42 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 Re-imagining Online Games continued from page 22 Derek Levesque said that with his work at IGT, he can just look at the numbers to delineate the two paths. “There is a lot of data we can use to analyze and understand the player experience,” he said. “One of the major differences between eInstants and online play and the retail experience is that we have a dataset where we track the actions of the players and infer cause and effect relationships between what they see and how they respond. For example, we know the number of times a player is interacting with a particular game. So when a player is spending more on a particular game and continually returning to that game, we identify the positive player experience and use those learnings to provide a roadmap for future development.” Merv Huber agreed and said data can be used for a host of purposes. “Data gives our game studio more insight because it enables us to understand player behavior through a curated game experience,” he said. “The player can choose different game features, take advantage of things like auto play for a more passive game experience or choose variable price points. These types of features, enabled by data, place a higher level of influence and decision-making with the players, and we know the experience they are seeking.” Brad Cummings, CEO of EQL Games, thinks it’s important to develop new games that will work both online and at retail. “Lotteries need to develop game portfolios that provide engaging experiences for different players, whether they offer iLottery or not,” he said. “It’s not enough to take a Pick 3 game and just put it on a digital platform if it’s basically the same game that’s been played for years at retail. Technology allows us to offer new games which will attract a broader range of players with fresh content and interesting playing styles. That’s how we bring in younger and infrequent players. And we must capture this audience before we lose them to competing programs such as iGaming and sports betting.” Mike Lightman, who works for eInstant pioneer IWG, and who has also worked for some of the industry’s largest vendors, said that the move to digital allows us to take a fresh look at how we attract and retain players. “The fact that we know so much about a player – when they’re purchasing, where they are when they’re purchasing, who is purchasing – provides us with information that is so different from the retail environment and which can inform decisions across the lottery’s entire portfolio of offerings,” he said. “For so long, lottery has been a life-stage type of activity where a person eventually ages-in to playing. It is possible that we might never create games that will attract 20-year-olds but when that person becomes a 30- or 40-year-old, we need to have content and a user experience that will appeal to them. How they access the web site or mobile app, the range of game types offered – focusing on these points is how we attract players as they enter different life stages.” Mark then asked the panelists to comment on what changes need to be made to reach the next generation of lottery players. “How do we capture their attention and then get them to buy tickets? And then how do we keep them engaged so they become a regular player?” In Pennsylvania, Stephanie and Merv have been working on exactly those issues. “We’ve seen a few recent examples of how we can gain new players,” he said. “A large jackpot run for Powerball was a huge acquisition driver and led to a large volume of first-time depositors. But how do we get those people to play iLottery games? What we found is that licensed properties do a really good job here. Data showed that a large number of first-time depositors during a jackpot run played a licensed game as their first iLottery game. This data led us to move games like Willy Wonka and Monopoly to the top of the iLottery page. These data provide the roadmap to attracting new players.” “Just putting games online isn’t enough,” said Stephanie. “It’s everything you do – the player journey to purchase, making it frictionless and intuitive, providing superior customer service. Purchasing online is not as easy as retail, given that you must register and provide age and identity verification. And for iLottery, you have to keep things fresh. Frequent game launches, daily promotions, push notifications. It’s a consistent feeding of the players, a different experience than at retail.” Of course, retail is still the primary driver of revenue for all lotteries. Keeping that category fresh is critical to increased sales and player acquisition. And that is as true for draw games as it is for scratch tickets. For Brad and his team at EQL Games, improving the draw game experience is their only focus. “The lottery industry started with draw games and they are still an important component of the game portfolio,” he said. “We are creating games which can be offered by all lotteries, not just iLottery programs. They can be digital first or digital only, which will appeal to the players who only want to engage online or through mobile. Our focus is live sports games which, unlike a Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot, can work as ongoing engagement tools. Let’s go after our next generation of players where they are – engaging with sports content online and through their mobile devices. We can do that through digital draw games.” Mark agreed with Brad about the need to freshen up the category of online games, and perhaps differentiate them from their retail counterparts. “Should we offer online-only draw games, something that all lotteries can offer?” he said. “We talk a MERV HUBER BRAD CUMMINGS MIKE LIGHTMAN DEREK LEVESQUE
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