Public Gaming International May/June 2020

71 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2020 products can help with social distancing measures by improving the interaction between cashiers and customers, allowing the safe handling of games through the integration with Abacus into the retail landscape. Together, Abacus and Scienti c Games will help the lotteries expand games portfolios and add new distribution channels. e strength of this partnership is the collective ability to leverage all lottery channels from brick and mortar retail to digital gaming, thus responding to how consumers want to play in our consumer driven culture. e partnership will draw upon innovation teams in both companies to develop, implement, operate and maintain new lottery technology to advance the industry. e existing lottery business model made up of dedicated retailer terminals and self- serve machines operating across various sales channels has been very successful for the industry over many decades. But it has had its draw backs with having no direct integration into the retail accounting processes and retail distribution that often does not reach consumers in places where they shop today. ere is a need to think about retail innovation di erently and how the consumer experience can be modernized through a complementary business model o ered jointly by Abacus and Scienti c Games. Terry Presta , Head of Business at Abacus, explains “Abacus ‘lottery everywhere’ is a unique solution that is centered around a direct integration with the retailers’ POS ecosystems, allowing lotteries and retailers to expand lotteries’ products and services across multiple point of distribution.” Presta adds, “ e direct connectivity to the retailers’ ecosystems will not only allow the lotteries to establish better relationships with retailers but to be able to address the challenges to broaden distribution and shifting shopping patterns. e Abacus and Scienti c Games partnership does demand some new thinking from the lotteries. Using the power of this collaboration, lotteries must accelerate integration into the retail distributed channels if they are to protect against future crises.” “The direct connectivity to the retailers’ ecosystems will not only allow the lotteries to establish better relationships with retailers but to be able to address the challenges to broaden distribution and shifting shopping patterns.”