Tennessee lottery officials Monday picked a new logo from 100 proposed designs and learned they will have just two bids to choose from for one major vendor contract and three for another.
GTECH Inc. and Scientific Games International were the only two firms meeting Monday's deadline for submission of bids to operate the state lottery's online network, which installs machines for selling tickets to statewide and multistate lotteries.
Three bids were received for sales of "instant tickets," also known as "scratch-offs." One bid was submitted by GTECH, which is partnered with Oberthur Gaming Technologies in the proposal. Scientific Games International and Pollard Banknote Limited submitted the other two bids, said Will Pinkston, lottery vice president for communications.
Winners of the two multimillion dollar contracts are to be decided by Nov. 24 after review by an evaluation panel consisting of five top Tennessee lottery executives and Robert Wesley, systems development manager of the Virginia lottery who will act as a consultant.
GTECH, headquartered in West Greenwich, R.I., holds the online contract in Georgia, where Rebecca Paul served as lottery CEO before being hired by the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp. Scientific Games holds an instant ticket contract in Georgia.
Scientific Games is headquartered in Alpharetta, Ga. Oberthur is based in Montreal, Canada, and Pollard Banknote in Winnipeg, Canada.
Paul unveiled the new, four-color logo at a meeting of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp., saying it was picked from about 100 suggested designs because it is "easy to identify, colorful and fun."
The law creating the state lottery includes a provision forbidding use of the Tennessee flag in promoting the games. The logo incorporates three stars symbolizing the state's three grand divisions - just as the state flag does.
But in the logo, the three stars are yellow - spouting from a white letter "T" - and of different sizes - against a green background. There's also a purple "L" on one side with the words "Tennessee Lottery" below.
The flag's uniform-size stars are white against a blue circle that is framed by a red background. That is a major difference from the flag, Paul said.
The logo, which can be seen on the state lottery Web site at www.tnlottery.gov, will soon be appearing in all stores selling lottery tickets - more than 3,600 have already applied with sales targeted to begin by Feb. 10 - as well as on lottery advertising and elsewhere.
The colorful design, Paul said, "stands out in the retailer environment and breaks away from colors of the other signage" appearing in convenience stores.
Nobody has commented on this story yet.