Changelog
Every methodology change, state addition, pricing update, and material site change — dated, in public.
2026
- coverage
"Remaining prizes" pages expanded from 6 states to 38
The per-state remaining-prizes page — every active game ranked by how many top prizes are still unclaimed — was previously available for California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia and Massachusetts. It now exists for 38 states. Four states are deliberately excluded rather than shown with misleading numbers: Colorado and Minnesota publish prize counts only at game launch, and Montana and Wisconsin publish odds totals from which counts are modeled, so a page claiming daily "prizes remaining" figures for them would not be honest. Those four states keep their full rankings, best-games and new-tickets pages.
- product
New-tickets pages for every state, a national biggest-unclaimed-prizes table, and direct answers on ranking pages
Three additions. Every state now has a "new scratch-off tickets" page listing its ten most recently tracked games with prices, top prizes and first-tracked dates. A new national page shows the single biggest unclaimed scratch-off top prize in each of the 38 states that publish remaining-prize data, sorted largest to smallest and rebuilt daily; the four launch-data-only states are left off rather than shown with counts nobody can verify — every game links to its full prize breakdown. And the state rankings, best-games, remaining-prizes and new-tickets pages now open with a short direct answer summarizing what the page shows, using live numbers. The answers state facts and methods only; game-level EV rankings remain a Pro feature, unchanged.
- compliance
Added Ahrefs Web Analytics and disclosed it in the Privacy Policy
We added Ahrefs Web Analytics to measure where visitors come from. It does not use cookies or persistent identifiers; IP addresses are processed into a daily rotating hash to count unique visitors and are not stored. It is listed alongside our other third-party processors in the Privacy Policy, and the policy's last-updated date has been revised accordingly.
- product
Browse every state from the homepage and the dashboard
Getting to a state's rankings used to mean going through the state index page first — the homepage did not link to any individual state. The homepage now carries a browse-by-state directory with all 41 states + DC, and the dashboard has the same directory below the table, so you can jump straight from either page to the state you actually play in. The dashboard's state dropdown still works exactly as it did; the new links are an addition, not a replacement. Nothing about the rankings, the EV/Dollar calculation, the prize data or which states are covered has changed — this is navigation only.
- methodology
Wisconsin reclassified as a launch-data state
Wisconsin was listed as a state that publishes ongoing prize-depletion data. It does not. The Wisconsin Lottery publishes overall odds and top-prize totals only, so Scratch IQ models the lower prize tiers from those figures — the same approach already documented for Montana. The practical effect is that Wisconsin EV/Dollar values are stable rather than moving day to day, which matches what the data has always shown: across their full tracked history, nearly every Wisconsin game has had a single unchanging EV/Dollar. The data-quality note on Wisconsin prize tables and the methodology page now say so, and Wisconsin pages no longer describe their rankings as recalculated daily. No EV/Dollar value or ranking changed — only the description of where the numbers come from.
- coverage
"Best scratch-offs" pages now available for all 41 states + DC
The daily "best games right now" page — a short ranked list of a state's strongest active scratch-offs by EV/Dollar — was previously built for only six states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia and Massachusetts. It now exists for every jurisdiction Scratch IQ covers. Each page shows that state's top 10 active games by current EV/Dollar, leaves out games whose expected return has fallen into the poor range, and gives each game a one-line note explaining its position based on the prizes still left in circulation. To be clear about what did not change: no new states were added to the underlying data, no ranking moved, and the EV/Dollar formula is untouched — this makes an existing view available in 36 more places. The lowest-value, top-prizes-remaining and price-point pages remain limited to the original six states for now, and the state pages that do not have them no longer show links to them.
- methodology
Fixed missing top prizes in Missouri, Massachusetts, Maryland and Indiana
Every active Missouri game was displaying a $0 top prize, including games whose own names state the jackpot. The Missouri Lottery began printing the label inside the value itself ("Top Prize: $2,000,000" rather than "$2,000,000"), and our parser read only the leading digits, found none, and fell back to zero. Missouri's games now show their real top prizes, from $100 to $5,000,000. Four more games in Massachusetts, Maryland and Indiana were showing $0 for a different reason — their lottery simply does not publish a headline prize for those tickets — so Scratch IQ now derives the top prize from the largest prize tier the state does publish. Separately, a handful of games genuinely have no single top prize: Maine sells tickets named "$50 OR $100" and "$100 OR $250" where there is no one headline jackpot to report. Those now display a dash instead of a misleading $0. Rankings were not affected by any of this: the top prize is a display figure and is not an input to the EV/Dollar calculation, so every game's EV and position stayed correct throughout. The core EV formula is unchanged.
- product
A-Z game directory per state, and clearer lowest-value pages
Each state now has a plain A-Z directory listing every active scratch-off game we track, reachable from a new link at the bottom of that state's page. It shows game names and ticket prices only, sorted by name, so you can look up a specific ticket without scrolling the ranked table. Separately, the lowest-value pages have been reworded: they previously described every listed game as a "dead zone" ticket whose headline jackpots were already claimed, which was not true in states where even the weakest games still have top prizes remaining. Those pages now say plainly that they show the lowest-value games in that state right now. The rankings and the EV calculation are unchanged.
- product
New Learn article: what 2,700+ scratch-offs reveal about payouts
Published a data study of the full Scratch IQ dataset — 2,706 active games across 41 states + DC, built from 2.38 million prize-tier records collected daily since March 2026. Findings include the average payout per dollar (about 69 cents), why the cheapest tickets return the least, and that roughly 1 in 9 active games still sells with zero top prizes remaining. All figures are date-stamped and citable.
- product
Related games on every game page
Each game page now ends with a "More [State] Scratch-Offs" section suggesting similar games from the same state — closest ticket price first — plus quick links to the state's rankings pages. Page titles across state rankings and individual game pages were also rewritten in plainer language ("remaining prizes & odds" instead of "EV").
- methodology
Fixed top-prize and EV for Pennsylvania's two annuity games
Pennsylvania's two "a year for life" games were showing the wrong top prize and an understated EV/Dollar. The Pennsylvania Lottery's game rules list the headline prize as a per-year annuity payment (for example "$1M/year for life") rather than its advertised cash value, and our parser was reading only the leading digits — so $1,000,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE displayed a $100,000 top prize and $500,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE displayed $50,000. Because the real top tier was missing from the prize ladder entirely, EV/Dollar for both games was calculated too low. Scratch IQ now reads the true cash value of these annuity prizes from Pennsylvania's official prizes-remaining page: $1,000,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE shows a $14,500,000 top prize and $500,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE shows $7,250,000, and both games' EV/Dollar now correctly reflects those headline prizes still being in play. No other states or games were affected — the fix is specific to the annuity prize format, and the core EV formula is unchanged.
- product
Refined the three Learn articles with founder voice, real worked examples, and authoritative citations
The three /learn explainer articles got substantial voice and content revisions. The Expected Value article now opens with the trading-meeting story that connected the EV concept to scratch-offs and uses Florida's Scorching Hot 7s as the worked example showing how EV/Dollar drifted from 1.36 down to 1.02 across late April and early May 2026 as top-tier prizes were claimed. The rigged article ties the math-loophole framing to Jerry & Marge Go Large (a 2022 movie about a real Massachusetts Winfall draw-game advantage) and pairs the regulatory argument with the Eddie Tipton case as the precedent for what happens when lottery insiders attempt to compromise outcomes. Each article gained a hero image and one mid-article figure, and the citation density grew to five authoritative sources on the rigged article (NASPL myths page, Connecticut Lottery game-retirement rules, Florida Lottery, New York Lottery, and the Wikipedia entry for the Tipton case) plus a Florida Lottery direct citation on the EV/Dollar article. Several smaller accuracy fixes: state-count language canonicalized to '41 states + DC' across all three articles, vague 'every state lottery' claims softened to 'most state lotteries,' and the EV-vs-odds distinction added to the codes article's related-questions FAQ.
- product
Launched Glossary and three Learn articles
New /glossary page defines the twelve metrics and data terms used across Scratch IQ — Expected Value, EV/Dollar, Prize Ratio, Tickets Remaining, Claim Lag, Remaining Prizes, Overall Odds, Static EV, Modeled Tiers, Sell-Through, Dead Zone, and Validation Status — each with cross-references to related terms. New /learn section ships with three explainer articles: are scratch-off lottery codes real (no), how scratch-off Expected Value works, and a data-backed answer to whether scratch-offs are rigged. Each article includes a one-sentence speakable Quick Answer block for voice assistants and a fifty-word direct-answer paragraph for AI summarizers. Footer links added under State Rankings.
- product
New buyer-intent pages: best, lowest-value, top prizes remaining, and price-tier rankings
Six priority states (Florida, Texas, Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, California) now have dedicated rankings beyond the main state hub. The Best page lists the top 10 active games by current EV/Dollar with a one-line data note explaining each game's position. The Lowest Value page surfaces the bottom 10 — the dead-zone tickets where the larger prizes have been claimed but tickets are still in circulation. The Top Prizes Remaining page ranks games by absolute count of headline jackpots still unclaimed. Per-price-tier pages cover $5, $10, $20, and $30 tickets in each priority state. Each page links back to the state hub and to individual game pages and updates daily alongside the regular scrape. When a state has too few qualifying games for a given list, that page is excluded from search-engine indexing while remaining accessible via direct link.
- coverage
State-rankings hubs now live for every state we cover
Added daily EV/Dollar ranking pages for the remaining 35 states plus the District of Columbia, completing the rollout that began with Florida earlier this week. Every active scratch-off jurisdiction Scratch IQ tracks now has a dedicated /scratch-offs/[state] page showing the EV/Dollar ranking, a state-specific FAQ block, the official state lottery as the data source, and a parseable last-updated date. Game-detail pages also got a clearer per-state claimed-counts disclosure: states with synthesized lower-tier prize counts (Pennsylvania newly added) now show an estimated-counts tooltip, and states that publish only launch-day counts with no daily depletion data (Minnesota and Colorado) now show a distinct frozen-at-launch tooltip instead of the previous shared wording, which was technically misleading for them.
- compliance
Added a dedicated data license for Dataset structured data
Published /data-license and linked Scratch IQ Dataset JSON-LD to that license URL so Google can read a stable license field on state ranking and game-detail dataset markup. The license clarifies permitted personal use, attribution expectations, redistribution restrictions, and the distinction between public lottery source data and Scratch IQ's analysis.
- coverage
State-rankings hubs now live for Texas, Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, and California
Added daily EV/Dollar ranking pages for Texas, Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, and California, mirroring the Florida hub launched earlier this week. Each new hub at /scratch-offs/[state] shows the active scratch-off ranking by EV/Dollar, a state-specific FAQ block, the source state lottery as the data source, and a parseable last-updated date. The /scratch-offs directory automatically marks these states as launched. Scratch IQ now surfaces dedicated state hubs for 6 of the 42 jurisdictions covered, with the remaining 35 states plus DC rolling out in upcoming releases.
- product
Launched Florida state-rankings page and state-rankings directory
Added a new State Rankings hub at /scratch-offs that lists every state Scratch IQ tracks; Florida is live with the rest marked Coming soon. The new /scratch-offs/fl Florida hub shows the daily EV/Dollar ranking for every active Florida scratch-off, a Florida-specific FAQ block, the Florida Lottery as the data source, and a parseable last-updated date. Game pages now live under cleaner shareable URLs of the form /scratch-offs/fl/[game-name]-[id]; the previous /game/[id] links permanently redirect to the new canonical URLs. Other states will roll out in upcoming releases.
- product
Accessibility + readability polish across homepage and footer
Tuned text contrast on the homepage and footer so small print is easier to read on dark backgrounds. Added underlines to inline text links so they no longer rely on color alone. Renamed the footer FAQ link to Frequently Asked Questions, added an iOS home-screen icon, and added a direct link from the EV explainer out to the Florida Lottery as the data source.
- product
Founder bio block on the homepage; About page rewrite
Added a founder bio block to the homepage (photo, credential, link to /about) placed just before the closing call-to-action so the page ends on action with a human face attached. Rewrote the /about founder bio for a clearer, less-technical audience and tightened the page subtitle. Updated the EV example shown on the homepage and methodology page so it matches the visual ($1.23 EV/Dollar).
- product
Launched /about, /methodology, and /changelog
Trust pages explaining who runs Scratch IQ, exactly how the rankings are computed (formulas, data sources per state, modeling notes), and a public dated record of every methodology and coverage change going forward.
- compliance
Disclosed Google Analytics + Vercel Analytics in privacy policy
Added Google Analytics and Vercel Analytics to the third-party processors section of /privacy. Google Signals is disabled — analytics data is not used for cross-context behavioral advertising.
- product
Added "Last updated" stamp to /faq
The standing disclaimer on /faq now shows the same canonical last-updated timestamp as the homepage, sourced from the most recent active scrape.
- product
Brand registry, JSON-LD schema layer, and source-ready summary
Extracted canonical brand strings into a single registry; added Organization, WebSite, FAQPage, Dataset, and BreadcrumbList JSON-LD schemas; rewrote homepage hero to lead with a source-ready summary sentence including live game count and last-updated date.
- compliance
Foundation hygiene: robots.txt, sitemap.xml, security headers, OG images
Shipped the SEO/AEO foundation layer — robots.ts, sitemap.ts, metadataBase + canonicals on every page, dynamic Open Graph share image, HSTS preload + Content-Security-Policy + Cross-Origin-* headers, section-level noindex on /auth and /account.
- product
Top 10 paywall + dashboard search
Hot games (top 10 by EV) are gated behind Pro; Free users see a blurred preview. Added in-dashboard search and prefetch for game-detail navigation.
- coverage
9-state expansion: DC, ID, MS, NE, NM, RI, SD, VT, WV
Added scrapers for nine additional jurisdictions, bringing total coverage to 41 states + DC. Delaware was attempted but skipped — its lottery does not publish remaining-prize data.
- methodology
Iowa EV calculation overhaul
Iowa publishes only sparse top-tier remaining-prize data. Rebuilt the IA path to model lower tiers using the published per-tier odds and observed claim ratios, producing daily EV/Dollar that responds to top-prize depletion without fabricating tier-level precision.
- coverage
10-state expansion: ME, NH, AR, IA, LA, MN, OK, WI, OR, WA
Phase 14 ship — ten additional state scrapers landed. Minnesota and Montana classified as static-EV (only launch counts published); Wisconsin uses synthesized lower-tier counts.
- coverage
7-state expansion: GA, PA, MI, OH, NJ, VA, IL
Added scrapers for seven major states. Phase 12 also stabilized the residential-proxy strategy that GA, PA, and IL require to bypass Cloudflare.
- coverage
Multi-state expansion: NY, CA, MA, KS, TX
Beyond Florida — Phase 10 and 11 added New York, California, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Texas scrapers. EV/Dollar formula remained unchanged across states; per-state synthesis happens in each state's scraper before reaching the canonical EV calculator.
- product
Public launch: Scratch IQ for Florida
Initial launch of scratchiq.io with Florida Lottery scratch-off coverage. EV/Dollar rankings, Prize Ratio, daily updates, free dashboard, Pro tier with full top-game visibility.
New material changes are added at the top of this page as they ship.