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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // September/October 2016
Changing the Game in 2016 and Beyond
As another NASPL conference approaches, and we look to the end of a historic year,
PGRI
spoke to Marco
Tasso, Senior Vice President of Product Marketing, and Paul Riley, Vice President of Innovation, at IGT about
the major milestones of 2016 and the future of the lottery industry.
Last year at NASPL, IGT unveiled
Aurora, your new business plat-
form. What has been its reception in
the industry? What progress have you
made in its development and rollout?
P. Riley:
The reception to Aurora
TM
has been
overwhelmingly positive, due in no small
part to two major items. The first is our laser
focus on end-user usability. Our completely
revamped User Interface (Aurora
TM
Navigator)
that sits on top of our feature-rich back-
office suite of applications, makes the jobs of
lottery personnel much more efficient and
effective. The expanded access to business
intelligence in a graphic, visualized approach
also makes folks’ jobs easier. The second is
our Service Oriented Architecture. Lotteries
are increasingly interested in a solution that
supports omni-channel engagement with
players, and the ability for lotteries to easily mix
and match components from various vendors
– and with Aurora, we can deliver on those
key needs. We are in the process of rolling our
initial Aurora deployments out in the U.S. and
have been having discussions with our global
customer base about Aurora.
What is IGT doing to remain in
the forefront of lottery services and
technology?
M. Tasso:
Knowledge of the player and
retailer is at the heart of how we approach
innovation at IGT. We will continue to invest
in research and development to ensure that
our lottery partners receive the most cutting-
edge systems and terminals as well as the
most relevant game concepts. By combining
our investment in innovation with our player
intelligence and our operational expertise, we
help our lottery partners achieve sustainable
and responsible growth.
How does IGT stay in touch with the
needs of players?
M. Tasso:
Our Player Insights Team
constantly collaborates with our customers
to conduct studies to understand the
wants, needs, and expectations of retailers
and players around the world. In the last 12
months, we’ve conducted more than 260
studies in the Americas and 62 internationally.
That’s more than 224,000 people that IGT
has talked with in the last year. We are also
continuing our World Player Study, which
captures the attitudes and opinions of lottery
players in 10 countries. It’s this comprehensive
data set that feeds the actionable insights that
drives growth for our customers.
How has that affected the develop-
ment of new games?
M. Tasso:
As game portfolios and the
playerbase continue to age, lotteries need to
have a partner that is vested in the ongoing
development of game concepts. IGT has
created FutureGame, an eight-step game
development and testing framework to
satisfy our customers’ need for a constant
stream of new games. To thoroughly leverage
player needs and emotions, the FutureGame
process begins with a series of insights and
trend diagnostics and ends with a complex
methodology of consumer and retailer
research. In addition, and to ensure we are
constantly on the forefront of interactive
games, we have pooled the resources of
120 software engineers, artists, and game
designers from around the world to create the
IGT Game Studio. By combining the staff’s
unique approach to art and science along with
the cultural nuances of our five worldwide
studio locations, we release at least seven new
game concepts per quarter.
As much as the U.S. lottery industry
talks about the importance of interac-
tive and omni-channel approaches,
progress appears to be slow due to
legislation and other concerns. What
advancement has been made in the
last year?
P. Riley:
Slow and steady are perhaps the
operative words for the U.S. with respect
to interactive wagering. Illinois, Michigan,
and Georgia are still leading the industry
with their respective deployments and are
being joined by Kentucky and Virginia. We
have seen continued growth in the number
of mobile apps that IGT is providing as well
as the functionality that is deployed. We
currently support seven lottery apps on both
iOS and Android, all of which have a suite of
player convenience features, and some that
also allow wagering where permissible. These
apps also support omni-channel interaction,
such as scanning for a winning ticket and then
directing the consumer to the nearest retailer
for redemption, or creating digital playslips
that are more user friendly as well as fast and
easy for retailers to use.
What developments are you most
excited about?
P. Riley:
We are very excited about the
potential to leverage interactive platforms
Marco Tasso, Senior Vice President of Product Marketing