18 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 Continued on page 41 does not just produce specific technological outcomes - it defines the overall corporate architecture and ultimately the player experience. It was also becoming apparent that cloud technology was primed to occupy a much bigger, more central role in the modern IT infrastructure. We realized we needed to pivot and not just replace our lottery terminals and the lottery game engine behind it but transform our entire lottery ecosystem. On May 26, 2024, BCLC became North America’s first cloud-based lottery system. So you had no blueprint to follow in this technological transformation? D. Beebe: While BCLC was the first in North America, we had both the benefit of studying other cloud-based ecosystems and INTRALOT had extensive experience with executing switchovers of the type we were considering. They had also completely redesigned their systems to be modular, easier to update and easier to integrate with. We affectionately called this a “big-bang” approach because we decided to rip out everything that is connected to our lottery system that does not comport with the most modern presentation or operational layers we are adding, and replace it with the most advanced version. INTRALOT was excited about it because they had done this before and could attest to the benefits of this approach. We were confident that INTRALOT’s experience and technical vision combined with our willingness to push the envelope, would produce the results we wanted. We think it was the perfect marriage for achieving the ambitious outcome of going live with a cloud-based system supporting 30,000 staff on 3,800 retail machines throughout the province. While this system was created for lottery, it is actually going to end up also fueling and providing a casino-style sports book that we never contemplated before. We are happy to share our experience with others who may want to explore a similar transformational path. The lottery system does not directly support the other game categories, does it? D. Beebe: While the different game categories like casinos, sports betting, and online gambling require different technological functionalities, the new lottery IT infrastructure opened up a whole new view on what we could achieve as well as what we would need if we wanted to integrate those functionalities. We are now asking the fundamental question of how we can move our entire gambling technology infrastructure into more modern cloud-based, modular and service-oriented architecture. It sounds like the starting point for integrating the most advanced IT systems is unrestricted open-ness and interoperability. D. Beebe: It’s about the freedom to think beyond the parameters and assumptions that may have existed in the past. For instance, we also needed to replace our retail sports betting platform. We asked INTRALOT for ideas on how we could create a player-experience that would enable seamless migration from lottery to sports betting. Now we have deployed new INTRALOT-powered sports books in retail. Doesn’t “thinking-out-of-the-box” incur additional risk? D. Beebe: Of course any large-scale transformation will carry at minimum a modicum of anxiety - but INTRALOT did have a lot of experience with the implementation of forward-looking technologies that reflected where we wanted to go. We were still nervous but were assured that everything would work fine – and we’re happy to report that they were right. You referred to the impact this has on “corporate architecture”. What does that mean exactly? D. Beebe: It’s about ensuring that the processes supporting our products are inter-connected across multiple game categories and distribution channels – with the capability for instantaneous communication. We used to execute somewhat linearly, executing one task at a time. Data that used to take days to process and post for analyses – for instance, game results – is now available instantly. This new “corporate architecture” removes bottlenecks and facilitates the process of converting data into actionable intelligence. “We decided that modernizing our lottery systems could be the cornerstone to something much bigger: the transformation of our business’s IT infrastructure.”
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