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4 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 Publisher & Chief Executive Officer Paul Jason pjason@publicgaming.com President Susan Jason sjason@publicgaming.com Brand and Design Dan Eggers Design Lottery Industry Consultant Jim Acton Honored Founders Doris & Duane Burke Subscriptions United States: $145 USD Canada & Mexico: $160 USD All other countries: $225 USD For email address changes, subscription requests and requests to be placed on our e-Newsletter distribution list, e-mail Susan Jason at sjason@publicgaming.com Contact Information PGRI, Inc. 1769 Flagstone Terrace, The Villages, FL 32162 PublicGaming.com T: +425.449.3000 F: +206.374.2600 Public Gaming International Magazine Published six times a year and distributed to readers all around the world. Electronic version is e-mailed and is also available on our news website: PublicGaming.com September/October 2023 Volume 52, Issue 5 ©2023 all rights reserved. Public Gaming Research Institute cISSN: 1042-1912 28 The IT Architecture and Strategy to Future-Proof Your Business Jean-Luc Moner-Banet, Chief Executive Officer, Loterie Suisse Romande 40 Providing Value to Lotteries through a Best-of-Breed Growth Model Moti Malul, Chief Executive Officer, Neogames 42 Next Generation Technology and Strategies for a New Generation of iLottery Players Julian Tietz, Managing Director, ZEAL Instant Games 10 Lottery Industry Hall of Fame Recipients Keith Cash, Vice President and General Manager, Global Instant Tickets, IGT Konstantinos Farris, Group Chief Technology Officer, INTRALOT Andreas Kötter, Chief Executive Officer, Westdeutsche Lotterie (WestLotto), Germany, Chair of the Eurojackpot Cooperation Sarah M. Taylor, Executive Director, Hoosier Lottery (Indiana, USA) President, North American Association of State & Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) Arjan van’t Veer, Secretary General, European Lottery Association (EL) Jennifer Welshons, Chief Marketing Officer, Scientific Games 12 Major Peter J. O’Connell Lottery Industry Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients Michelle Carney, Vice President, Global Lottery Marketing, IGT Jeanna King, Vice President, Creative Engagement & Events, Scientific Games CONTENTS S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 2 3 F E A T U R E D I N T E R V I E W S F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E S 42 12 40 28 10
6 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 Visit Our Family Of Websites PublicGaming.com industry news & information PGRITalks.com videos of conference presentations PublicGaming.org PGRI conference information PGRIDigitalLibrary.com magazine archive of past issues PGRIDirectory.com listing of lotteries and vendors PGRIAwards.com Showcase of industry honorees recognized by the Lottery Industry Hall of Fame PGRI Lifetime Achievement Award Sharp Award for Good Causes Lottery Industry Statesman and Stateswoman Award Rebecca Paul Mentorship Award Collaboration Award Subscribe To Our Free Digital Newsletters Receive our daily newsletters at no charge, published 5 times a week to bring you the latest breaking news in the global lottery industry. Send an e-mail to: sjason@PublicGaming.com with “add to Daily Digest list” in the subject line. D E P A R T M E N T S F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E S C O N T . 14 Focus on Instants at Retail: Applying the most progressive strategies for driving Instants Sales at Land-Based Stores Following is an executive summary of a one-hour panel discussion held at the PGRI Lottery Expo Conference in Miami Mark Michalko, Executive Director, North Carolina Lottery Matt Isaac, Senior Director Lottery Marketing, Pollard Banknote Jeremy Kyzer, Vice President Sales, Scientific Games Ryan Mindell, Deputy Executive Director, Texas Lottery Tom Seaver, Director, Colorado Lottery 32 Taking the Scratch Experience to the Next Level Six U.S. Lotteries Launch New 3-D Holographic-Like Dimension Games Scientific Games 36 Reliability in a Changing Retail Landscape IGT 44 The Mobile App: Gateway to the Modern Lottery Experience IGT 49 Unique Jackpot Signs that take consumer awareness of Lottery to a whole new level Gregg Edgar, Sr. Lottery Consultant, Pro-Lite 50 Helping Lotteries Find the Next Big Thing Pollard Banknote 8 From the Publisher Paul Jason 22 Developing the Next Multi-State Game Boom MUSL NEWS (Multi-State Lottery Association) 24 Clarifying the difference between iLottery games and online slots/casino-style games Mark Hichar, shareholder of Greenberg Traurig, LLP, resident in its Boston office, and Ed Winkofsky shareholder of Greenberg Traurig, LLP resident in its Chicago office, and Chair of the firm’s Global Gaming Group 52 Photo Collage: Scenes from the European Lotteries Association (EL) 11th bi-annual conference and trade in Šibenik, Croatia 54 Photo Collage: Scenes from PGRI Lottery Industry Hall of Fame Held on June 6 at EL Congress in Šibenik, Croatia 58 The Un-Finnish Story: Where is the Government of Finland going with its new Regulatory Agenda? Philippe Vlaemminck, Partner, Vlaemminck.Law 22 32 36 49 22 24 58
8 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 From the Publisher We look forward to seeing everyone at PGRI Lottery Expo Nashville (Sept. 11-13) and then NASPL Milwaukee (Oct. 30 to Nov. 1). For one thing, we are celebrating Michelle Carney, IGT and Jeanna King, Scientific Games for their selection by Rebecca Paul, president of the World Lottery Association and the Tennessee Lottery, and her lottery director colleagues to receive the Major Peter J. O’Connell Lottery Industry Lifetime Achievement Award. That will be at 4:30 pm Sept 12 at PGRI Lottery Expo Nashville. Then there is the ceremony to induct Sarah Taylor (Hoosier Lottery), Jennifer Welshons (Scientific Games), and Keith Cash (IGT) into the Lottery Industry Hall of Fame at NASPL Milwaukee at 2:00 pm. Nov. 1. See their bio’s on pages 10 and 12. Congratulations to all! I am so pleased that everyone is so excited about our focus on Artificial Intelligence as the theme for PGRI Lottery Expo. Only kidding, as I have had a little pushback on the basis that AI is not in widespread use within the lottery industry right now and that its future applications are uncertain. It is hard to argue with the fact that the future applications may be uncertain right now, but I still respectfully hold fast to the conviction that the impacts of AI will indeed be transformational and that the time to get clarity on the nature of those impacts and the power of AI, and how it will in fact apply to lottery … is now. I so appreciate the leadership of Drew Svitko (Exec Director Pennsylvania Lottery and Chair of MUSL’s Powerball Group) for exploring the ways in which Intelligent Systems will transform the way business and commerce are conducted, the way goods and services are produced, the way value is added, the way the consumer behaves, the way we live our lives, and what this all means to Team Lottery. Drew’s panel discussion kicks off PGRI Lottery Expo on Sept. 12. Intelligent Systems, predictive and data analytics and much more are already being applied within the lottery industry, but even these are merely setting the stage for the explosion of a new technological era that is in its infancy. The articles in this issue focus not on AI but on the ways our industry is positioning itself for the changes that technological innovation is changing our world. The impact of technological innovation is an old story that has been told before. And the rejoinder of “yes, but this is different” has also been voiced many times before. The difference now is not just in the scale and impact (which will be decisively bigger than anything that has preceded it) but the speed at which it will happen. Some of you know that I am not a technologist. So who am I to presume to render predictions with such conviction. Frankly, a science degree is not a prerequisite for studying the current literature on these topics. And that is what we are trying to do, i.e. study the ways in which the transformational impact that Intelligent Systems will have on the world and then, more importantly, how Team Lottery can harness the power of AI/ Intelligent Systems to preserve its place in the hearts and minds of the hundreds of millions of consumers it serves. A big theme of the feature interviews (Jean-Luc Moner-Banet, Moti Malul, Julian Tietz) in this issue is the importance of IT platforms that support the flexibility to integrate new technologies and solutions going forward. The somewhat over-wrought missive that “the pace of change has never been this fast, yet will never be this slow again” is more apt today than it was when it first appeared five years ago. That is why it is more important than ever to always be running the most advanced technologies, integrating the most effective solutions, and constantly evolving to maximize the value we deliver to players and to lottery stakeholders. We can be sure our competition in the other game categories will be doing everything they can to entice lottery players to come over to their space, and that will include applying the most advanced tools to appeal to the next generation of consumers. A little aside: A recent survey conducted by the Consulting and Research behemoth McKinsey & Company, encompassing 1,684 participants found that 79% of respondents acknowledged having some level of exposure to generative AI (like ChatGPT), and that 22% of the participants indicated that they have already integrated generative AI into their regular workflow. Of course, Gen AI is just one of countless AI tools being created as we speak. Forging the pathway forward that serves the stakeholders of Lottery is a team effort. Thank you for your support, for coming to Lottery Expo Nashville and NASPL Milwaukee, and for sharing your thoughts and insights with me and our audience. Paul Jason, Publisher Public Gaming International Magazine
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10 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 Congratulations to the six newest members of the Lottery Industry Hall of Fame The 101 members of the PGRI Lottery Industry Hall of Fame have voted for and elected four industry leaders to be inducted into the Lottery Industry Hall of Fame for 2023. The Lottery Industry Hall of Fame was founded in 2005 as a means of honoring those who have done the most to promote excellence and integrity in our industry and make the world lottery industry the great success. The recipients of this award are all a credit to that ideal and are joining a select and distinguished group of world lottery industry professionals. Visit the “Awards” section of PublicGaming.com to read more about the Hall of Fame. Induction Ceremony The induction ceremony for Mr Farris, Mr Kötter, and Mr van ’t Veer was held at EL Congress in Šibenik, Croatia on Tuesday June 6. See photos in this issue! The ceremony for Mr Cash, Ms Taylor, and Ms Welshons, will be held at the NASPL conference in Milwaukee on Thursday November 2 at 8:30 am in Room 103 C+D+E, Street Level, Wisconsin center. We look forward to seeing you all there! Visit LotteryIndustryHallofFame.com for info about the Hall of Fame and its members Keith’s career in the Lottery industry started more than 30 years ago working nightshift on the manufacturing floor of Dittler Brothers (manufacturer of Instant Scratch-off tickets) and later moved to the same position at Scientific Games. From this entry level role in manufacturing, Keith consistently advanced through the ranks of Scientific Games. His career trajectory included positions in Production Control, Customer Service, Project Management, and Account Manager. After more than 22 years with Scientific Games, Keith accepted a role with IGT as the Vice President and General Manager of Global Instant Tickets. An accomplished leader with more than 25 years of public service experience, Sarah M. Taylor is the Executive Director of the Hoosier Lottery. Since 2013, Sarah has earned the appointment of two successive Indiana governors, leading the Hoosier Lottery through years of exponential growth for the benefit of many important causes throughout the Hoosier state. Her reputation among her colleagues has been marked by her active participation in several lottery industry organizations. Appointed on 1 March 2017, Dr Arjan van ‘t Veer MSc has served as the Secretary General of the European Lotteries and Toto Association (EL) for six years. He succeeded Bernadette Lobjois after her retirement. Arjan was a member of the EL Executive Committee from 2013 until his appointment as Secretary General. He chaired the Legal Working group and the Responsible Gaming/CSR Working Group. He represented the Nederlandse Staatsloterij (The Netherlands), where he was the director of Corporate Affairs responsible for legal & regulatory affairs, public affairs and sponsoring. Jennifer Welshons’ innovative marketing vision was evident 23 years ago when she joined Scientific Games. Today, she is the company’s Chief Marketing Officer and a member of the Executive Leadership Team. Jennifer has provided decades of committed leadership across the global lottery industry in the areas of analytics, research, products, services, channels, and game categories. Her leadership, focus and integrity are embedded in Scientific Games’ analytical culture – the ‘science’ inside Scientific Games. Her deep understanding of consumers, culled from thousands of research projects and sales analyses, has provided the industry with outstanding games and game portfolio performance. Konstantinos is an accomplished and creative C-Level executive with over 30 years in both billion-dollar companies and start-ups, with multifaceted experience and impressive contribution to business formation and scaling up technological and operational developments in the Gaming, Fintech and Blockchain industries. Konstantinos started at INTRALOT in 1997. He combines business and commercial acumen with in-depth knowledge of the Gaming and the Fintech industries and in business leadership and cuttingedge technology domains such as IoT, Blockchain, Cloud and Agile. Science & Informatics, Technical University of Patras, Greece. Andreas Kötter joined Germany´s largest lottery operator Westdeutsche Lotterie GmbH & Co. OHG (WestLotto) in 2013 as member of the Executive Board with a focus on sales, IT and strategy. In 2016 he was appointed as CEO. Since then, his key responsibilities within the management team have changed towards more market-related activities. This includes all divisions of sales and marketing including shop-based distribution and online / mobile sales, products, public affairs / responsible gaming and corporate strategy. KEITH CASH Vice President and General Manager, Global Instant Tickets, IGT SARAH M. TAYLOR Executive Director, Hoosier Lottery (Indiana, USA) President, North American Association of State & Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) ARJAN VAN’T VEER Secretary General, European Lottery Association (EL) JENNIFER WELSHONS Chief Marketing Officer, Scientific Games KONSTANTINOS FARRIS Group Chief Technology Officer, INTRALOT ANDREAS KÖTTER Chief Executive Officer, Westdeutsche Lotterie (WestLotto), Germany Chair of the Eurojackpot Cooperation PGRI LOTTERY INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME P G R I L O T T E R Y I N D U S T R Y H A L L O F F A M E See complete biographies in PGRI May/June issue and also online at LotteryIndustryHallofFame.com
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12 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 PGRI Announces Lottery Industry Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients Honoring the 2023 recipients for their distinguished careers and a Lifetime of Dedication which has Contributed to the Great Success of Government Lotteries Join us at 4:30 pm on Tuesday September 12 at PGRI Lottery Expo Nashville to celebrate the Lottery Industry Lifetime Achievement award ceremony honoring Ms. Carney and Ms. King. Honoring the 2023 recipients for their distinguished careers and a Lifetime of Dedication which has Contributed to the Great Success of Government Lotteries Created in 1993 to honor Major Peter J. O’Connell, the first director of the Rhode Island Lottery, the Lottery Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes industry leaders who have, over a long tenure of service, made important contributions to the success of their peers and to the lottery industry, as well as to the lotteries that they serve. The recipients are nominated and selected by current Lifetime Achievement Award holders and join an elite group of industry leaders. Major O’Connell was a pioneer in the lottery field and the evolution of instant ticket and on-line systems. After years of promoting the concept of a multi-state lottery, Major O’Connell served a two-year term as the first President of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), where in 1988 he was instrumental in launching Lotto*America, the predecessor of today’s Powerball. In 1993, the Public Gaming Research Institute honored Major O’Connell with the Major Peter O’Connell Lottery Career Achievement Award presented for “the principles of high integrity, commitment to the quality of the lottery, dedication to the lottery playing public, professional independence and service to the state, along with tenure in office, as exemplified by Major O’Connell.” After serving in the United States Marine Corps during WWII, Peter joined the Rhode Island State Police, where he served with distinction for 25 years. During his tenure he held several top-level positions as he rose to the rank of Major. As chairman of the New England Police Intelligence Unit, he designed and implemented the New England Police Management School for State Police, which became known nationally. Major O’Connell was inducted into the Rhode Island Criminal Justice Hall of Fame in 2014. In May of 1974, Major O’Connell was appointed by the governor to be the first Executive Director of the Rhode Island Lottery where he served until his retirement in 1993, making him the longest tenured Lottery Director in the Unites States at the time, and continues to be the longest serving tenure at one lottery. Major O’Connell passed away in 2021, just weeks shy of his 100th birthday. n MICHELLE CARNEY Vice President, Global Lottery Marketing, IGT Michelle Carney has dedicated much of her 23-year career at IGT to working collaboratively with lotteries, industry associations, and peers to help drive the lottery industry forward. For the past 15 years, she has engaged with state lotteries and their vendor partners to evolve the Powerball and Mega Millions multi-jurisdictional game portfolio in the U.S., and most recently was honored to be asked to lead the 2025 Mega Millions project-plan implementation. In 2007, she was immersed in developing the consumer questions and framework to inform a national approach to the evolution of multi-state games. Since then, Michelle has collaborated with the MUSL and Mega Millions working groups to implement six multijurisdictional game enhancements, including Cross-Sell, $2 Powerball and $2 Mega Millions — changes that have contributed substantial revenue for good causes. Another aspect of multi-jurisdiction game evolution was Michelle’s role leading the Cash 4 Life project implementation, originally launched in NY and NJ in 2014. From 2015 to 2017, as IGT’s Vice President of Strategic Customer Initiatives and Customer Advocate, she worked closely with CEOs and directors of all U.S. governmentsponsored lotteries to develop, manage, and execute national opportunities to grow their lottery business. What was most important to her when she first started in the industry was to earn the trust of customers: “I believe wholeheartedly in the mission of government-sponsored lotteries to benefit the good causes and people in the jurisdictions they serve. I wanted our lottery customers to know, and still do, that I am committed to listening to their needs and helping them responsibly grow sales to serve those beneficiaries.” JEANNA KING Vice President, Creative Engagement & Events, Scientific Games Jeanna King’s design career spans more than two decades at Scientific Games and a lifetime of dedication which has contributed to the great success of government lotteries. Today, she is the company’s Vice President of Creative Engagement and Events. Jeanna joined Scientific Games 22 years ago as a graphic designer. Since then, she’s become a leader of the company’s creative and marketing efforts supporting its global mission to help lotteries generate maximum funding for their good causes. Jeanna’s creative talents and design vision allowed her to spearhead high-visibility creative projects, including developing Scientific Games’ strong corporate brand identity and helping the company pioneer linked games and oncein-a-lifetime winners’ events. In her current role, Jeanna leads creative development and marketing campaigns with an internal team as well as external agencies that create engaging consumerlevel materials for the company’s lottery customers. She has provided branding expertise to more than 100 lottery marketing programs in the form of radio and television ad campaigns and point-of-sale materials, including many featuring popular licensed entertainment brands. Jeanna also leads Scientific Games’ visual presence and renowned hospitality at lottery industry conferences and trade shows around the world. Jeanna holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Visual Communications from Auburn University in Alabama. She is a die-hard Auburn Football fan and a longtime participant in the Disney Princess Run and Half Marathon. She has dedicated her free time to generating awareness and funding for Rett Syndrome. Jeanna lives with her husband and daughters, Caroline and Aeryn, in metro Atlanta. n Continued on page 20
Science Inside The *Based on weekly per capita U.S. sales MAP™, OrderCast™ ML, OrderSorter™, and SciTrak ULTRA® are trademarks of Scienti c Games, LLC. © 2023. All rights reserved. Scienti c Games Enhanced Partnership lotteries have 40% higher instant scratch game sales than non-SGEP lotteries.*
14 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 As a four-decade veteran of the international lottery industry, Mark Michalko understands the importance of teamwork. He has worked on both the vendor side (IGT and Intralot) and the lottery side, serving as the first director of the California Lottery and now director of the North Carolina Lottery. So he knows what it takes for a plan to come together, which is what he has seen with the current success of the instant ticket product. “I know for the North Carolina Lottery, as with most lotteries, reviewing the data is critical to making decisions on your portfolio,” he said. “Recently, we went back through our entire history of scratch tickets in North Carolina and looked at all the attributes of every product we’ve ever offered to determine a formula that tells us which type of game performs best when released at a certain time, with different game features, and in conjunction with other products. Our goal is to have a balanced portfolio of instant ticket products that are positioned for the best chance of success. It was a lot of work but instant tickets are so important to lottery, this type of analysis is critical.” Across the country, lotteries and ticket vendors are constantly looking at their instant ticket programs to determine the best formula for success. Mark’s panel took a deep dive into the strategies that lotteries are employing to strengthen their product offerings, provide customers with tickets they’ll purchase, and ensure that the incredible revenue stream created from these products continues. Joining Mark were instant ticket experts from the public and private sectors: Mark Michalko, Executive Director, North Carolina Lottery Matt Isaac, Senior Director Lottery Marketing, Pollard Banknote Jeremy Kyzer, Vice President Sales, Scientific Games Ryan Mindell, Deputy Executive Director, Texas Lottery Tom Seaver, Director, Colorado Lottery With almost no advertising budget, the Texas Lottery has relied on compelling scratch products to drive sales, particularly at the $50 and $100 price points. Ryan Mindell said careful planning has been one key to their success. “Planning more than a year out allows us to put different pieces in place and then make changes as necessary,” he said. “But ultimately, you want your portfolio to reflect player needs. We have players who now only buy $50 and $100 tickets, and that is driving much of our revenue growth. But many more people are buying $5s, $10s and $20s. There might be people only buying crossword games. So we need to have a diverse set of options and price points. The more varied your portfolio, the greater variety of play-styles you can appeal to and the greater the number of people you can attract to your products.” At Pollard, Matt Issac and his team uses data to study how different price points impact different player segments. “We need to position products so they have the greatest chance of success, not cannibalizing each other, reaching the right player groups,” he said. “Over the years, we’ve all looked at what the higher-performing per-cap lotteries have done and tried to emulate their best practices. Understanding the life cycle of games is also critical. You want to make sure you release a new game at the right time so it doesn’t step on a ticket that is still doing well. All these decisions are best made with detailed market data and player segmentation.” A veteran of both the vendor and lottery sides of the business,” Tom Seaver focuses on creating and executing market strategies that give his team the best chance of success. “A well-rounded marketing strategy will look at the strengths of each of your tools and apply them to the messages that are most important to communicate to players,” he said. “For example, I have seen great work in Scratch category advertising, and equally great work for Scratch product specific support. Is one approach better P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N Following is an executive summary of a one-hour panel discussion held at the PGRI Lottery Expo Conference in Miami Focus on Instants at Retail: Applying the most progressive strategies for driving Instants Sales at Land-Based Stores Continued on page 18
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18 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 than the other? It depends on a lot of factors – including the objective (product specific is probably better for acquisition, for example). We are all making these decisions as to what we think is best for our lotteries based on our individual market conditions. We are all looking at what is going to deliver the best returns for our beneficiaries and players, and executing on that plan.” Speaking as a lottery partner that supplies instant scratch games as well as digital game extensions and second-chance promotions to lotteries, Jeremy Kyzer said Scientific Games works with customers to rise above the noise and reach players with data-driven content. “There is so much noise in the market – sports betting, casinos, iGaming – that lotteries need to differentiate themselves from all this competition to get the players’ attention,” he said. “Portfolio management planning is more complicated than it was 5-10 years ago, given the range of pricepoints and other products. But working together, lotteries and their partners can drill down into the data to choose the right products to release at the right time. That is one key to success.” Mark moved to the many challenges facing lotteries and their products. A number of states have seen sales of instants flatten or even decline, not something that the industry has faced in its history, or at least the last 40 years. “We are no longer a standalone industry,” he said. “We are facing competition from other gaming sources. In North Carolina, sports betting has now been approved. How are these challenges impacting lottery? What about macroeconomic issues such as inflation? How are all these factors impacting our instant ticket portfolios?” While Texas doesn’t have as many different forms of gaming as some states, Ryan said he is under no illusion that the Texas Lottery is not impacted by competition. “Even without sports betting, I know that we are not insulated from competition,” he said. “Look at what happened to the lottery during COVID. With no theaters, cruise ships or casinos operating, everyone turned to lottery for their entertainment. The challenge for us is - now that everything is back, how do we keep talking to the players who have come to lottery during COVID, but now have more options than ever appealing to them to spend their money in other ways? We need to have a broad view of where lottery sits in the entertainment world and work to provide our players with attractive and engaging products.” Jeremy said some lotteries have found the key to keep those players engaged. “Higher price point games have worked wonders for a number of lotteries,” he said. “It was a product that was maybe missing from their portfolio and once offered, lotteries were able to convert people to becoming long-term players. Inflation, including gas prices, have impacted lottery sales. We’ve not seen correlations between inflation and instant game sales until 2022. Now there’s no denying that we’re getting impacted. It’s certainly something to watch.” Matt had a different take on the impact of competition on lotteries. “I think the amount of advertising that’s been spent on sports betting and other forms of gaming have helped us,” he said. “To me, the more we see advertising for different forms of gaming, the more people will consider it as an accepted form of entertainment. And lottery will get included in that discussion. It is something to watch as now some states are looking to curtail the amount of advertising sport betting companies can run. Given the limits many state lotteries have on their advertising budgets, more attention to gaming is probably a good thing, at least in the near term.” Tom pointed out an important downside to all the sports betting advertising. “At some points in the year, it’s hard to buy any time for lottery advertising,” he said. “If it’s an election year, we can almost forget about getting any lottery ads on TV. Traditional advertising is still important for us to create awareness so we definitely get squeezed at some point. It forces us to plan out many months in advance to lock in our buys. That’s quite a change for many lotteries.” Another seismic change with instant tickets is how they are purchased. “Retail is still king, but many states now offer iLottery and players can purchase and play eInstant tickets as well as other products,” said Mark. “In North Carolina, we’ve seen a dramatic growth in that area, in fact about 25 percent of our draw play is now online. There’s no argument that retail will remain important to our sales, but now that people are becoming more familiar with buying products online, how do we satisfy both purchasing avenues?” Matt said that lottery needs to maintain and grow some of the “old school” tactics that have made instant tickets so popular. “In-store promotions are critical,” he said. “The old rule of thumb is to place point of sale in a minimum of three places in their traffic pattern. With so many distractions at retail, in store promotion will help reinforce the purchase decision. They’ll see where the dispensers are located and they can have their minds made up by the time they reach the counter. If we’re not promoting in-store, retail sales will be hurt and we’ll especially not reach infrequent players.” Online sales are not in the discussions in Texas, so Ryan and his team keep a strong focus on retail. “Whether you can sell online or not, you can’t neglect the importance of a strong retailer network and clear, concise in-store promotions,” he said. “At the same time, you need to look at ways to simplify the purchasing process. We’re working on in-lane sales which we believe will attract the younger player who just wants to get in and out of the store. Couriers are also present in Texas. We know they are selling to a much younger audience than the average age of retail customers. So there are options for everyone. They just look a little different state by state.” Tom expressed frustration at the slow pace of iLottery expansion and said it has forced lotteries to be creative. “What is the fear about selling online?” he said. “The process of educating our legislators has been long and arduous but we need to keep doing it. In the meantime, couriers have shown that players want the online option, and it has been a good experience for Colorado. They are bringing younger players into the fold. It has helped us show that online and retail can successfully co-exist.” Additional sales initiatives, such as the courier model, will continue to be driven by vendors, Mark said. “While lotteries have smart internal groups working on the many issues we face, there’s a lot we can learn from “There is so much noise in the market – sports betting, casinos, iGaming – that lotteries need to differentiate themselves from all this competition to get the players’ attention.”
20 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 the vendors,” he said. “Portfolio management is so important and ticket printers have the data to help us with our planning. And they can provide us with information from lotteries across the world. How we work together, including management of our contracts, is critical to a healthy ongoing relationship.” As North Carolina’s primary instant game partner, Scientific Games is constantly looking for ways to responsibly drive sales and streamline the planning process, Jeremy said. “Portfolio management and optimization is a constantly evolving journey and lotteries should lean on their partners to guide them on that journey,” he said. “In North Carolina, for example, we set up games to have a conservative quantity at the start as we don’t want to over-produce a product and have it in-market longer than intended. We then work with Mark’s team to make sure there are no gaps, consider re-orders, and decide when to pull a ticket from the market. And the relationship between us and the lottery and our goals is outlined in our contract. We are aligned for growth. When the lottery does well, we do well. That seems to be the intelligent path for a successful partnership.” Matt continued on the contract discussion. “I think that lotteries that provide for secondary vendor contracts see great benefit because it allows innovation from a variety of sources,” he said. “At Pollard, we bring things to our clients, both primary and secondary, that have worked in other jurisdictions in the U.S. and around the world and show how they can be used in each lottery. We might have sales strategies that are different from the other printers but would work well in a certain jurisdiction. The more information a lottery can receive from different sources the better decisions that can be made that drive sales and revenue.” Ryan said that Texas has successfully employed the “all three” ticket vendor strategy and it has worked for them. “All three vendors come in and bring us all their best ideas, and we then pick which ones work for us irrespective of the vendor,” he said. “We weigh an array of different factors – licensed brands, printing innovations, product nuances, press availability. I’m not sure anyone can grow a category by leaving any ideas on the table which is why I like this model. We get the best ideas from the experts in the ticket printing field, and then we choose the ones that fit best with the needs of the Texas Lottery.” As someone who has worked for both vendors and lotteries, Tom brings a unique perspective to this type of discussion. “We’re a small industry so we can’t exclude anyone from business discussions because good ideas come from everywhere,” he said. “Look at the iLottery industry. They use different game developers to create different games with an array of play styles. Why can’t that model work for instant tickets? In the end, we need to listen to our players. We are wringing our hands because of the drop in sales of $1 and $2 tickets. Well, since our players are telling us they don’t necessarily support those price points, why continue to force the discussion on how to grow those sales? Let’s focus on providing players with the products they do want and support the retail network with the information they need to reach players and increase sales.” Mark wrapped up the discussion by harkening back to his opening comments. “Data, data and more data,” he said. “We can’t have enough data to make the decisions that are so critical to our businesses. And we can’t just look at the ‘easy’ data like pricepoints and game attributes. We need to look at seasonality and timing of releases. When to pull games and put others in their place. This can only be done by working with our printing partners who work with lotteries across the world. Once we have the data, we can make informed decisions and create balanced portfolios for the future. The success of our industry depends on all of us working together towards one common goal.” n “Let’s focus on providing players with the products they do want and support the retail network with the information they need to reach players and increase sales.” In her current role leading a team responsible for the development of IGT global marketing and communications strategies, Michelle also leads the management of IGT’s relationships with industry associations such as the World Lottery Association (WLA), the National Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) and European Lotteries (EL). Her contributions in this role have included helping to establish the framework for WLA partnerships between lotteries and vendors, and developing innovative concepts for retail and product execution through the North American and EL Design Partner Programs. She has served on numerous industry panels and committees, and collaborated with lotteries around the world on new game development efforts, new product introductions and market execution, as well as working with the late Buddy Roogow on industry monitor game and price-point innovation for U.S. draw games. “Michelle consistently brings her critical thinking ability and keen business acumen to industry executive-planning and decision-making sessions while masterfully delivering complex execution plans,” said Jay Gendron, IGT Chief Operating Officer Global Lottery. “She respects the diversity of competing perspectives and is tenacious about chasing the details to get the job done.” Before joining IGT (formerly GTECH) in 2000, Michelle began her career with Comcast Wachovia Center, working for the Philadelphia Flyers, and The Vanguard Group in Pennsylvania, followed by the Fleet Financial group. She was determined to succeed in what were then male-dominated business environments. Her early mentors taught her the importance of honesty, integrity, and perseverance, and she has always focused on understanding issues from the customer’s point of view as well as demonstrating sensitivity to the consumer journey. Michelle’s career in the lottery industry has truly grown from the ground up, starting with her earliest role as a senior market analyst at GTECH. By applying an entrepreneurial spirit of innovation and her commitment to building mutually beneficial, long-term business relationships, she contributed to the execution of the first in-lane solution in U.K., and, in 2005, the Florida Lottery’s terminal rollout retail-optimization plan and first digital signage implementation in the U.S.; led the development and execution team for Game Pro, a standalone system to test new monitor games, deployed in Rhode Island; the initial launch in Illinois of Pick n Play as a new category of instant online games; the execution of e-scratch in Kansas; and the launch of G3 (Generation 3) games, the precursor to today’s Fast Play games, in Minnesota. “Customer First is a core IGT belief that has always inspired me,” said Michelle, “and that is genuinely how I feel about what we do for lotteries and for the industry.” n Michelle Carney, continued from page 12
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22 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 The Board of Directors of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) convened in Des Moines, Iowa this past August to assess the organization’s Strategic Plan and current trajectory following a year of record jackpots and sales – with FY23 product sales facilitated by MUSL totaling $10.7 billion. The health and performance of the national draw games category was top of mind, as the summit coincided with a record $1.602 billion Mega Millions jackpot being won in Florida…not to mention the four other billion-dollar jackpots produced by the Powerball® and Mega Millions® games over the last year. For many Directors, the Des Moines summit was their first opportunity to weigh in on MUSL’s Strategic Plan since the organization began holding planning sessions in 2017, with follow-up sessions held in 2019 and 2021. The summit also gave Directors the chance to tour MUSL’s new headquarters, meet in-person with the central office’s 21 staff members, and visit the world-famous Iowa State Fair. “A lot of the success we’ve experienced this past year with Powerball and Lotto America, and how those products are managed, can be attributed to development initiatives identified in the first MUSL strategic planning session,” said J. Bret Toyne, MUSL Executive Director. “Six years later, it’s time to take stock, and make sure our organization and products are well positioned for the future.” Toyne has been tasked with synchronizing various committees, product groups, working groups and MUSL’s dedicated staff to carry out the Board’s objectives. The MUSL team consists of 21 full-time employees based in Des Moines and 6 part-time draw officials based in Tallahassee. MUSL staff provide the central infrastructure to facilitate multistate games including draw services and reporting, accounting, legal, security, software development, communications and marketing support. Member lotteries contribute to the annual budget of MUSL, but the non-profit has a strategic goal of being self-sustaining, with operating expenses being offset in years of positive net revenue, including this past year. To kick off the strategic planning session, Toyne MUSLNEWS MULTI -STATE LOTTERY ASSOCIATION MUSL Board of Directors at MUSL headquarters in Johnston, Iowa. Sarah M. Taylor (IN), Matt Strawn (IA), Drew Svitko (PA), Lance Gaebe (ND), Helene Keeley (DE) in front of the Agriculture Building at the Iowa State Fair STRATEGIC PLANNING WITH A SLICE OF STATE FAIR
asked the Directors to consider three overarching questions: How do we measure success at MUSL? What does the Association look like in 5 years? What are the Board’s top priorities or ideas to develop over the next five years? Prior to arriving in Des Moines, the Directors took part in anonymous surveys that were previously utilized during the 2017, 2019 and 2021 sessions. The recurring surveys allow MUSL to track its overall Board rating in key categories, including core values, governance and member satisfaction. A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) revealed additional insights from Board members on the changing landscape of the lottery industry, with the growth of iLottery, iGaming, and sports betting. “The strategic planning process has further underscored how vast and diverse our membership is,” said David Barden, MUSL Board President and New Mexico Lottery CEO. “Despite having 39 Board members from 39 unique lotteries, we’re all united by the common goal to see the products in our portfolios succeed.” To encourage greater participation and new voices, directors were divided into small groups for several quick-fire rounds of “yes/ no” to dozens of potential action items and initiatives. The on-the-spot feedback was effective and quickly solidified a group’s consensus or led to further debate within the small groups. Directors were also given the opportunity to identify what categories they would like MUSL to focus its development efforts on. “Having overseen MUSL’s virtual strategic planning sessions in 2021, I know just how much work it takes to gather and process this valuable feedback from Directors,” said Sarah M. Taylor, MUSL Development Committee Chair and Hoosier Lottery Executive Director. “This year, we had the opportunity to meet with our fellow Board members in-person, which allowed us to have both structured and casual conservations that often lead to those aha moments.” Over the coming weeks, Toyne and MUSL staff will integrate Director input into an updated Strategic Plan for Board PGRI Sept Ad V7.2.1_4PRINT_082523.ai 1 8/25/2023 5:40:19 PM Fiscal Year 2023 MUSL Board Officers President: David Barden (NM) Vice President: Drew Svitko (PA) Secretary: Mark Michalko (NC) Past President: Sarah Taylor (IN) Committee Chairs Audit: Matt Strawn (IA) Development: Sarah Taylor (IN) Finance: Rose Hudson (LA) Legal: Norm Lingle (SD) Marketing and Promotions: Rebecca Paul (TN) Security and Integrity: Stephen Durrell (KS) Product Groups Powerball Chair Drew Svitko (PA) Vice Chair Charlie McIntyre (NH) M2G2 Chair Gary Grief (TX) Vice Chair Mary Harville (KY) Continued on page 48
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