Public Gaming International Gaming July/August 2021

21 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2021 more impressions, clicks, likes and other responses,” she said, “but ultimately the ROI is judged by the deposit amount. How much money was brought in from a campaign minus the investment cost. But we can still dig deeper into the ROI per campaign to look at things like average deposit per user. If the goal is to bring in more women, we want to measure against that goal, i.e. did we bring in more women? Is the goal to bring in more men of a certain age? Did that happen? We’ve been working closely with NeoPollard on the ROI of our bonusing en- gagement so that we can further identify our goals and make sure we can achieve them. While we are ultimately judged on the revenue we bring in, there is so much more that goes into a successful program that will ultimately result in increased playership and revenue.” In Oklahoma, Jay has found that en- gagement and participation are always followed by increased sales. That simple observation leads to a “build it and they will come” approach. “Our ROI for digital is based more on participation and getting people on board,” he said. “Are we engaging more people and increasing our numbers so that our participation levels go up? I’d love to see the tools to measure performance and clarify impacts with more precision. Many of us have had an explosion of sales but how do we keep that going in the future? We won’t have 30 and 40 percent increases in the future but smaller, ongoing increases are fine. We know that our core players have been engaged but do we know if our light or lapsed players have come back? Are our digital programs translating into increasing our player base? I want to figure out how we get the 21-year-old and that’s where this evolution to digital is the key.” Texas is doing all it can to build a digital ecosystem that will attract players even without online play. So far so good, says Ryan. “The trend-lines are straight up for us,” he said. “I think this is common across the industry but it’s good to see a growth environment right now. And we certainly had room to grow in the digital areas. Our participation numbers are at rates I haven’t seen before and we have a lot of momentum. We added digital coupons to our app and our app usage is now significantly up year over year. Our player-base now expects a robust digital offering so we are locked in to providing it for them.” One question that lotteries face is identify- ing their target audiences. Gregg said, “When you look at a lottery’s digital strategy, are you trying to convert existing lottery players, core players, into a digital category? Are you trying to find digital game players, folks who congregate or operate in the digital space, and bring them into the lottery world? We had a fear that our older demographic would get lost but my mother is in her 70s and she’s playing Candy Crush all the time. She’s in that space. So how do we definite our digital targets? For Amy, there is no question that people are already deep into the digital world and lotteries need to keep pace. “There’s a lot of competition out there for consumers’ attention, discretionary spend and brand loyalty,” she said. “The average American belongs to 14 loyalty clubs. The digital world has exploded. If a player gives you their dollar in today’s environment, they expect something extra because all sorts of other entertainment options are also vying for that same dollar. If we can streamline the process by making players comfortable with using a digital wallet, we can compete with casinos and other gaming entities—and we can responsibly grow lotteries’ player base. So a big focus for me is looking at the digital competition and figuring out how we can excite people to engage with lottery.” An offshoot of that thinking, according to Sina, is upping the fun of lottery. That is one of the goals of Pollard and NeoPollard. “We have a great opportunity to amplify the fun and entertainment value of the lottery brand,” she said. “That’s how we see the future of the platforms and programs offered by lotteries. Even if a lottery can’t sell online, most can offer free games through their digital platforms. To me, that’s a gateway to the digital world because it puts the product in front of the player, teaches them about the lottery and its products, and lets them have a little fun. At Pollard, we call these Express Games, and they have high engagement and really capture the players’ attention. There are many tactics to attract players, keep them engaged and keep them coming back.” Gregg wrapped the panel discus- sion by returning to a point that is important to all lotteries – how to maintain a balance between the expansion into the digital world and boosting their retailer community. For lotteries like Arizona and Texas that don’t sell tickets on online, this is a critical balance and one that has a great impact on revenue. “One question is, ‘are we talking with new players or are we talking with established players?’” said Ryan. “Because a new player can be attracted with the types of digital offerings they see in other areas of commerce. We’re creating an environment that’s going to be more welcoming to those new players. And when these players are at retail, we have QR codes in our app that provide coupons for retail sales. So they come to us through our digital offerings and then they can use digital to inform their at-retail buying decisions. And these programs are also good for our core players because they are also receiving offers they can use at retail. In the end, we have a wealth of data that will again drive our decisions for all players.” Jay said that in Oklahoma, they continue to roll out initiatives that operate within their mandated restrictions but provide options for their players. “While we don’t offer iLottery, there’s much we provide to R O U N D TA B L E D I S C U S S I O N “ Data is the crown jewel of our platforms,” she said, “because it really informs absolutely everything we do. Continued on page 41