10 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025 continued on page 12 LEADING IN A PERIOD OF TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY AND DISRUPTION Andreas Kötter Chief Executive Officer, WestLotto, Germany Chairman of the Eurojackpot Cooperation President of the World Lottery Association (WLA) Paul Jason: In addition to being CEO of WestLotto and president of the WLA, you are also chair of the Eurojackpot Cooperation. That’s a lot for one person to have on his plate! Andreas Kötter: Thankfully, I am surrounded by incredibly talented and hardworking teams. Last year, before the election at the WLS in Paris took place, we set up a new unit for international cooperation. Eurojackpot has been managed by WestLotto since its launch twelve years ago. Looking at the demographics of the team and the profile we need the near future, we also started the transition last year. In the future, we will mitigate operational risks by involving more people involved and sharing tasks across member states. Personally, I have transferred my mandates within the national cooperation of the German Lotto and Toto Block (DLTB). So I´m ready for the challenges ahead. I would like to take a moment to thank Rebecca Paul for her six years of service to the WLA. Rebecca has had an outsized influence on this industry and her contributions to the WLA are greatly appreciated. Together with the Executive Director Luca Esposito, she has set up a professional and forward-looking team for the WLA over the last years. PGRI INTERVIEWS PGRI Introduction: Andreas Kötter’s responsibilities traverse a wide range of areas, influencing the evolution of many sectors of the industry. With so much ground to cover, we have separated our discussion into three sections. Thank you, Andreas, for sharing your vision! Eurojackpot was launched in 2012 and has since become Europe’s largest lottery cooperation in Europe. Starting with state-licensed lottery companies from seven countries, the Eurojackpot cooperation has now grown to 34 lotteries from nineteen countries, with the Greek company OPAP being the most recent to join the cooperation. Eurojackpot is managed by the Admin Unit at WestLotto with the support of an Executive Committee consisting of six CEOs from five Eurojackpot member countries. Andreas Kötter has chaired the cooperation since 2016, and was recently re-elected to continue in this role. Visit eurojackpot. com for more information about Eurojackpot. The World Lottery Association (WLA) elected Andreas Kötter as President at its General Assembly on October 24, during the World Lottery Summit in Paris. Andreas has been actively involved at WLA, including as a Member of WLA Executive Committee, since 2017. He has been Chair of the WLA Illegal Lotteries and Betting Committee, which is dedicated to reviewing the tools and resources available to help member lotteries maintain territorial integrity with stakeholders in every region, since 2018, and Senior Vice President of WLA since 2022. Visit world-lotteries.org for more information about the WLA. Consumer trends, marketing innovations and the proliferation of gambling options (including illegal gambling) is transforming the lottery industry. In addition to the above two roles, Andreas is also the CEO of the largest lottery operator in Germany. This shapes his perspective as someone who is responsible to stakeholders to deliver material results that generate funds for good causes, support societal goals and protect players.
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