Shoot-Out Nets Publicity for
New York State Lottery

New York, NY - Making a shot from half court can be exhilarating even for professional basketball players. So imagine the excitement that comes with trying to make a half-court shot at Madison Square Garden in front of a live crowd of 19,000, especially when that shot is worth a million dollars.

Keith Bishop didn’t just imagine making the shot — he did it. And when the ball swooshed through the net, SCA was
there to pay the prize. This event was
the grand finale to the New York’s Mega Millions $1,000,000 Shoot-Out Sweepstakes. The promotion was
created to showcase the fun and excitement of the New York Lottery’s multi-state, megajackpot game.

Bishop, a 31-year-old father of three from Hudson Falls, New York was one of close
to 40,000 entries for the promotion. He earned his chance at the million via a
preliminary shootout. On Saturday, November 16, he stepped up to take the shot during a time-out in the New York Knicks versus the Philadelphia 76ers game. He took two running steps, stopped just short of the center line, and sank the shot.

“The crowd just went insane,” says Carolyn Hapeman, spokesperson for the New York Lottery. “It went from being deathly quiet to a roar.”

Bishop did a victory lap, high-fiving the players on the Knicks bench and later shaking hands with both teams. “We asked him later if he knew what he’d done,” says Hapeman. “He seemed pretty calm.”

Bishop, a school bus driver from Hudson Falls, New York, will receive $50,000 a year for the next twenty years. But it hasn’t changed his lifestyle too much. “He was planning on going back to work on Monday. He said he would continue to work — he just won’t have to work as hard,” says Hapeman.

The shoot-out accomplished its goal of publicizing the lottery, according to Hapeman. “Everyone at the game knew (the contest) was for the Mega Millions. It was very successful.”

Geoff Curley of Grand Central Marketing, Inc. was in charge of finding prize coverage for the lottery. Because of the publicity surrounding the event, he knew he needed an industry leader. He chose SCA. “All the bases had to be covered for this. I’d worked with SCA in the past,” says Curley. “I knew that they had their act together.”