My day began lazily Tuesday, as I reached for my phone, taking my first few blinks of the new morning. My usual path is to check the NY Times to see what madness Trump has unleashed overnight, then Facebook and Twitter.
But yesterday, I happened to download a new app called Pluto TV, which is an online streaming cable TV network of sorts. This is only notable because I flipped it on this morning and was met with this image, of Lottogopher’s (LOTO.V) CEO talking up his new Canadian exchange listing to American TV.
This was an extreme coincidence, as I’d bought in to Lottogopher when it was private a while back, and was eagerly anticipating it landing on the exchange. My only question was, would anyone hear the story enough to buy in?
It seems they did, because buying today was solid, especially for a new ticker that doesn’t even show up in places like Google Finance and the like just yet..
The online lottery ticket seller jumped into the markets at a price as high as $0.70 per share before settling in at a $0.66 base, good for a C$41 million market cap.
SO WHAT DOES IT DO?
In California, anyone who wants to buy a lottery ticket has to queue at the bodega and pay in cash. A network of arcane laws and limitations in various states mean the lottery scene is entrenched in the 1970’s technology-wise, and wit a network of small businesses listed in the hundreds of thousands that rely on lottery commissions to make ends meet, no state is eager to update their sales tech when it might cause a political scene.
Enter Lottogopher, which allows folks to sign up for an account and buy, check, and pay out tickets on their computer or phone, rather than by lining up behind the guy eating chopped cheese for dinner.
Lottogopher charges a scaled set of fees for this service, which basically amounts to them sending staff out to a given convenience store at 3am where they buy and cash out tickets by hand, in accordance with California State Lottery rules. What you’re paying for is for them to do the dreary stuff, while you’re able to share your dashboard with all the guys in your office syndicate and never darken a 7/11’s door again. At least not for lottery tickets.
UK lottery giant Lottoland is in to Lottogopher for, as I understand it, 20%.
Love it when a plan comes together.
— Chris Parry
FULL DISCLOSURE: I hold stock in LottoGopher, but they are not an Equity.Guru marketing client.