18 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2022 P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N Long before offering eInstant and eDraw games online, the Pennsylvania Lottery was building a robust digital presence. A player’s club that collected data, including player locations and demographics, rewards for frequent play and ticket entry into an online site, and free-to-play games associated with key licensed games – these were all part of the lottery’s entry into the digital realm. So even before iLottery, the PA lottery was able to collect valuable data and use it to market to its players. So, what better person to lead a panel titled “The Digital Mentality of the Data-Driven Future” than Pennsylvania Lottery Director Drew Svitko. Drew and his staff understand the power of data and how lotteries should use it. It has certainly worked for them, especially now that the lottery is fully immerse in the iLottery world. “Let’s be honest, data is driving all of our businesses,” he said. “And look at the huge growth of companies like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, companies which are so effective at harnessing and applying the power of data. Even though not all lotteries are selling online, most are collecting data. One big question is ‘how do we decide which data is the most important to make business decisions?’” Helping guide the discussion through this, and many other critical data-specific topics, was a panel of veteran lottery experts: Trevor Allison, Marketing Manager, INTRALOT Richard Bateson, Chief Commercial Officer, JUMBO Interactive Andrew Crowe, SVP Business Development, Sightline Payments Merv Huber, Senior Director, Digital Growth Marketing, Scientific Games Brian Rockey, Director, Nebraska Lottery Merv Huber works directly with the PA Lottery on its digital lottery programs. Merv said you can never have too much data. “It’s all about taking stock of your goals and finding which data points are going to best help you achieve your goals,” he said. “What’s important is that you have the tools to actually make those data points actionable and the right experts who know how to use the data and tools together to achieve those goals. For example, in Pennsylvania, we use predicative analytics to score players on their likelihood of taking certain actions. And we customize these analytics so we can send personalized messages to these players. What percent likely is a player to take a certain action based on their recent frequency of play and past winning experiences? We use the data collected from dozens of attributes and put them to good use in our CRM program.” For INTRALOT, Trevor Allison takes the mountain of data he is provided and sifts through it for what is most valuable to his efforts to optimize the player experience. “Every morning I wake up with a brand new set of data that’s relevant to our customers and what it is that they’re doing,” he said. “We’re constantly testing to determine which data is best. We then use this data to send emails and push notifications through our Sales Force marketing tools. This allows us to control what messages we should send, what promotional message will generate more opens, higher click rates, etc. AI and predicative analytics is transforming our ability to convert raw data into useful business intelligence.” Sightline Payments, which works with lotteries on cashless payment and mobile solutions, collects data based on player purchases. Andrew Crowe explains how Continued on page 56 EXECUT I VE SUMMARY OF ROUNDTABLE DI SCUSS ION AT PGRI LOTTERY EXPO NASHV I LLE DATA AND THE “DIGITAL MENTALITY” ARE RE-SHAPING LOTTERY’S FUTURE “If we can optimize UX and UI in the digital space, there’s no reason we can’t take that same information and transfer it to the traditional lottery space.”
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