Pointstreak and Comcast-Spectacor earned the 2013 Venues Today Hall of Headlines Award in the Marketing category. (Photo by Greg Dohlen)
When it comes to sports cities, they don’t show up any more hardscrabble, fierce or passionate than in Boston and Philadelphia. And when those two cities square off in any sporting event, you won’t find any rivals as bitter.
Beantown and the City of Brotherly Love were able to set aside all differences on April 23 of this year when the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers met in a National Hockey League contest at Philly’s Wells Fargo Center in a game where a Pointstreak 5050 electronic raffle resulted in a record $85,595 jackpot with half of that going to onefundboston.org and earning Pointstreak and Comcast-Spectacor a 2013 Venues Today Hall of Headlines Award in the Marketing category.
Executing a theme of From One Tough Town To Another that played prominently on the scoreboard and throughout public address announcements during the game, one-half of the raffle amount went directly to the fund set up by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino to help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred at the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013.
But were it not for legislation changed in the state of Pennsylvania in December 2012, such a raffle would still not be taking place in the state. At that time the state did not allow 50/50 raffles over $500. As they say, what a difference a year makes.
“The Pennsylvania law required us to do a few things,” said Scott Secord, president/CEO of Pointstreak Sports Technologies Inc. “We worked with (Comcast-Spectacor Vice Chairman) Fred Shabel, who was really on the front line of helping get some changes made to the legislation. Not only was the old law one that permitted a very small amount in a raffle, but it only allowed you to run two games of chance a year for charity. After all was said and done the changes passed with an overwhelming majority vote.”
Added Kevin Lovitt, president of Pointstreak: “The people Fred knows and the initiatives he has worked on have been very influential as far as getting some of these laws changed. Without him I don’t think we would have ever been in a position to get this with any of the Pennsylvania teams, much less the Flyers.” Now, the raffle is legal in the state for hockey and basketball.
As for the winning From One Tough Town To Another theme, Comcast-Spectacor President/COO Peter Luukko credits his marketing team for hatching the slogan coming out of brainstorming sessions.
“We wanted to salute Boston and the money raised goes to show you how our fans are as well as hockey fans in general,” he said. “Our people took the money out of their wallets and contributed because they care.”
Luukko gushes when talking about what Pointstreak’s 5050 raffle has meant to venues like the Wells Fargo Center as well as others across the state, calling it a “game-changer.” The genesis for the partnership actually goes back to when Luukko’s son was playing junior league hockey and dad was using Pointstreak’s system to get updates on stats and follow his son’s games when he could not attend.
“By chance I met Kevin at a game and told him how much I liked the product,” Luukko said. “He told me about this other product, the 50/50 drawing. Having grown up in New England and spending some time in Canada, I can tell you it’s a big part of the culture in the northeast and is huge in Canada.
“The technology allows it to keep a running total that you can put up on the scoreboard and update throughout the night. That creates a feeding frenzy as the jackpot goes up and people want in. It’s a very marketable system. It’s become a real fun part of our game presentation and people really appreciate it, so we’re winning all around. We’ve done some great things for charity with the money and it’s great to see one of our fans come to a game and walk out with thousands of dollars.”
Above all, it’s the humanitarian aspect that comes to the surface of the raffles such as the one on April 23.
“For us to be able to provide a vehicle where people can support an effort like [Boston] frankly means a lot more than the games,” Lovitt said. “These types of tragedies transcend and people need help immediately. No matter how much money they generate at that event, it also focuses people’s attention so that they will continue to help.