Jackpocket CEO Peter Sullivan joins Yahoo Finance Live to explain how his lottery app works and how successful it's been so far.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: For the fourth time in just over four years, the lotto jackpot has topped the $1 billion mark. And if you're just seeing this reminder and thinking, oh no, I didn't go out to the convenience store, I don't have time, don't worry about it. You can win a billion bucks without leaving your couch. You can do it right here on your cell phone through the app Jackpocket. We're talking to the CEO Peter Sullivan from Jackpocket. Got the app right here.

Peter, first, good to see you. Take us through the process. How do we go about buying our tickets on your app?

PETER SULLIVAN: Yeah, thanks for having me. It's super easy and convenient. That's what we're trying to do here. Think of us like the Uber Eats for lottery tickets. So essentially, you go on. You can either scan your ID or enter the information. We're going to make sure you are of age, which is 18 and most states, 21 in Arizona.

And then what we're going to do is make sure that you're within one of the 15 states that we're currently operating in. We'll be expanding in hopefully 10 more states this year. You can go on, pick your numbers, submit it. And then you're going to get a copy of the actual lottery ticket that was bought and digitized on your behalf.

The best part is you never have to worry about checking the ticket. We're going to alert you if you've won. We've already had 25 millionaires. In just over the course of this Mega Millions run, we've had over $4 million of winnings from people playing the Mega Millions that haven't hit that top prize, but have hit smaller prizes.

SEANA SMITH: Well, Peter, people certainly are using it. It makes so much sense. It's so much more convenient for lottery players out there. When you talk about how popular it is, how many people are using your app now?

PETER SULLIVAN: So we were the number one app this summer in the entire App Store, which is huge. But right now, in this Mega Millions run, on some of the drawings 3.5% of all the Mega Millions tickets in the country are going through our app. And that's only with 15 states being live.

We've seen in the particular states that we're live in upwards of 15% and more of all the gameplay coming through our app. So it's been growing exponentially. This week we're up another 143% since last week. So everyone's excited with this big jackpot.

DAVE BRIGGS: If you're in the same sentence as TikTok, you're doing something right. Trust is an interesting factor when it comes to the lottery, in particular when it goes online. How do you convince some of the skeptics to stop going to buy that ticket and then they can trust this platform. I hear a lot of people saying, I don't trust it.

PETER SULLIVAN: Yeah, totally. And by the way, we're not going to be able to change everyone's behavior. My dad, who's the father of the CEO, still I find him going to the bodega to go and get his lottery ticket. So we're not going to change everyone's behavior.

But for those people that are a little busy, maybe stuck at home. We had rain here yesterday in Santa Barbara. If you just want to download and order the ticket, the way that we're able to do it is we're actually locking your identity to the lottery ticket for the first time ever, and that contains a digital serial number that's attached to your account.

So unlike a paper ticket that you may drop and lose, it's actually more secure. You're going to get an email that contains that serial number. You're going to get to see the front and back of the ticket. And our tickets are stored in fireproof safes, because they're printed on thermal paper, so we make sure that the tickets are stored.

And this is a regulated process. So we're making sure that those tickets are stored safely. Then we're going to notify you. If it's under a $600 winner, you're going to get those funds directly in your account, so you can either replay or withdraw it to a bank account for no fee. If it's a big winner, and we hope we get one, we're going to contact you and you're going to work with us and the lottery to go and get your prize like you normally would.

SEANA SMITH: Peter, what's going on? You've got to get your dad on board. He should be your number one customer, no questions asked.

PETER SULLIVAN: Listen, we test all the product with him. I say, dad, can you understand this? Can you do you understand what's going on? Because what's interesting is about 70% of our players are under the age of 45. But we want to make sure every time we're making a cool feature that someone like my dad who's been playing the lottery forever can understand.

SEANA SMITH: All right, Peter Sullivan, great to have you. We wish everyone the best of luck. I got to go get my lottery ticket. I don't have to go to the store this time. I'm going to try and go on your app and use it for the first time. I live in New Jersey and it's one of the states that you're in right now, Peter, thanks so much.