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September/October 2014 • Public Gaming International
not only to generate additional revenue for lotteries, but also to recoup
considerable investments in the LotteryHUB platform.
“We know that every state has different political realities sur-
rounding their lottery, and we’re in business for the players and for
the lotteries,” Mueller said. “So up front we created a ‘blacklist’ of
products—alcohol and tobacco are good examples—that we wouldn’t
consider advertising. We are believers and followers of the marketing
law: ‘ always protect your brand,’” Mueller said. “We serve one of the
world’s largest brands—Powerball and Mega Millions—so we’re also
responsible for protecting those brands and the brands of each of the
member-state lotteries.”
Compliance with the highest industry and internal standards, along
with a commitment to versatility in Shoutz products, has allowed
them to make LotteryHUB a turn-key marketing solution that nur-
tures real-world retail. Engaging and rewarding lottery players on a
convenient mobile platform adds to the entertainment value of dollars
spent on lottery games. That helps drive foot traffic for lotteries and
their retail partners, in turn generating more revenue for good causes
around the country.
And that’s what it’s all about. Mueller and Shoutz entered the lot-
tery industry at a tumultuous time, when modern lotteries are trying to
marry old-world regulation and new-world technology, not to mention
new-world expectations from players. With Shoutz, Mueller and his
partners had an opportunity not only to revolutionize an industry, but
to tap that industry’s potential to support good causes in a whole new
way; to make a powerful addition to the lottery’s arsenal of fundrais-
ing tools. “We’ve created a central hub where lotteries can engage and
learn about their players,” Mueller said.
“LotteryHUB is convenient, engaging and rewarding for the play-
ers,” Mueller said. “But it’s is also a no-cost or low-cost solution, giv-
ing lotteries the opportunity to use this mobile platform not only to
promote games, winner awareness and new offerings, but also to drive
revenue from third-party advertisers.” Now that LotteryHUB is an of-
ficial app of Powerball and Mega Millions, the benefits of that strict
self-regulation that continues to drive Shoutz are plain to see.
LotteryHUB serves a massive audience of highly engaged lot-
tery players, and in no state does the app run afoul of regulations.
Shoutz has also staked their claim as a mobile leader for the lottery
industry. Theirs was the first app to capture the valuable attention
of the mobile demographic, and they’ve been able to make inroads
with a younger demographic.
That connection to a new, younger lottery player opens plenty of
doors for the lottery industry. “This is the first opportunity for lotteries
to monetize their players in a unique way,” Mueller said. And, because
of the strict standards to which Mueller and his team have held them-
selves over the past two years, every lottery has the same opportunity
available: connect and engage with more players, add more value to
every transaction and, most importantly, generate more revenue for
good causes.
u
Pioneering a new lottery space:
Shoutz’s Progress to Mobile
Being a pioneer isn’t easy, but the biggest
risks often bring the biggest rewards. It was
that encouraging notion that prompted JimMueller
and Shoutz to take what they learned in the world of short-form social
video sharing and apply it to a new industry.
Now every day at Shoutz is spent engaging lottery players with
great content, and helping to generate revenue for Shoutz partners - the
MUSL member states—and the great causes they support. In just two
years, Shoutz has gone from an experiment to a benchmark for others’
attempts to enter the mobile space in the lottery industry. “We under-
stand and appreciate our emerging leadership role in the industry,” said
Shoutz CEO Jim Mueller. “We take this very seriously and we demand
the highest integrity of our people and products.”
Along with filling a vacuum in the mobile space for the industry,
Mueller also says that strict self-regulation had a great deal to do with
the success of LotteryHUB, Shoutz mobile engagement platform for
lotteries and lottery players. “Right from the start, we created internal
policies so we’d operate in a fishbowl, just as our lottery partners do,”
Mueller said.
Making the move from social sharing to the lottery industry required
a careful but enthusiastic approach. Mueller and his partners recruited
people who had spent more than 100 years combined in and around
the lottery industry, people who had a track record of revolutionary
thinking and some who even had a hand in the start of the US lottery
industry. Insistent on building a team of the ‘best-of-the-best’ in the
lottery business while also complying with the very same regulations
under which state lotteries operate, Mueller says Shoutz “demands that
all full-time employees be vetted with an FBI background check.”
Once the team assembled, that commitment to excellence through
strict self-regulation was carried on, as much a point of pride as a testa-
ment to quality. Mueller said that all Shoutz products and systems are
certified by Gaming Laboratories International, and each one is sub-
jected to rigorous testing and security audits.
“There’s no point in creating something that only a handful of lot-
teries will feel confident using. If it’s not compliant with the strictest
regulations, or it doesn’t meet industry security expectations, then it’s
no good—we make products to make lotteries more convenient, engag-
ing and rewarding so they can deliver more revenue to good causes;
excellence is our minimum requirement.”
With the strength and security of Shoutz products secured, Muel-
ler and his team also wanted their products to be versatile, adaptable.
Armed in advance with an intimate understanding of public gaming—
and its often sensitive nature—the Shoutz team was able to create a
product infinitely applicable within the lottery industry. “One of our
top priorities was making LotteryHUB a no-cost solution for lotteries,”
Mueller said. But a platform like LotteryHUB doesn’t come cheap—
the Shoutz team knew they’d have to look to third-party advertisers
