PGIJANFEBMAGAZINE2021a

45 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 the most disrupted years of our lives, and we can be proud of all we have done together. Your resume is interesting for its diversity – print and digital media strategist, head of marketing at one of the most successful lotteries in the world in Massachusetts, then director of the Mass Lottery, and now navigating a complicated political regulatory structure as you lead the DC Lottery. B. Bresnahan: I was a journalism major who had aspirations of becoming a sports reporter. It didn’t play out as I had hoped, and I went to work in a PR role for the state of Massachusetts. I started at the Mass. Lottery in 2005 and was fortunate to learn from some of the best and brightest people in the industry. Industry legend Jimmy O’Brien (who had left the Mass. Lottery to work for Scientific Games) would often preach to us “do not let an administrative problem get in the way of a great marketing plan.” It was there, and largely from Jimmy, where I learned that no matter what the challenges may be, there is always a way to make things work and was able to see how resourceful people can get things done in spite of obstacles. Whether it be an antiquated IT system, limited operating budgets, or inadequate advertis- ing funds, if you think innovatively and creatively there will always be a way to get it done. Our system was at end of life and when duct tape and fishing wire wouldn’t work to “MacGyver” terminals together, we had to search on eBay for parts that were obsolete, yet we still managed to generate $5 billion in sales. I count myself blessed to have learned these on-the-job lessons and apply them to the various roles I’ve served in throughout my career and certainly at the DC Lottery. The management model of the Mas- sachusetts Lottery is so different from the DC Lottery. Are there advantages to outsourcing much of the daily gaming operations and IT to commercial partners? B. Bresnahan: In Massachusetts, we owned and ran our own gaming system. It took some getting used to working with a vendor and not having the bulk of the gaming operations or staff on site. For many years, the DC Lottery staff largely viewed its role to be contract administra- tors. There was an impulse to turn respon- sibility over to our vendors, our commercial partners, to figure everything out and make it work. We do appreciate the support of our vendor and put no small amount of demands on them to produce creative solutions and execute on them. But we, the DC Lottery, are ultimately responsible for the outcome so we’ve taken a much more significant role in shaping our products and platforms for our specific market. I am so proud and appreciative of the entire DC Lottery team for being flexible, resilient, and resourceful in putting forth quality offerings. They all embraced the opportu- nity to step out of their comfort zones, to get involved in unfamiliar areas of the business and be a part of the solution in ways they were not necessarily accustomed to. Is there anything that you might comment that you would do differently or that surprised you about the sports betting implementation? B. Bresnahan: That is hard to say what we would have done differently because the circumstances we faced during implemen- tation and launch were so unique with the political and statutory structure, the geographic restrictions and then adding in a pandemic. We were standing up a licensing and compliance program for private operators while simultaneously working to structure the lottery-operated offering. Things were moving very quickly and there was a great deal of pressure to deliver, so I am certain that we have areas where we can improve on both the regula- tory and operations side. We continue to observe both programs in action and will work to refine regulations and recommend statutory changes, where appropriate, to ensure the District of Columbia’s sports books offer world-class entertainment options to bettors. Did the challenge of the pandemic accel- erate the implementation of sports betting and iLottery? B. Bresnahan: The pandemic created challenges in the launch of sports betting. We initially planned to launch the digital platform, GambetDC, in March 2020 and roll it out at retail in Fall 2020. As we were preparing for a pre-launch demonstration of GambetDC, the NCAA canceled March Madness and MLB announced its season was suspended. In the days that followed, more leagues suspended play and it caused us to press pause on the launch until there were more events to wager on. We went live on May 28, 2020. GambetDC at retail locations was moved to later in 2021 and we advanced the launch of iLottery, which was initially slated for 2021, to fill the gap. Has the easy access and increased variety of game categories caused the modern consumer to be more willing to migrate to new and different games – lottery players trying casinos and sports betting and vice versa? B. Bresnahan: There are so many viable entertainment options available, so the days when players stayed true to a gaming category and did not try new brands or experiment with new game types seem to be behind us. We saw, for instance, that during the pandemic instant scratch-off sales surged in states where casinos closed down. Some of that increase has dissipated with the casinos reopening, but lots of play across categories continues. Here in D.C., we have a limited number of residents (500,000 adults) and a reduced number of daily commuters, so we are using our players club, which up until May focused solely on promoting traditional lottery games, to as a way to introduce everyone to our new game categories and ways to play. We will also use our digital sales platforms, butwe are first focused on standing up our channels to make sure the operational components are solid and our digital connection with the player-base is established before we start aggressively cross-promoting. And more consumer- facing cross-promoting is in our future. Portfolio management will take on a whole new dimension as lottery operators diversify into new categories of gaming and offer new channels of distribution. The DC Lottery is not the biggest lottery in the country, but we are set on a very progressive path towards modernizing our portfolio of games and the way we make those games available to the consumer. As more and more states authorize their lotteries to transform operations to achieve their full potential, to manage games of chance in a responsible way that protects the players and serves society and maximize funds for good causes, and as we eventually emerge from this time of pandemic … I think these opportunities represent the beginning of a golden era for everyone – for players and lottery stakeholders alike. Q