It certainly would be inaccurate to say there’s never been any overlap before between the daily fantasy sports world and the world of lottery couriers. After all, it was just last year that DraftKings completed a $750 million purchase of Jackpocket.
Still, Mido Lotto, the company behind the courier app Lottery Now, is taking an innovative step, partnering with Colossus Fantasy to form Mido Fantasy, a pick’em-style peer-to-peer game that is live in seven states.
In case you’re unfamiliar with lottery couriers, customers use their apps to effectively order lottery tickets, which representatives of the courier company then buy in person on behalf of the customer. Executives of courier companies commonly refer to their product as an “Uber Eats for lottery.”
In the case of Mido, as Lottery Now Head of Operations Erik Swett explained for an article published last week on Lottery Geeks, the business can have extreme highs and lows depending on the size of the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots. And it’s during those lows — like this week, when Powerball’s top prize is “only” in eight figures — that Swett says it’s important to have something else to offer to maintain customer engagement.
“We specifically went after games to match the feeling of the lottery — games that are accessible, casual, simple, and fun,” Swett said of the company’s expansion into fantasy sports. “Big prizes and quick wins are also critical. Mido Fantasy is our first offering to go live, with more on the roadmap in the real-money gaming space.”
How does it work?
Mido Fantasy is available in California, Florida, Illinois, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin, with more states expected to be added soon.
The app offers two types of contests, each built around player props: over/under pools with 10-12 legs and margin pools with 5-7 legs. The former sets a line on a particular stat and the user selects over or under, and the latter has bands of numbers. (For example, for Matthew Stafford’s passing yards this week, you can select 0-174, 175-199, 200-224, 225-249, 250-274, 275-279, or 300+.)
Each entry costs a particular amount, although customers have the option to buy in for a lesser amount and be eligible for lesser prizes.
The marquee contest for now is the weekly $1 million Margin Pick 7 contest, with a $5 entry fee, that goes live in the app every Wednesday and includes props on players in action Sunday and Monday.
A customer who goes 7-for-7 splits the jackpot (to use a lottery term) with everyone else who put together a perfect entry, and consolation prizes are typically awarded to those who get all but one or two legs correct.
What do you like better: your chances of matching six ping-pong balls, or your chances of matching seven player props?
There are in-game decisions too
One unique twist to Mido Fantasy is that, along the way, players will receive notification for “cash out” opportunities — a chance to sell some or all of their ticket and lock in a reduced win.
In the opening week of the NFL season, Mido Fantasy ran five over-under pools and five margin pools with a total jackpot amount across all 10 of $1,128,000. The operator also ran 10 MLB pools that week with $128,000 in guaranteed payouts.
The numbers were similar for NFL Week 2: $1,108,000 for football and $130,000 for baseball.
Mido also offers NBA contests and is planning to add English Premier League and Champions League soccer ahead of next year’s World Cup.
The Mega Millions jackpot is at $400 million heading into this weekend and, if that rolls over a few more times, it could be another high tide for the lottery business in a couple of weeks. But if that doesn’t happen, well, Mido Fantasy is offering alternative ways to risk a little to win a lot. Maybe not $1.79 billion, but a $1 million dream as you sweat the Sunday football games isn’t bad.
