Public Gaming Magazine July/August 2020

34 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2020 Paul Jason: How do we help the players navigate the increased number and variety of different games and channels and media interfaces? Fotis Konstantellos: In order to create and bundle the experience we need to have a narrative, a storytelling to help the customer put things into context and gure out how they want to respond. e narrative is always a variation on the fundamental story which is that Lottery o ers the chance for a life- changing event. Our aim is to nd new and exciting ways to inspire the imagination of the players with that fundamental story, that basic principle. And now, technology is enabling us to do so by adding personalization to the sto- rytelling. Each player is unique, with his own ambitions, aspirations, and ideas for where this life-changing event will lead him. at of- fers a canvas rich with potential to create new and exciting stories that appeal to each player individually. Using technology to personal- ize the whole player experience has become a primary goal for us. When we go onto Amazon.com, they know all about us. Knowing what we ordered, they know what we like, and they will tell us what we need before we even think about it. Ama- zon has trained the consumer to expect this highest level of personalized service. at is what we want to deliver through our games of chance. Understanding the habits of the consumer enables us to automate processes to enhance the player experience. e e ec- tive usage of data becomes the guidepost for the players’ preferences and behavioral pat- terns while providing us useful information on how we can create the best experience for each one of them. An even better example is music apps like Spotify. e consumer rst narrows down the selection of music to a speci c genre. en as the songs are played, you indicate which you like or dislike. Spotify collects data on what you like, and its ability to serve up most preferred music improves with each new entry of “like” or “dislike”. e app acquires an intimate knowledge of your taste in music, eventually knowing what you like even better than you may think of. Wouldn’t it be great if we could apply some of these AI principles to personalizing the service in lot- tery and gaming? at is what INTRALOT is focused on doing. As an industry, we want to be sensitive to the need to respect the privacy and con- fidentiality of consumer information. But isn’t it the case that the modern consumer understands the benefits of allowing mer- chants to use data to produce and deliver better products and services? The player of the future wants the operator to under- stand their play-styles and preferences because that enables the operator to create and deliver games and offers that appeal specifically to them. F. Konstantellos: I think perhaps that younger people are more familiar and comfortable with the bene ts of machine- learning, AI, and how the automation being applied by merchants like Amazon enhances the ability to o er the best product at the right time and price. ey are used to down- loading apps, trying them out, deleting them whenever they feel like it, registering onto websites and getting free stu in return, and just using a much wider variety of internet tools that require disclosure of personal information. So, they have gone through the thought process and have decided that the bene ts make it worthwhile to share personal information. ey comprehend that the merchant needs to understand the consumer behavior, as re ected in the record of pur- chases, games played, and online activities, in order to improve and personalize the o ers for each consumer. On the other hand, older consumers seem to be more concerned about privacy. ey are less aware of the bene ts of AI and machine- learning and perhaps feel that Amazon or a Lottery operator is spying on them or somehow misusing the information. Isn’t registration a requirement, a prerequi- site to achieve this level of personalization? F. Konstantellos: No, not at all. Registra- tion is a requirement to enable payments and nancial transactions. But personalized service just needs a generic, unique identi er like an app-ID or URL that allows anonym- ity for the player. For instance, when you go onto Amazon, their ability to recommend books or other products based on your past search activities exists completely apart from your name and other personal information. Of course, you probably have in fact regis- tered with them and other online merchants because they incentivize registration and registration is necessary to buy anything. But the answer to your speci c question is that the bene ts of AI and machine-learning to deliver personalized service can be applied without registration. at is an important concept in an industry where we know that some people prefer to remain anonymous. Of course, registration is not only about digi- tal payment processing. Registration unlocks the bene ts of a fully interactive relationship, enabling a more robust portfolio of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) services to be enjoyed by the player. So, we certainly do want to incentivize player reg- istration with di erent marketing o erings, such as promotions and loyalty programs. And convergence of the online and retail channels goes without saying, so that the players are interacting with the operators on a wide variety of levels. Player registration unlocks our ability to develop that universal relationship across channels that is so key now and for our future. It is also key to leveraging Lottery’s online player connection COLLABORATE TO DELIVER BEST-IN-CLASS PRODUCT TRANSFORMATION PGRI INTERVIEW Fotis Konstantellos, Senior VP, Digital Sales, INTRALOT