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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // January/February 2016
of player and consumer profiles. There
will be consumers who migrate some of
their lottery spend over to other gam-
ing categories. There will be others who
migrate some of their spend away from
other categories to lottery. And there
will be entirely new sets of consumers
who are experiencing lottery games for
the first time. Ubiquitous access to gam-
ing options will result in a convergence
of different player segments, enabling
players to easily migrate from one gam-
ing category to another. For example, on-
line shopping apps are causing consumer
usage of mobile to converge with retail
shopping. Mobile apps are creating a
convergence of casino and online gaming
and they’re driving a convergence of retail
and online lottery play. As an industry,
we should embrace these trends because
they’re happening. Scientific Games is
out in front of it all, innovating to har-
ness our incredible assets and capabilities
and integrate them with the real-world
marketplace so that we produce and de-
liver real-world value to the consumer on
behalf of our lottery customers.
G. Isaacs:
The technology and the
means to apply it are all here, ready to be
deployed. It is time for our industry to
take control, shape its own destiny, and
turn these industry trends to work to its
advantage. The new world is ruled by the
consumer. In our industry, the consumer
values a diversity of options, great games,
and easy access to that game entertain-
ment. The innovation that shapes our
industry going forward will empower lot-
teries with tools to connect to this con-
sumer marketplace of multiple options.
Innovation will position lotteries for long-
term sustainable success. The technology
is available today; Scientific Games has it
ready to go. And it is now much less about
the technology itself than it is about ap-
plying the technology in the real world so
that we create real value for the consumer.
We believe 2016 is the year to make this
happen, and we are ready to empower our
customers to do just that.
How will the integration of mobile, lottery
gaming and retail be changing, and how
will it add value for everyone?
G. Isaacs:
Regardless of whether a
lottery’s mobile platform is transaction-
enabled or not, there is an incredibly
rich variety of ways, such as promotional
offers, second-chance plays, and many
other catalysts to drive the consumer
back and forth between mobile and land-
based retail. Lottery’s global network of
approximately one million retailers is an
invaluable asset, and building on that re-
tail connection to the player will always
be paramount. Providing the most robust
functionality and consumer options on
the mobile platform will augment lot-
tery’s ability to drive retail engagement as
well as elevate the lottery brand for the
consumer. Driving this kind of omni-
channel relationship with the consumer is
key to creating the relationship that is so
fundamental to a fully engaged and loyal
player base.
J. Kennedy:
There are many ways
that all lotteries, completely apart from
selling games online, can drive consumer
engagement with mobile apps and le-
verage the role that retailers play in the
distribution system. For instance, lotter-
ies can enable players to select their lot-
to numbers online, assign a bar code to
that number, and go to the retail store to
have it scanned and make the actual pur-
chase at the store. Consumer adoption
of common e-wallet platforms may not
have reached the tipping point yet, but
it’s coming. That’s why lotteries that do
not sell online yet should still be building
their consumer-facing mobile platforms
to engage their players across multiple
channels. Scientific Games has already
integrated our instant and draw products
with our systems capabilities to include
mobile to meet our customers’ changing
needs. Game design and content will al-
ways be the key to success, but providing
increased consumer access and a diversity
of ways to interact with lottery is the key
to driving sales and profits.
G. Isaacs:
It is this marriage of games
and technology at retail that creates that
seamless player-journey. Lotteries may
have multiple suppliers of games, systems
and technologies that are distributing the
games. The different component parts of
the puzzle must be completely integrated
to create the best user experience, a ho-
listic player-journey. Standardization that
enables interoperability between suppli-
ers is key to this, and Scientific Games is
committed to helping the industry evolve
toward that end. Most importantly, play-
ers expect this today.
Our mission with retailers is quite simple.
We need to make it easier to do business
with Lottery, we need to be the technology
and merchandising leader. If we help retail-
ers be more profitable, they will be more
focused on selling lottery products.
J. Kennedy:
That’s been the core
of our SalesMaker retail-optimization
program for the last five years. We have
implemented this program in 500 stores
across 30 different jurisdictions in many
different countries around the world. Our
experienced lottery retail specialists actu-
ally go into retail stores to work with the
retailers to help them improve their opera-
tions. These retailers welcome our support
and ideas because many of the best prac-
tices that we implement are easily applied
to other areas of their business. We think
of retailers as our partners, so we want to
empower them in the Lottery ecosystem.
G. Isaacs:
The cycle of knowledge
created by SalesMaker is benefitting our
lottery customers as well as the retailers.
We’ve learned what practices produce the
best results, how these best practices can
be improved to make them even better,
and how they can be deployed on a large
scale to benefit other lotteries. This coop-