North Carolina lottery players can now root for their favorite in-state rival every time they scratch a ticket. UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University have partnered with the North Carolina Education Lottery to launch the state's first university-branded scratch-off games, with new $5 tickets going on sale Tuesday.
Both UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University have partnered with the North Carolina Education Lottery to launch the lottery's first ever university-branded games, according to The News & Observer. The new $5 scratch-offs went on sale Tuesday, giving Tar Heel and Wolfpack fans a fresh way to show school colors while trying their luck.
Each game offers two top prizes of $200,000, with a combined total prize of more than $20 million between the two games, the outlet reports. Each school's game also comes in three different ticket variations, and the lottery hopes the designs will turn into collector's items among fans eager to gather all three.
Odds, Prizes and a Second-Chance Perk
The odds of winning any money on the new tickets are slightly less than one in four, while the odds of landing a top prize sit at one in 1.44 million, per the same report. Each game also includes a second-chance promotion that provides winners with VIP experiences with their favorite teams, adding another incentive beyond the base prize structure.
The scratch-offs are intended to play off the rivalry between UNC and NC State, a dynamic the lottery is leaning into directly. Randy Spielman, chief product officer of the North Carolina Education Lottery, said the lottery cannot wait to see Tar Heel and Wolfpack fans show school pride by trying the new scratch-offs, according to the same report. A North Carolina Education Lottery press release states that fans will want to collect the three designs as school souvenirs.
How the Money Flows Back to Campus
NC State licensed the right to use its university trademarks to the Education Lottery, and the trademark licensing royalties from ticket sales go to student scholarships and other student support, the outlet notes. NC State's own trademark office says the university owns and controls its name and other trademarks, logos, insignias, seal, designs and symbols, and that net revenues from those trademark licensing royalties are used to fund scholarships and student support activities, according to NC State's trademark licensing office. UNC-Chapel Hill's licensing office similarly notes that businesses seeking to use the university's name or marks must obtain written permission through a formal university contract or a license through the Collegiate Licensing Company, and that revenue generated by the program benefits the university, per UNC-Chapel Hill's licensing page. UNC-Chapel Hill did not respond to a request for comment about the new scratch-off games before the News & Observer's report published.
The North Carolina Education Lottery was established in 2005, and part of its proceeds fund public education in the state, the report notes. Through May, lottery games had brought in $1.04 billion for public education statewide, about $45 million more than the same point the previous year, according to NC Newsline. Year-to-date sales through May were just under $6.6 billion, up 9.2% from the same period a year earlier, per the same report.
A Rocky Patch for Traditional Scratch-Offs
Even as overall sales climb, the lottery's classic scratch-off tickets have cooled. Digital instant-game sales rose 22% during the first 11 months of the fiscal year compared with 2025, while scratch-off sales dipped about 3%, NC Newsline reports. Lottery officials project sales will increase by 6.39% in 2027, though they've cautioned that economic pressure, volatile multistate jackpot games and consumer reluctance to buy tickets before jackpots grow could weigh on future sales, per the same account.
North Carolina isn't the first state to try pairing a college rivalry with lottery tickets. The South Carolina Education Lottery launched branded scratch-off games for the University of South Carolina and Clemson University in 2022, offering players a chance to win up to $100,000, according to NASPL Insights. Nearly $4 million raised from those South Carolina ticket sales in 2025 will go toward educational funding for students statewide, the group reports, and second-chance winners there were invited to live prize reveal events at both universities' arenas, drawing more than 18,000 fans.
Sports Betting Dollars Add Another Wrinkle
The launch also arrives alongside separate, and not entirely consistent, accounts of new state funding streams for the two schools. The News & Observer reports that a state budget passed this summer newly distributes sports gambling revenue to UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State, the state's two flagship institutions. However, an earlier News & Observer sports report described a 2027 budget provision directing sports betting revenue to the flagship schools beginning in 2027, with each potentially receiving up to $5.8 million annually, and specified that the funding must support athletic departments rather than a university's general fund. That same report noted the proposal would raise the state's sports betting tax rate to 23%, five percentage points above the current rate. The two accounts differ on whether the sports-betting funding measure has already taken effect or remains tied to the 2027 budget cycle.
