Pollard Banknote Receives Print Industry Award For First-Ever Transparent Instant Ticket

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, October 7, 2019 /CNW/ – Pollard Banknote Limited (TSX: PBL) (“Pollard Banknote”) is proud to announce that it is the recipient of an Award of Recognition from the Printing Industries of America (PIA) for its Clear Play™ instant ticket innovation. This award is a testament to Pollard Banknote’s long history of envisioning new products and bringing them to market to drive sales that support good causes for lotteries around the world. Other Pollard Banknote products such as Scratch Tab™, Scratch FX®, scented inks, and complex designs have been recognized with PIA awards in the past. Like these products, Clear Play™, the lottery industry’s first-ever transparent ticket, was the only lottery industry product selected from among thousands of submissions from around the world, demonstrating the quality of Pollard Banknote’s products in both the lottery industry and the wider print industry.

The PIA’s annual Premier Print Awards—the world’s most prominent international print competition—recognizes the leading print products in various categories. Among more than 22,000 submissions, Pollard Banknote’s Clear Play™ innovation was recognized as one of the highest quality products in the category of specialty printing (Miscellaneous Specialties—Other).

Pollard Banknote developed Clear Play™ in response to the need for new physical features that enable instant tickets to stand out at retail. Cutting through the cluttered retail environment is an ongoing challenge that is particularly important for instant tickets, a product category in which sales depend on triggering impulse purchases.

Clear Play™ is printed on recyclable transparent plastic. This material gives the tickets a distinctive look and feel that allows light to shine through, bringing graphics and colors to life. The transparent backdrop of Clear Play™ can be used to create a wide range of stunning designs, while still providing the same print security as Pollard Banknote card stock tickets. This innovation enables creative designs and new instant game concepts not possible on conventional substrates, such as retro decoders, layering tickets over each other to complete or enhance an image, and combining graphics and data with a mobile app for extra chances to win. 

“The product concept for Clear Play™ was the result of a multi-functional team’s participation in an innovation project,” said Nancy Bettcher, Vice President, Product Innovation & Development, Pollard Banknote. “The market’s reaction has been extremely positive, with customers remarking that the substrate gives scratch tickets a new, modern look and feel. Clear Play™ instant games have already been launched in multiple jurisdictions with great success and more lotteries are preparing to offer this exciting new concept to their players.”

About Pollard Banknote

Pollard Banknote is a leading lottery partner to more than 60 lotteries worldwide, providing high quality instant ticket products, licensed games, Schafer Systems and Fastrak retail merchandising solutions, and a full suite of digital offerings, ranging from game apps to comprehensive player engagement and iLottery solutions, including strategic marketing and management services. The company is a proven innovator and has decades of experience helping lotteries to maximize player engagement, sales, and proceeds for good causes. Pollard Banknote also provides pull-tab tickets, bingo paper, and its Diamond Game and Oasis-branded electronic ticket machines to charitable and other gaming markets in North America.  Established in 1907, Pollard Banknote is owned approximately 67.5% by the Pollard family and 32.5% by public shareholders, and is publicly traded on the TSX (PBL). For more information, please visit our website at www.pollardbanknote.com.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking” statements and information, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this document, such statements include such words as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “plan,” and other similar terminology. These statements reflect management’s current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this document. There should not be an expectation that such information will in all circumstances be updated, supplemented, or revised whether as a result of new information, changing circumstances, future events, or otherwise.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Pollard Banknote Limited   
Telephone: (204) 474-2323