[image credit : GeoSweep]
After adding the GeoSweep online lottery game to its ALC.com domain in June of last year, Canada’s Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) has now pulled the location-based title due to disappointing sales.
The ALC manages and operates lottery games in the provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador while GeoSweep is a lottery game that utilises places instead of numbers.
Utilising Google maps, GeoSweep sees players select real-world places to own on a game board that has been sliced into millions of tiles called ‘Geos’ that are then used as location-based tickets. Players can buy their house, where they were married, their favourite sports stadium or the park bench where they had their first kiss while the system also delivers a social gameplay component via its GeoGroups and Treasure Hunts features.
“We’ve made the decision to remove the GeoSweep game from the market today,” said Patrick Daigle, Chief Financial Officer for the ALC.
“The game hasn’t lived up to its potential in this market.”
According to a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the provincial lottery operator has invested some CAD$8.7 million ($8.2 million) in buying a stake in London-based Geonomics, which is the developer behind GeoSweep. December saw online gambling operator Tipp24 SE shell out £10 million ($14.9 million) in order to purchase a major stake in the British firm, which was formerly known as Roboreus Limited.
In over a year of operation, the ALC declared that GeoSweep never paid out its daily CAD$250,000 ($236,091) grand prize although an updated version of the game is expected to premiere later in the summer.
“We do believe that the latest version of the game is going to hold player appeal,” said Daigle.
“We haven’t made an investment in a game but rather we’ve made an investment in a gaming company.”
