Changelog
Every methodology change, state addition, pricing update, and material site change — dated, in public.
2026
- 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.