets matching two numbers from the first field can buy a 2x
multiplier; tickets matching one can buy a bigger multiplier; tickets
matching none can buy a still bigger multiplier.
• During the Choice Window, the Lottery continuously updates rich
information about what other players are doing, e.g.
• How many tickets are there like mine?
• How many players have already chosen to buy a multiplier?
• How much time remains to choose?
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.: Game of Shares, August 2016

7. Leveraging Mobile Communication
• Mobile apps could:
• Receive the first field drawing result, read the ticket and explain the choices
available
• Serve updated social feedback during the choice window
• Allow exploration of past results
• Handle the Share or Hold transaction in almost any jurisdiction (no purchase)
• Handle the Buy a Multiplier transaction where mobile purchases are allowed
• Point to closest physical retailer (where mobile transactions are not allowed)
• Still, all necessary transactions can be made in the traditional retail
stores
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.: Game of Shares, August 2016

8. Pooled Play on Social Networks- current
• Remember that although social and workplace pools leverage the
peer group for the Lottery’s benefit, they are self-limiting because
they require a lot of work from the pool organizer
• Collecting money
• Buying tickets
• Keeping records
• Handling wins that are of “nuisance” size when shared
• Paying wins of any size
• Records are a big responsibility; questions about participation have
sometimes been settled in court
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.: Game of Shares, August 2016

9. Game of Shares pooling for social networks
• The organizer needs only to communicate that those who intend to
play and win as a pool must all play the same certain numbers in the
first field.
• Members buy their own tickets and check the result of drawing the
first field
• When the result enables them to Share, they do so
• When the result does not enable them to share, they play their own way
• Lottery records show who Shared, and the Lottery pays accordingly
• Value of a Shared ticket is never of nuisance size.
• Whoever buys the big winner keeps half the cash!
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.: Game of Shares, August 2016

10. Game of Shares- 21st Century Lotto
• Leverages mobile communication to engage players
• Each player can make choices in play that affect outcome
• Allows players to express themselves through choices in the individual
vs. collective dimension
• Still, gives bigger rewards to the lucky individual winner
• Enables cooperative play for social networks of any size
• More big pools, more wins in pools, more stories traveling in social media
• Earned Social Media becomes a main marketing driver
• Scalable for populations from a few million to a few hundred million
Stephen Wade, Ph.D.: Game of Shares, August 2016