40 / 60
40
// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // November/December 2015
and will continue to be our number one
priority. That is true even in those markets
where iLottery is most developed, as in the
Scandinavian countries. However, all lot-
teries must reach out and be relevant to the
next generation of lottery players. Lottery
is modernizing in every way and should be
an invaluable partner to the modernization
of land-based retailers as well.
Frankly, it seems to me that retailers need our
help to make themselves more relevant to the
modern shopper. Why couldn’t Lottery take a
technology leadership role and help retailers
to modernize for the benefit of the retail shop-
per? Integrating an online component would
simply be a part of that process.
J. Gendron:
We should also keep in
mind that interactive isn’t just about In-
ternet sales. It also includes mobile phone
applications with a robust set of features
and functionality to support the retail
channel. That includes things like prox-
imity marketing, digital play slips, jackpot
alerts, barcode scanners for checking tick-
ets and entering alternate second-chance
drawings, general game information and
instruction, retail location finders, win-
ning numbers, etc. So there is tremendous
variety of other value-adding components
to interactive than just enabling online
product sales. Lotteries are building out a
database of registered players, which will
open up a whole new channel of com-
munication for them to interact with the
players. Direct target marketing, retail
cross-sale promotions, co-branding ini-
tiatives, and many other innovations will
drive players back to retail and improve
consumer awareness of, and affinity for,
the countless other products sold in the
retail environment.
We need to be collaborative and appreci-
ate and respect the concerns of our retail
partners, and ensure that there is an open
and consistent line of communication. The
facts as revealed by the experience of other
operators already selling online will help
U.S. retailers overcome their natural fears
as long as we continue to make them part
of the value equation. Then, and only then,
the result of modernization will be good
for everyone, and drive a new generation
of consumers into their stores with mobile
co-op offers and the like.
IGT and its Lottery customers have far more
resources and technology and vision than re-
tailers. How is that being applied to help re-
tailers to modernize and be more successful?
J. Gendron:
The pace of change at re-
tail is exponential. And we are committed
to looking closely at advances in the retail
environment and understanding emerging
and future trends. In fact, we have created
relationships with a number of innovative
and future-oriented companies to work
with us to drive change and progress at
retail. We are working to translate these
combined resources into the development
of a smart open technological platform
and a broad suite of solutions that will
help deliver our lottery retail vision of the
future. Consumer driven, retailer friendly,
open, and agile platforms deliver a greatly
enhanced player experience at retail. This
approach will require innovation, and not
just from a technology perspective.
Lotteries and their commercial partners
need to offer more flexible business models
for our retailers. The cashless retail trend
is one example. Simplifying of lottery ac-
count management for retailers is another.
IGT’s national customer Retailer Innova-
tion Workgroup is working diligently on
various strategic initiatives like “scan base
trading,” and employing Big Data analyt-
ics that convert data into actual insights to
drive optimized retail performance. One
area where lotteries can potentially take a
leadership role is in proximity marketing
which includes leveraging a mobile ap-
plication which most lotteries have, retail
locations equipped with beacons which
some lotteries have, and back-end con-
tent and management systems that chan-
nel content to the customer user-interface,
and coupon incentives to be delivered to
the mobile. Progressive retailers are al-
ready experimenting with this technology
to gauge consumer acceptance and adop-
tion. Of course, the implementation must
be compliant with state statutes and juris-
dictional regulations.
It seems like IGT has made a special effort
over recent years to be more flexible and open
to helping lotteries integrate third-party sup-
pliers and vendors.
J. Gendron:
We understand we are not
the only source of innovation. We want our
customers to have the very best products
and services to drive their business for-
ward. We will negotiate with third-party
vendors and work with our customers to
integrate new technologies into the infra-
structure. Linq3 is an excellent example
that comes to mind. We have worked with
our customers in California and Missouri
to enable the implementation of Linq3’s
play-at-the-pump technology.
And your new Aurora platform is designed
with the flexibility to reduce the cost of inte-
grating third-party technology into the IGT
infrastructure, isn’t it?
J. Gendron:
Our new Aurora platform
builds on the success of our Enterprise
Series system. It provides an entirely new
level of system flexibility to seamlessly in-
tegrate third-party applications for games.
Additionally, we are working with our
competitors to form standard APIs for all
platforms in the industry.
The integrity of our system and our data
has always been paramount; 100% account-
ability and data integrity are a mandate. We
will therefore always be cautious and dili-
gent in managing third-party interfaces. We
Jay Gendron Interview
…
continued from page 28