28 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 Paul Jason: IT platforms and technological solutions can be quite expensive. Jurisdictions with large populations have the revenue and profit-generating potential to pay for the most robust IT infrastructures and advanced technologies. How can smaller jurisdictions with limited revenue potential afford to pay for that? Jean-Luc Moner-Banet: The population of the French-speaking part of Switzerland is 2.5 million. Very small. And yet, our players expect us to provide the same quality of advanced features and benefits as are enjoyed by those in jurisdictions with the most sophisticated gaming platforms, technologies, and operations … an IT infrastructure which costs more than our revenues can cover. Our vision was to build an architecture that includes creative collaborations with thirdparty operators as well as a multi-vendor system that brings in the very best-in-class in every aspect of the business. We communicated this vision to our IT central systems technology partner, IGT, who now provides the flexibility to deploy a variety of solutions provided by multiple technology partners. With the support of IGT, we now operate a business model that includes multiple suppliers, collaborations, and creative solutions that enable a small jurisdiction like Switzerland to deploy the most advanced best-in-class technologies. IGT provides the game and transaction engines for Swiss Loto, EuroMillions, Keno, etc., Electronic Instant Lottery, the player account management systems, and many other foundational systems functionalities. But for sports betting, we have a different technology partner. The game engine, platform, and technology tools to operate sports betting is very expensive. The sales and profit potential in our market-place could never support the kind of world-class operation and functionality that we want to provide our players. That challenge is exacerbated by the fact that technology is constantly changing and improving. Improving is a good thing, but shorter life-cycles make the cost of staying updated increase even faster. So we collaborate with La Française de Jeux in France (FDJ). As one of the largest gaming operators in the world, FDJ’s sports betting engine, risk management tools, and sports book management system are world-class, second to none. So we collaborate with FDJ to deliver the benefits of their robust sports betting capabilities to our customers in Switzerland. Of course, FDJ is paid for their service, and we enjoy the benefit of a world-class sports betting system for a fraction of the cost THE IT ARCHITECTURE AND STRATEGY TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS PGRI Introduction: Technological innovation is delivering immense benefit to lottery operators and consumers as our technology partners are creating new products, services, and solutions every day. In fact, the pace of change has accelerated such that it now far outstrips the typical time-frame of vendor IT systems contracts which need to extend at least five years or more to support the initial capital investments required. That creates a challenge: How can a vendor contract that is being negotiated today provide the flexibility to integrate the products, services, and solutions that may not even exist today but will be created and become available in the future? How can the lottery position itself to have access to the very best-inclass technologies going forward? Putting these questions to Jean-Luc Moner-Banet at the EL Congress in Šibenik, Croatia resulted in the following interview to address these issues. Jean-Luc Moner-Banet Chief Executive Officer, Loterie Suisse Romande PGRI INTERVIEWS
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