Connect with us

Technology

POLLARD BANKNOTE TO LAUNCH ITS FIRST U.S. ILOTTERY PROGRAM

Published

on

WINNIPEG, MB, Aug. 26, 2024 /CNW/ – Pollard Banknote Limited (“Pollard Banknote”) (TSX: PBL) is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract to provide a full turnkey iLottery solution for the Kansas Lottery (“the Lottery”), powered by its proprietary, natively omnichannel Pollard Catalyst™ Gaming Platform (“the Platform”), which will begin generating revenue for the State of Kansas in early 2025.

Pollard Banknote has been a key player in iLottery since the inception of this channel in the United States, and in 2021 made a strategic decision to invest in its own end-to-end iLottery technology, beginning with the acquisition of the Next Generation Lotteries’ group of companies (“NGL”), formerly subsidiaries of Novomatic AG, one of the largest gaming technology companies in the world. This acquisition supplemented Pollard Banknote’s organic growth in the digital space with proven lottery technology, an experienced team of industry leaders, and significant software design and development resources. NGL was an iLottery pioneer in Europe and a trusted supplier since 1996, when it built the first-ever e-commerce solution for a national lottery. Combining Pollard Banknote’s learnings from its decade of North America iLottery experience with NGL’s software and expertise, Pollard Banknote upgraded the technology to meet the latest standards as well as the needs of the U.S. market, culminating in the Pollard Catalyst™ Gaming Platform. The Platform is a fully cloud-native, modular, and API-first solution that is uniquely positioned to revolutionize the lottery gaming systems space by leapfrogging the competition. The Platform’s modern design easily integrates with other solutions, accelerates roadmap development, and enables cutting-edge features such as fully automatic scalability with no constraints for jackpot runs.

Pollard Banknote’s history of iLottery success fuels its approach in Kansas. Pollard Banknote and its technology partner launched the Michigan Lottery’s iLottery program in 2014, which grew quickly to become, in 2020, the first in North America to exceed $1 billion in annual sales. Shortly after that program’s launch, Pollard Banknote formalized that partnership in a joint venture, NeoPollard Interactive LLC (“NPi”). NPi would ultimately launch four of the most profitable iLottery programs in the United States: Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina, and New Hampshire, markets representing more than 70% of iLottery gross wagers in the United States, according to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, LLC, a leading research and consulting firm in the global gaming industry.

Pollard Banknote’s state-of-the-art iLottery solution offers the complete catalog of products and services required to run a modern iLottery program. At launch, it will initially enable players in Kansas to play popular draw-based games including Powerball® and Mega Millions®, and eInstant games from the Pollard Digital Games Studio specifically customized for the Kansas market. Pollard Banknote’s robust Player Account Management system will provide the functionality required for registration, age and identity verification, wallet transactions, and responsible gaming features. Geolocation services will be provided through Pollard Banknote’s proprietary GeoLocs™ technology, among the most mature and reliable commercial solutions available today. GeoLocs™ has been implemented with over a dozen operators, including several lotteries in North America. Pollard Banknote will also provide a suite of business services to the Kansas Lottery including marketing, draw operations, risk management, and a player support center.

The Pollard Catalyst™ Gaming Platform will be fully integrated with the Lottery’s existing PlayOn® Player Loyalty Program, a Pollard Banknote proprietary loyalty solution. This integration offers a number of benefits that will ensure a strong launch of the program, including an established player base that already engages with the Lottery online. The included iLottery support services will help maximize returns to the State while operating within a responsible gaming framework.

Marketing support from Pollard Banknote’s experienced team will include providing insightful, data-driven recommendations for player acquisition and retention. Pollard Banknote’s Marketing Engagement Platform is powered by Bloomreach, a leader and visionary in the digital experience platform space, serving over 1400 global brands. The deep integration with Bloomreach, enabling lotteries to use real-time data to identify player actions in the moment to deliver highly personalized communications across both the loyalty and iLottery programs, sets Pollard Banknote apart from the competition in terms of marketing capabilities. This approach solidifies Pollard Banknote’s position as an iLottery leader that supports all the Lottery’s sales channels.

“These are exciting times for the Kansas Lottery and for Pollard Banknote. Our decades-long relationship with the Lottery combined with our game-changing Pollard Catalyst™ technology and what we believe is the strongest team in the industry will deliver the best player experience and is a winning combination for the Lottery and its players,” said Doug Pollard, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Pollard Banknote. “We look forward to delivering an exceptionally strong iLottery program.”

The Pollard Catalyst™ Gaming Platform and the turnkey iLottery solution are provided to the Kansas Lottery following the exercise of an option under the Lottery’s existing Player Loyalty Program contract, which currently runs through October 31, 2026.

About Pollard Banknote

Pollard Banknote is a leading lottery partner to more than 60 lotteries worldwide, providing high-quality instant ticket products, licensed games, in-lane ticket options, and sales-driving merchandising solutions from its Schafer Retail Solutions + portfolio. It also offers a full suite of digital offerings, ranging from world-class game apps to comprehensive player engagement and iLottery solutions, including strategic marketing and management services. The company is a proven innovator and has decades of experience helping lotteries to maximize player engagement, sales, and proceeds for good causes. Pollard Banknote also provides pull-tab tickets, bingo paper, ticket vending machines, and its Diamond Game and Compliant Gaming electronic games and devices to charitable and other gaming markets in North America. Established in 1907, Pollard Banknote is owned approximately 64% by the Pollard family and 36% by public shareholders, and is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: PBL). For more information, please visit our website at www.pollardbanknote.com.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking” statements and information, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this document, such statements include such words as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “plan,” and other similar terminology. These statements reflect management’s current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this document. There should not be an expectation that such information will in all circumstances be updated, supplemented, or revised whether as a result of new information, changing circumstances, future events, or otherwise.

SOURCE Pollard Banknote Limited

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

on

By

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Continue Reading

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

on

By

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Continue Reading

Technology

Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

Published

on

By

New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

Continue Reading

Trending