32 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2024 New Jersey, and are looking forward to seeing it on the national level. With regard to the multistate games, including Cash 4 Life and Lucky for Life, what strikes me is the importance of having a plan and continuing to introduce new games and enhancements, work that IGT has been involved in. Going back to about 2010, almost every year there’s been a multistate innovation of one kind or another. The industry has benefitted in recent years from great jackpots and momentum, but we can’t rely on that, and it’s great to see that there’s renewed discussion and innovation. We encourage more discussion and collaboration to enable innovations to be planned over several years in advance, so lotteries can know and integrate with other game and/or portfolio changes. We are supportive of the discussions around merging the two games Lucky for Life and Cash 4 Life into one larger national product with increased brand awareness and a $1 million per year for life top prize to advertise. This opportunity could lead the way to additional states launching the successful Doubler add-on to the new combined game, which has proven to be a solid performer in the New Jersey market on Cash 4 Life. There is also a current opportunity for more lotteries to add Double Play as an add-on option to Powerball. Currently, 22 jurisdictions offer the Double Play option on Powerball, with an average play-through of 15.3%. We look forward to more discussions with both groups to move that initiative forward. And, as lotteries are looking to plan the Mega Millions change, they’re also looking at other portfolio changes that are jurisdiction specific. What are their other windows? IGT’s Cash Pop draw-based game, which has been a breakout success, fits into this category. Cash Pop continues to have successful roll-outs, with the most recent being in Washington state in October 2023. The next IGT customer launch is scheduled for Michigan in April 2024, and we are very excited about the licensing of Cash Pop to the Maryland lottery with a launch planned for May 2024. With the multistate game changes not slated until 2025, we’re happy to work with customers and non-customers to help facilitate 2024 launches. How else is IGT demonstrating its commitment to customers through technology innovation? Jay Gendron: In the past year or so, we’ve introduced the industry to OMNIA™, IGT’s holistic, endto-end omnichannel solution. It comprises all the products and solutions a lottery needs to operate in an omnichannel, player-centric way, and is not only comprehensive but highly configurable to suit individual lottery and player needs as they evolve. And, for lotteries that are not regulated to sell online, the Connected Play functionality within OMNIA modernizes the retail environment with convenient, digitalized player journeys, bringing the in-store experience in step with contemporary consumer expectations and paving the way for the time when a lottery can offer online sales. Omnichannel games and play is a hot topic – lotteries who can do so want to offer the same games to players via any device or channel. We’re supplying lotteries with the opportunity to offer the fun of players’ favorite games in store and via digital channels with a variety of omnichannel games – and IGT was recognized in February this year with the IGA Lottery Product of the Year Award for our omnichannel game portfolio. Customers are embracing these new possibilities and technologies. I mentioned Poland earlier as the first in Europe to deploy iLottery in the cloud. We’ve also supported Totalizator Sportowy in launching the first Fast Play games in Europe and have been working with them on another groundbreaking omnichannel deployment that we presented at the EL/ WLA marketing seminar. Beyond this, we recognized several years ago that the system for producing instants was ripe for reimagining and introduced two instants category-changing innovations: Infinity Instants™ games and IGT’s patented, blockchain-enabled NextGen Security process — a new and superior game-programming platform and security process that can and is being used for any instant game, not just Infinity games. Now, with the combined capabilities of our NextGen game-programming platform and Infinity Instants digital printing platform, we can provide players with new, highly engaging play mechanics that can’t be replicated with traditional printing technologies. With these new capabilities, we’re starting to introduce into the market all-new game mechanics, such as Linked Wins for Infinity Instants. Another recent, successful launch demonstrating how these combined technologies give us new means to innovate is the 12-scene game, Ghostbusters™ with Infinity Instants, developed by IGT specifically for the Michigan Lottery. And, as discussed, the coming year will see further expansion of our Cash Pop drawbased game and more new product and game launches to keep driving the lottery category forward. The result of IGT’s investments over recent years is that we have been able to add value for lottery customers and players with entirely new propositions. We’re proud of these advances and excited to bring to market new innovations that make more possible for customers, players, and the industry. n
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