42 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 Digital Lottery is about so much more than selling lottery tickets online — continued from page 22 Both Rob and Jesse mentioned the Oklahoma Lottery replacing all paper play slips with digital barcodes at retail to make the player’s experience easier and quicker, which Rob cited as an example of the industry going against its traditionally risk-averse approach. In terms of driving modernization, Matt Taormina advised, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Start to build that centralized player profile as soon as possible. Figure out how to merge programs and collate data so you can reach out to players with the right messages, offers, and incentives at the right time. Get your foundations right first, and later you can add loyalty programs, mobile claims, or even online sales. And make sure you keep focused on creating a cohesive omnichannel experience for the player.” Sometimes, however, the limitations that lotteries face when trying to modernize come from legislative constraints. Addressing that, Rebecca Swindle argued that lotteries should “to the greatest extent possible, get the legislative authority to monetize their databases. Many lotteries currently lack the authority to get and use player data to grow their business.” Peter Sullivan referred to the importance of retaining control over the data while connecting with the retailer base: “The future of lottery is the digitalization of the retailer base. Bring the big retail chains into iLottery programs so that you can distribute products more widely at lower cost while still retaining all the data because that is what will drive iLottery’s exponential growth.” Turning to omnichannel, Kelly-Jaye asked, “What strategies are lotteries using to connect players from retail to digital and vice versa?” For Matt, the key strategy was using CRM programs and predictive analytics to incentivize players to try something new. “If players are playing a certain game online, we can give them a coupon for the same game at retail. However, it’s still easier to create incentives from the digital side until we’re able to get better data from retail, which could come from couponing, player cards, or digital wallets.” However, Jesse focused not so much on moving players between channels but rather meeting them wherever they want to be with a modern, personalized experience. “Instead of forcing or moving them into particular channels, let’s just put the player at the center of everything we do and let them decide.” Agreeing with that, Rob said, “Omnichannel is about giving your customers the choice of how, where, and when they want to interact with you. So, you have to create as many touchpoints as possible and offer a frictionless, consistent, and a great experience across them all, which is key to player retention and value.” Approaching the issue from a different angle, Rebecca discussed the ongoing importance of the anonymous player. “We’re still selling millions of dollars in tickets for anonymous play. And transitioning the anonymous player might not always be the only goal. Or maybe we redesign what anonymous really is in our industry and tell our customers what they can get back in return for giving away a little bit of information through ‘registration light’.” Talking about how new technologies facilitate data collection, Peter highlighted Apple’s new Face ID. “Soon, they’ll be creating APIs that the Lottery can use so that when a new player starts, a Face ID will be all that’s required to show that that player has a payment method that’s available for Lottery.” For Rebecca, that raised questions about the extent to which lotteries can use biometrics and retain data. Matt shared some important tips about data collection. “Start by finding out each program’s needs and then decide whether you need a full know-your-customer process or whether you just need to verify age, or maybe you don’t need to identify the player at all.” Making the case for changing how the industry gathers and uses data, Rob stated, “We are facing direct competition like never before. And if we don’t proactively create the relationships that we want with our players, somebody else will do that for us. We might want to ease into know your customer, but the reality is that the technology and the competition are coming very, very fast, and I think it’s critical for Lottery to own that relationship.” Replying to Kelley-Jaye’s question about whether more lotteries are adopting apps or staying web-based, Matt said, “Mobile is king, but web’s not dead. We see about an 80/20 split, and we can’t ignore those players who are still using websites, just like we can’t ignore any other player subset in this competitive environment.” Moving on to retail, Peter emphasized the potential for iLottery and retail to drive customers to each other in mutually beneficial ways. “When you first talk about iLottery, retailers’ initial reaction is, ‘This is not good.’ But we’ve established a partnership with Circle-K so that when they send us a customer, we provide that customer with coupons that they can use in-store for other products. So, people are signing up to play iLottery and then being sent back to the retailer, which is just what the retailer wanted.” That prompted Kelley-Jaye to highlight the retailer affiliate programs that are operating in some iLottery states, “where retailers receive either a percentage of deposits or a initial lump sum for each person they bring to iLottery.” Focusing on Jackpocket, Kelley-Jaye asked Peter how it co-exists with lotteries in the 18 states in which it operates (two of which have the state lottery operating iLottery). He replied, “We’re never going to be able to complete with the state lotteries’ iLottery on price because we have to charge extra to cover our transaction costs. But we can offer some features that are more attractive to some users. Plus, we can provide new ways to acquire customers digitally through things like making deals with national brands that “Required registration results in 100% of players being known, which also means you can’t purchase a ticket without scanning a barcode. It’s like logging into an Amazon account. The player gets personalized offers and recommendations.”
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