Public Gaming International Magazine March/April 2021

43 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2021 PROOF IS IN THE DATA. In general, businesses that have survived and weathered the COVID-19 storm are those who have been able to adapt to the changes forced on them. ey have also diversi ed across multiple channels to ensure they can reach as many of their customers as possible. Let us consider a speci c example to show how operating across a wider sales channel can help protect your business in times of crisis. A major European lottery has been moving towards a more distributed sales channel for several years and utilise the Abacus platform which is connected to more than 30,000 points of sale (of which over 5000 are self- service or self-scan cash registers) across four large national retailers. One of the largest draws occurs on New Year’s Eve and ticket sales always ramp up through the month in the lead-up to the draw. However, in 2020 as December loomed, the country went back into a COVID lock down, e ectively closing many retailers overnight that would have sold lottery tickets through the traditional terminal network. is sudden and immediate loss of the retail network had a huge impact on the lottery business. Yet with around 60% of the terminal network o ine, sales in 2020 went up by around 10% on the same period in the previous year. is was achieved through diversifying sales channels and putting the product where customers shop the most. One of these channels was an in-lane program utilising the Abacus platform. As sales ramped up towards the Christmas pe- riod and the large New Year’s Eve draw, Aba- cus started to see a more than 200% increase in sales. is trend continued through the whole month of December (with some days peaking at over 500% sales uplift on the same period in 2019). is increase in sales through the channel showed customers’ appetite to continue to purchase their lottery tickets, and a willingness to embrace any sales channel that allowed them to do this. A comparison of sales seen through the in-lane channel in 2019 and the same period in 2020 clearly shows a consistent increase of transac- tions through the in-lane and self-service channels, and whilst some of this increase can be attributed to the COVID-19 lockdown closing other channels, it is anticipated this trend will continue. Integration of the Abacus solution is a simple process for lottery and retailer alike. Abacus’ fully managed service ensures that the heavy lifting of integrating the solution into both retail and lottery systems is carried out by the team at Abacus and ongo- ing support of the solution makes the lottery sales process transparent to all. Utilising a print on receipt style of delivery means there is no in-store collaborator required and there is no chance of running out of stock as a big draw approaches and sales really take o . Drilling down into the sales data Abacus saw sales of tickets from more than 90% of connected self-service cash registers with sales gures increasing by more than 500% from 2019 to 2020. is trend in allowing a contactless sale of the lottery category to customers is one that has been anticipated by the industry and was borne out by the sales data as changes in customer behaviour and the ability to reduce interaction between customer and cashier continue to grow.