PGIJANFEBMAGAZINE2021a

Advancing Lottery with Retail Modernization The year 2020 may have brought us the term “new normal,” but changes have been incubating for years when it comes to selling lottery at retail. Consolidation in the c-store industry has continued after a brief pause last year. Several major chains have announced mergers and acquisitions in the past fewmonths, and themost significant is 7-Eleven’s purchase of Speedway. In August 2020, 7-Eleven announced that it will buy 3,900 Speedway stores in 35 states from Marathon Petroleum Corp. for $21 billion. The purchase is “the biggest acquisition in the history of the U.S. c-store industry in terms of size and price tag for a purchase that doesn’t also include a refinery,” according to CSP Daily News . At the same time, c-stores keepmodernizing their operations, product offerings and how they engage with customers. Research published by Bluecore in 2020 revealed that up to 39% of c-store brands in the U.S. and Europe are prioritizing how to improve customer experiences and deliver more value. The major changes taking place among c-store chains are sending waves throughout the industry, including lottery. In the U.S., c-stores account for approximately 63% of all lottery sales, and in some states the figure is as high as 93%, according to data from La Fleur’s . Adapting to Change As c-store chains consolidate and streamline their operations, retailers are continually forced to reevaluate how they position their products in stores and create easier checkout processes. All of these changes add pressure on product suppliers to conform to chain store strategy, including store design. That means in order to keep up with the altered retail landscape, the lottery industry needs to find new ways to adapt. “These stores are looking for fast and frictionless product delivery. Lotteries must be prepared for these inevitable changes with modern solutions,” says Jeff Martineck, VP Global Instant Product Innovation & Development for Scientific Games. “It's all about consumer convenience, data-derived products and intelligent channel execution.” Scientific Games developed its SCiQ® intelligent retail ecosystem to help lotteries and retailers modernize merchandising, selling, accounting and securing instant products. The company serves 150 lotteries and retailers in more than 50 countries around the world and is the leading innovator of lottery retail technology in the industry. Putting Data in Motion In contrast to most other products at retail, the lottery industry sells billions of products every year without unit-level tracking. Lotteries and retailers until now have received minimal data about player purchases, as well. “If we were going to design the first automobile today, we wouldn't design it fueled by gasoline. In 2021, the obvious choice would be electricity. The only reason that's not the case is because it’s always been done a certain way,” says Joe Fulton, Director of Product Management for Scientific Games. “If we were going to just now start selling instant games, of course we'd have unit-level tracking, and SCiQ is the only thing that offers this to the industry.” A key to retail modernization is using data to make smarter product decisions. SCiQ delivers unique insights into the lottery market basket, such as who is buying games, what other games were bought, how many games were sold in a purchase, or if a game was bought with similar games at other price points. Having this kind of data enables retailers to manage the lottery product more effectively. Lotteries can fine-tune their product portfolios to maximize sales and make sure the right games go to the right stores at the right time. In addition, using SCiQ in combination with a loyalty app can Jeff Martineck Scientific Games Joe Fulton Scientific Games