Public Gaming Magazine Sept/Oct 2021

57 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 Pennsylvania and others. And lots of lotteries are investing in the build-out of their own digital platforms and applying emerging new best-practices to connect with their players. Their vision will serve them well when they are authorized to launch iLottery. It is important to note that the investment in digital engagement is also serving them well right now and regardless of when or even whether they ever sell lottery tickets online. Could you talk a little bit about how Pollard Banknote and NeoPollard Interactive (NPi) work together to coordinate and apply your respective core competencies to such great overall effect for your clients? J. Westbury: We have worked hard from the beginning, when we first launched the Michigan iLottery program in 2014, to build a synergistic collaboration that truly optimizes the value we deliver to our clients. It is a good question because the iLottery piece does not operate in a silo separate from the retail side of the business. Coordinating game launches, messaging, brand-building initiatives, and promotions is a never-ending and enterprise-wide activity. NPi is very focused on iLottery. The Pollard Banknote team is tasked not only with the retail side of the business, but with ensuring an integrated and holistic approach towards optimizing the player experience across all channels. Loyalty programs that we’re building, game apps and digital couponing that we’re developing, and other areas that reside in what we call “The Space Between™” full-on retail and full-on iLottery are a team effort with NPi that is led by the Pollard Banknote side of the equation. An example is in North Carolina where they don’t yet have the authority to offer e- Instants. We have put in a digital platform with a loyalty program that is prepped and ready to go for the moment that they launch e-Instants. We’re driving registra- tions, engagement and sales right now but also positioning the Lottery for a fast and effective launch that can include eInstants as well as draw games. Of course, it is quite interesting work for all of us who are chal- lenged to clarify our own perspectives on everything while learning to appreciate other perspectives so we can effectively merge and integrate these into the optimal game-plan. Having just joined us from the Michigan Lottery, where she was deputy director of digital operations, Shannon DeHaven brings the full 360-degree view on how to drive sales at both retail and online. You have broadened and diversified the in-house capabilities of Pollard Banknote with many acquisitions over the past few years. J. Westbury: Specializing in a particular skill-set or area of the business has traditionally been the best way to achieve best-in-class status. Modeling a complex problem can be expedient, but the real world is not compartmentalized in that way. The consumer does not perceive it that way and now the marketplace, both retail and online, is evolving such that we really need to focus on how to bring everything together, to help our retailers understand the ways in which the in-store POS, signage, messaging, electronic games and more can be integrated with digital capabilities and the online market-place and how to meet new expectations for security and geo-fencing and such. Pollard Banknote is positioning to provide both best-in-class and the 360-degree view on how to integrate the new world of digital capabilities with the mission-critical retail connection to the players. We’ll do that through acquisitions, and we’ll do that through partnerships like we have with NPi, whichever way delivers the best results for our clients. We’ve assembled an amazing team of professionals who have deep experience in this way of thinking and approaching the incredible opportunities in front of us as an industry. We’re fortunate that throughout these times we’ve been able to continue to invest in innovation across the business to help lotteries chart their own paths forward. Convenience stores and iLottery stayed open during the pandemic while casinos were shut down for portions of the last 18 months. It appears that one result of that is some casino players migrated their spend over to lottery. What can we do to retain the player-ship of consumers who may have played lottery more during the pandemic? J. Westbury: Surveys indicate that over 90% of casino players who played the lottery say they will continue to play; and half of those respondents are under 35. Of course, it is up to us to figure out how to optimize the playing experience to continue to hold their attention and player-ship. But these new player groups represent an incredible opportunity for us to grow our player-base. We have learned some things about the play-styles of these new consumer groups. For instance, common wisdom has always been that new players start with lower priced tickets, the $1 and $2 tickets. New players, particularly casino players, tend to enter the game at the $5 and $10 price point. If they can get a more robust experience, maybe a higher or innovative prize payout structure and a bigger, more entertaining ticket to play like a progressive jackpot or a casino-themed ticket – they are more willing to play a higher-priced game. Key to the planning for the post-pandemic world is to try to hold onto the players that increased their lottery spend during the pandemic. J. Westbury: I don’t think anyone could have imagined that in such a short period of time, lottery would attract whole new player groups and so many of the young adult demographic. This period of massive disruption has created an opportunity to appeal to a public who is now more used to change and adapta- tion than ever. The world is no longer very hospitable to those not willing to change, adapt, learn new behaviors and, yes, explore outlets for entertainment like lottery. You know, there was over $400 billion in consumer spending on the entertainment and hospitality sector that was displaced by the pandemic. It appears that some relatively small fraction of that found its way over to lottery. The consumer has spoken and affirmed loud and clear that not only is lottery still “relevant”, lottery is loved by the largest cross-section of consumers in the games-of-chance industry – by far the largest. Let’s figure out how to hold onto this increased player-ship. Let’s embrace this opportunity to speak to an audience which is more adventurous and willing to try new things than ever before. We have their attention now, so let’s keep them engaged with Lottery by delivering excite- ment in this new world. After all, we may well be entering what you are calling the golden era of lottery. n The consumer has spoken and affirmed loud and clear that not only is lottery still “relevant”, lottery is loved by the largest cross-section of consumers in the games-of-chance industry.