Improving the odds for British Columbia’s athletes

While we all have dreams of winning the lottery, for amateur athletes, the dream is to stand on a podium and represent their country.

With its SportsFunder lottery games, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) is striving to help make those athletes’ dreams a reality.

February 2, 2006, saw the launch of SportsFunder, a collection of lottery games created as a direct result of BCLC’s partnership with Vancouver 2010. “We identified an opportunity with the Games coming to Vancouver,” said Michelle Bodnarchuk, category manager, SportsFunder. “We thought amateur sport was a great cause to get behind given the heightened awareness of the Games.”

With a series of four different lottery games – Instant Win tickets, a province-wide 50/50 game, Pull Tab tickets, and Interactive Games available on bclc.com – SportsFunder has its sights set on generating $20 million for amateur sport in British Columbia.

“Our objective is, by 2012, to have raised $20 million – that’s new money that doesn’t offset existing funding,” said Bodnarchuk. “So far, we’ve raised $2.1 million for amateur sports, which supplements existing funding and really makes a difference for sports programs in the province.”

Creating possibilities
With a mission to provide high-quality gaming entertainment in a socially-responsible manner, while generating income for the public good, BCLC is on the right track with its SportsFunder program. Providing winners with exciting prizing, such as merchandise, travel and even tickets to the 2010 Winter Games, the program offers British Columbians a unique way to share in the spirit of the Games while addressing the need to provide opportunities for kids to participate in sport and recreation activities through several targeted areas.

“The SportsFunder program is about creating possibilities,” said Neeta Soni, director of marketing and client services at the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). “Knowing that the funds raised through the sale of these games support amateur athletes in the province, and the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, allows SportsFunder players an opportunity to contribute directly to an athlete’s path to success.”

It’s no surprise that sport provides benefits beyond a strong heart and well-defined muscles. Being active in sport at a young age provides kids with self-esteem, goal-setting skills, a sense of achievement and skills that will shape their lives.

Supporting amateur sport
For some kids’ families, though, managing the financial challenge of sport registration fees is beyond their reach. That’s where KidSport™, one of SportsFunder’s beneficiaries, comes in. The KidSport fund helps more than 2,000 kids annually by providing financial assistance to children who want to play sports but simply cannot afford the costs to sign up.

“Since our inception in 1993, more than 14,000 BC kids have played a season of sport thanks to KidSport,” said KidSport Director, Pete Quevillon. “The sheer joy they get from participating in sport, the great friends that make and the memories they will have are proof of the positive impact KidSport has on the lives of so many young people. These benefits, more than any others, are what we gauge our success on.”

Along with KidSport, there are three additional areas of amateur sport that are benefitting from BCLC’s SportsFunder program.

Supporting athlete development for provincial teams, the Team BC program provides training camps, equipment, high-performance coaching and the ever-important mental, strength and nutrition training that’s fundamental to every athlete’s success.

Costs associated with travelling, both for competitions and training, can add up quickly, especially for athletes and teams who live far from major cities within the province. SportsFunder’s Youth Sport Travel Assistance helps subsidize BC’s amateur athletes so they can attend sporting events and training facilities, giving them the same advantages as those youth living in urban centres.

The fourth area dedicated to the SportsFunder program is Coach and Leadership Development, which focuses on providing educational and certification opportunities for coaches in outlying regions, female coaches, Aboriginal coaches and coaches of athletes with disabilities.

Getting off the start line
Launching a new product is a monumental task. And it’s a rare product launch that doesn’t require some tweaking along the way. SportsFunder was no exception.

“We launched last February and, as time passed, after introducing a couple of different products, we recognized awareness (of SportsFunder) was lower than we had hoped,” said Bodnarchuk. “We conducted focus groups in February 2007 to talk to our players and we learned people didn’t know about SportsFunder. Once they understood the concept, they loved that money went back to support all levels of amateur sport in BC.”

Through the focus group, BCLC realized the logo did not represent SportsFunder well, nor what the program was trying to achieve. A logo redesign was undertaken with the goal of creating interest for players, as well as clearly showing that the proceeds benefit amateur sports in BC. August 13, 2007 marks the launch of this new logo.

Sharing the dream
Along with the new logo, and to help with its funding goal, as of August 13th BCLC is launching a new SportsFunder Instant Win ticket, called SportsFunder Supports. With a top cash prize of $50,000, and like all other SportsFunder Instant Win games, this new game also offers players a chance to both win and give. Players who scratch and win the $1,000 “Share the Dream” prize on their ticket will not only receive $1,000, but they’ll also get to select an amateur sports organization to be the recipient of $1,000.

“It’s been an exciting year and we’ve learned a lot. SportsFunder was the first ‘cause-related’ lottery game BCLC ever launched,” said Bodnarchuk. “We’re making headway and our awareness is increasing. As well, we’re launching some exciting products in the next few months that will help the brand and, in turn, help amateur sports in BC.”

To learn more about SportsFunder and supporting BC’s amateur athletes, visit sportsfunder.com.