30 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 Continued on page 41 In Texas, Gary Grief and Ryan Mindell have overseen an incredible period of growth for the lottery over the past few years. With highly restricted online options, they have focused on their instant ticket product, launching successful families of games, offering attractive second chance promotions, adding technology that aided retailers, pushing ticket denominations as high as $100 (in fact, during the pandemic, tickets of $20 or more accounted for 82% of Texas’ sales growth). In short, they have used every weapon in their arsenal to help grow both top- and bottom-line revenue for one of the country’s largest lotteries. Ryan Mindell, Deputy Executive Director, Texas Lottery, was the perfect person to lead a panel focused on taking immediate action to maximize short-term results. For this discussion, he was joined by: Gary Grief, Executive Director, Texas Lottery James Carey, Executive Director, New Jersey Lottery Maxwell Goldstein, Vice President SalesAmericas, Carmanah Signs Sarah Taylor, Executive Director, Hoosier Lottery Brad Thompson, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Pollard Banknote Ryan said that in Texas, he and Gary balanced activities that could immediately impact revenues (such as increasing scratch ticket denominations) with those that take a bit longer to implement or come with a longer ROI timeline. “The decisions to increase price points on scratch tickets was easy because we can create a plan that has a predictable and immediate impact on revenue,” he said. “There are other investments in retail that can take longer and require work from different internal groups, such as selling in-lane. These activities may be key to long-term sustainable growth but typically involve a more methodical process that takes longer to implement and generate concrete results. For the purposes of this panel discussion, we will be looking at ways to generate material short-term results, ways to move the needle this month and this quarter.” Brad Thompson focused on the price points of scratch tickets, which has received increased attention from many lotteries during the past few years. “Lotteries have added more price points. Even smaller lotteries, which didn’t think they could successfully offer $20 or $30 tickets in their portfolios, have seen a positive response from consumers,” he said. “Lotteries are taking advantage of what happened during COVID when lottery was the only gaming option for many months. We saw players migrate to the lottery, particularly casino customers in search of other options and when they started playing lottery, they realized it’s a good option. We’ve been able to keep many of those players by continuing to offer high-prize games. For lotteries like Texas which have already taken the path towards high price-points, the key is to continue launching enticing tickets with engaging promotions. For other lotteries which are just starting their journey up the price-point route, they should move in a progressive manner and not flood the market too quickly. And with all lotteries, the tickets need to be supported with appropriate marketing campaigns, both at retail and online. All these moves together can lead to sustained revenue growth, as well as producing short-term sales increases.” At the Hoosier Lottery, Sarah Taylor said she presses her team to implement games and programs which will appeal to players and maximize revenue. The Hoosier Lottery has an Integrated Services Agreement with IGT Indiana, allowing the vendor to handle the day-to-day functions related to sales, marketing and product development – as well as distribution of product. “We spend a lot of time working on our retail plans – Which tickets will be on sale during which months? What are the price points? Are there draw games that need to be added?” she said. “For us, there are things that we can do which, while incremental, can have a strong cumulative impact on our revenue. It might be adding four scratch ticket towers at as many retailers as possible or strategically launching Fast Play games. It is also important to focus on your key accounts and how you are supporting their efforts. Can you ask them to add a vending machine at their locations? Is lottery located in a good location within the state? Is there anything we can do to incentivize them to pay more attention to lottery and increase sales? When combined, all of these tactics – from scratch ticket price points to focus on retail –can make a big difference in a relatively short time period. The measurement, of course, is in the bottom line.” Like Sarah, Jim Carey works with a private operator in New Jersey (a joint venture between IGT and Scientific Games known as Northstar; Hoosier Lottery works with MOVING THE NEEDLE NOW: Maximizing short-term results P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N E X E CU T I V E SUMMARY O F A ONE - HOUR PANE L D I SCUS S I ON PGR I L OT T E RY E XPO CON F E R ENC E I N NEW YORK C I T Y Ryan Mindell
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