41 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2023 On product and portfolio optimization, we have a team that analyzes that performance data to optimize game design, game mix, and game distribution. Right now, for instance, we are bringing IGT’s draw game Cash Pop™ across North America. And then data analysts who help identify near and medium-term opportunities and support the industry as it also drives for innovation. For example, multistate game enhancements that involve collaborative support from IGT to successfully execute a game change. Retail sales innovation and execution is really a diverse team comprised of former retail industry veterans like myself and several others who are steeped in retail as well as lottery sales. is group is responsible for providing the state lottery operator’s inside and outside sales teams with the tools, expertise, and systems to optimize sales. Our pipeline ows to all levels of the organization that bene t from our e orts and initiatives. Like the Hoosier Lottery, most U.S. lotteries are still prevented from selling online, and yet mobile app developments are an important part of your consumer engagement strategy. M. Pursley: e Hoosier Lottery was one of the early jurisdictions to build a “convenience” app. We call it a convenience app as opposed to a selling app, but that doesn’t make it less powerful. e Lottery quickly saw the value in turning an anonymous consumer into a player who interacts with the Lottery. It enables the two-way communication that bene ts players and helps us understand how to deliver more and better value to them. It fuels the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform that is so vital for all market-driven/customer- rst companies. e mobile app also feeds our data management platform, which informs the media choices we make to connect with players, and enables our media spending to be more strategic, more tactical, and allocated to where it is maximizing impact. It all adds up to a very positive value. Because it sharpens the focus of your media spend? M. Pursley: And enhances our ability to measure the impact. I’ll use the digital space as an example. Let’s say agreement is reached in media planning to spend 35% of the media budget on digital channels. Fifteen years ago, we would have bought websites that had the most tra c of a speci c demographic. Now, we can connect more directly with players and non-players based on more speci c goals and based on their behaviors – not on what website they go to, but why they go there, what they are looking for, and where they might be going next. We are buying an attitude, a behavioral pro le, and a segment of players as opposed to a group of websites. IGT has been an industry leader in formalizing DEI initiatives and has recently been recognized with high-ranking DEI scores. What’s the business-related ROI associated with a focus on superior DEI performance? M. Pursley: We think of diversity as an integral component to business sustainability. It’s vital for the workplace to nurture the diversity of viewpoints that are the basis for true understanding and ultimately for the breakthrough insights that drive business innovation. And it is vital for the demographic composition of the work environment to re ect the diversity of our customer base for us to e ectively empathize with the experience of customers and players, and to develop breakthrough products and build the brand narrative that connects with a range of audiences around the world. at is why IGT has made it a top priority to lead in this space. e Lottery and Gaming industry is ready for change. I’m really proud to work for an organization that has a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index, which measures the quality of the workplace for LGBTQ+ equality. It’s important to me, and even more important to the next generation of leaders, to know they work for an organization that supports their values and celebrates everyone’s ability to bring their authentic self to work. I’m also happy to serve as the executive sponsor of Pride with IGT. We have built countless local chapters of our Diversity and Inclusion Groups throughout the organization. I also sit on IGT’s global Executive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council which sets, measures, and guides us toward very clear internal goals that I’m proud to say we continue to meet. And we push ourselves even further on those goals. We are also a top-ranking gaming supplier as measured by the progress of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in the Betting and Gaming sectors, and that’s through the All-In Diversity Project. I can’t tell you how proud I am to be a part of an organization that shares my values and has the vision to prioritize DEI as key to a healthy, sustainable, business-growth strategy. n A Contemporary Perspective on Driving Lottery Growth continued from page 19
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