Public Gaming International May/June 2020

4 9 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2020 TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS COMMENTARIES Mike Veverka, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jumbo Interactive In the 20 years since Jumbo sold its rst lottery ticket over the Internet, we’ve witnessed a lot of change – but nothing like these past few months! It’s quite remarkable to see Shopping Malls near deserted and roads empty. Australia has had only partial lockdown so I can only imagine what life must be like in the more densely populated regions of the world. For me, that change was highlighted early one morning late March just as the e ects of the pandemic were beginning to be felt in Australia. One of Jumbo’s customers had just won the $80 million Powerball and my job was to contact that customer, congratulate them and guide them through the process of collecting their money. Jumbo has had many winners over the years, so this was nothing new. However, the AGE of the customer caught me by surprise. He was 72! Being completely online, Jumbo’s customers are typically in their 20’s and 30’s. I was eager to learn about his experience buying tickets online and of course why he chose to buy online. We had a long conversation that ranged from the recent Australian bush res, the drought last year to of course the current home con nement (he said jokingly he’d been in home con nement since retiring 4 years ago!). He was also happy to suggest a long list of improvements that naturally went straight to our product development team. en as the world plunged into lockdown this phone call kept resonating with me. e “crash course in e-commerce” that we all were about to witness became very real and people that were not quite ready were moving online overnight. Continued at publicgaming.com Richard Bateson, Chief Commercial Officer & Head of North America, Jumbo Interactive No one could have predicted the start we have had to this decade, and no one can predict how we will look as we leave this decade and go into the thirties, the 2030s … One of the most commonly used superlatives for this year, so far, is “unprecedented”, and it is true we live in unprecedented times…We have commentators, colleagues, friends and family all predicting what our new normal will be and how we will all have to change in this new normal… …I don’t believe we can predict what the new normal will be, and whether there will actually be one. I do however believe that we are entering into a new abnormal, a time where we will all need to be adaptive and accepting of change. I am not predicting a dystopian world, or something out of a George Orwell novel, but I do think that many of the given rituals of yesterday, will no longer exist tomorrow – and consumers and business will have to, and are being forced to, adapt. One of three trends that e Economist is predicting for the new abnormal is a quicker adoption of new technologies. e Economist writes “the planet is having a crash course in e-commerce, digital payments and remote working”. I have seen this “technology adoption” only too well with my 74-year-old Mom, who couldn’t work-out how to close an app on her iPhone yesteryear, but today is hosting council meetings via Zoom and chairing family meetings via her favourite app – HouseParty! e much-trusted technology adoption curve has been turned on its head with laggards now becoming early adopters. Less anecdotally, the US Census Bureau reported a record plunge in retail of 16% in April (versus previous year) and a 21.6% increase in online retailing for the same period. is shift is being witnessed across our industry too. ose lotteries that have an iLottery channel have seen record sales, and where lockdowns and restrictions have been at their greatest, we have seen unprecedented shift in play. I know from my home market, the UK, this has been the case, and there are many examples here in the US with PA and MI to name a few. erefore, in this new abnormal we need to make our games more convenient and more accessible – we must adapt. I don’t believe our games are obsolete and I still very much believe in “the chance to dream” of playing the lottery is relevant… but the way we serve our players must change if we are to survive in the new abnormal. Our regular players have witnessed and been forced to change their rituals, and we must join them in doing so. is may all feel a little unnecessary today as many lotteries have seen a record in Scratch-o sales in April and May, but how sustainable is this? Many economists are predicting a deep recession following COV-19, with some stating that economies could contract by as much as 50% (the worst quarterly contraction in the last recession was a mere 15%). I don’t believe that our industry is counter cyclical, as whilst it can be argued that we become more relevant to consumers in down turns, we lose volume from our regular and core players. With Asia seeing the next wave of the novel coronavirus further impacting their easing of restrictions, it is forecast that similar disruption will come to the US and Europe. In these uncertain times we need to plan for the future and we need to look at how we protect our businesses. iLottery has proven to be a good safeguard in many states and jurisdictions. One theme that is clear during this crisis is that consumers and businesses are turning to trusted institutions. With uncertain economic and nancial times ahead, businesses that can innovate and turn their experience (and nancial clout) into adapting and supporting other businesses will survive. It is not a time to be complacent in thinking traditional vendors will have the answer, but it is also not a time to entrust our future to novices. Continued at publicgaming.com