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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // November/December 2016
Paul Jason:
Necessity being the moth-
er of invention, you initiated the live-
streamed draw when your televised draws
had to be discontinued. Now you have
resumed the televised draws, continue to
live-stream the draws online, and the re-
sults are better than ever.
Michael DeCheser:
We have always
considered the live draws to be a vital
promotional tool, a powerful marketing
event. In spring of 2011, we had to dis-
continue our televised draws on NJTV (a
public broadcasting channel that the state
was supporting). Since our draws were no
longer going to be televised, we decided to
try a new way of engaging the players and
became the first lottery to live-stream our
draws over the internet within a social me-
dia setting. The first ones were streamed
live on Facebook. Every day for almost a
year, our mid-day and evening draws were
streamed exclusively online with no tele-
vision component. While we thought we
were doing the right thing at the time for
the players, and for the overall savings for
the state, we found that our level of en-
gagement did decline. Even though it’s the
exact same video feed that the player would
see on television, the live draw seemed to
lose its authenticity or validity, at least for
PUBLIC GAMING
INTERVIEWS
Michael
D
e
C
heser
Broadcast and Media Director,
New Jersey Lottery
A Strategy to Attract New Player Groups while also Appealing
to the Traditional Players
PGRI Introduction:
Do we focus on fresh and innovative to attract new player
groups, or on continuity to appeal to the traditional player? In maximizing the pro-
motional impact of the live draw as a marketing event: Do we push forward with
live-streaming the draw online and integrating RNG Digital drawing machines into
the mix … or stick with the traditional televised draws and ball machines? Thank-
fully, we don’t have to choose. The New Jersey Lottery is doing all the above and
the results are in. It is the combination of televised draws, live-streamed online
draws, traditional ball machines, and RNG’s that integrate an animated visual
experience that maximizes reach and impact, attracts new player groups, and
preserves the appeal of Lottery for the traditional players.
Check out the New Jersey live-streamed draws online at:
http://livestream.com/newjerseylotto/livesome people, in the online world. There
seems to be something about the televised
draw that appeals to the traditional play-
ers. People have their lives arranged in a
pattern that includes the lifestyle habit of
watching the live-draw on TV at a specific
time. Players seem to feel that TV deliv-
ers a level of transparency and trust that
the internet does not quite replicate. For
whatever reason, television is the trusted
medium for many players, like a window
into the real Lottery. So we resumed our
evening televised draw event in 2012, and
added our mid-day televised broadcast in
July of 2015.
Now you do both—the mid-day and eve-
ning draws are both televised and streamed
online.
M. DeCheser:
Exactly. We married
the two. The impact is synergistic, result-
ing in a far higher level of viewership and
engagement than we would have with
only one broadcast medium. We decided
to get back on television and hold the
draws both online and on television. This
way we are delivering the optimal viewer
experience with TV, and bringing in new
player groups with the online draw.
The live-streamed online draws did