34 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2025 team for ideation and design, and then fold it back into the broader organization later. And I’m sure there are many other aspects to this question of how to organize for optimal effectiveness. There are pros and cons to each approach. You have to look at your own organization — your starting point, your culture, your goals, your timelines — and decide what makes the most sense for you. Then comes the critical resource assessment. You have to clarify your in-house capabilities. Do you have the flexibility to hire quickly? Can you ramp up fast enough to meet your launch timelines? As a state agency, we don't move as nimbly as the private sector. We had just six months to launch iLottery — not nearly enough time to hire a new team. So we launched with our existing staff, leaned heavily on our vendor partners, and then gradually supplemented our team as we moved forward. Ultimately, it comes down to clearly defining the workload needed to meet your goals, realistically assessing your internal resources, and deciding where you need vendor support to fill the gaps. Setting those expectations early — and maintaining open, honest communication throughout — is key to building a strong, effective partnership. G. Corbin: I would say we found the same to be true in Georgia, Stephanie. We've tapped into our internal resources in the best ways possible, and we've leaned heavily on our vendor partners — and honestly, it’s all worked quite well. At the end of the day, it all comes down to execution. S. Weyant: Absolutely. My in-house team isn’t very large, and I view our vendor partner, Scientific Games, as a critical extension of that team. Their support and expertise are essential to our success. G. Corbin: Exactly. Our vendor partners bring tremendous resources and experience. Stephanie, are we reaching the point where promotional strategies and communications are truly personalized — down to the individual player? S. Weyant: Not quite. As Rob said, CRM today still relies on segmenting players into groups with similar behaviors. We're getting better at creating more tightly defined profiles — segmenting by lifecycle stages like newly registered, registered but inactive, active players we want to retain, and lapsed players we need to reactivate. It’s not one-to-one personalization yet, but smarter segmentation makes the experience feel more relevant to each player. CRM tools help identify behavior patterns — who’s at risk of churn, who’s likely to respond to a reactivation offer — so we can tailor messaging and promotions accordingly. Beyond offers, we’re building perceived personalization through small touches: greeting players by name when they log in, highlighting their favorite games, showing jackpots and balances, and making Netflixstyle recommendations like, "Since you played this, you might like that." These experiences create a sense of individual attention — even if it’s based on segments that are not truly individual profiles. G. Corbin: Shannon, you mentioned that even lotteries without iLottery should invest in KYC and CRM. How should they get started? S. DeHaven: The consumer marketplace is far too evolved for a consumer-facing operator to not have a CRM. Consumers are much more sophisticated and have come to expect the same level of CRM-based service as they receive from Amazon and Netflix. They expect a high degree of more personalized experiences that resonate with where they are in the consumer journey. It’s all about Knowing Your Customer and you need a Customer Relationship Management piece to accomplish that. The first step is building a player database. Use second-chance draws, loyalty programs, players clubs — anything that gets retail players to share data and interact with you online. Retail is still the face of lottery to the players even for iLottery states. So engaging with that retail player is not only where we all started, it continues to be the primary connection to the lottery player. In addition, the purpose of KYC and CRM is not just about increasing sales. It's about responsibility gaming and building the ongoing interactive relationship that will sustain our industry going forward. A direct connection lets us offer tools and insights that help players stay safe, have fun, and stick with lottery instead migrating to other gaming options. Every lottery’s starting point is different, but one part of the strategy is the same: start now. Build a plan. Grow your capabilities over time. Modular IT platforms make it easier than ever to invest in stages — adding value one smart step at a time. G. Corbin: Player acquisition and retention are at the heart of any successful iLottery program. Amy, can you walk us through the key strategies being used to bring players in — and keep them engaged? A. Warner: Absolutely. But first, I want to echo something Shannon mentioned about responsible gaming. KYC is only possible when you have a direct digital connection with the player. At retail, the relationship is anonymous — you don’t know how often someone plays or whether they’re staying within budget. But once a player registers online, they become a known customer, and that opens the door to personalized communication, safeguards, and responsible gaming tools. We often talk about loyalty and acquisition in terms of driving sales — and they do. But just as importantly, they allow us to build an interactive relationship that supports responsible play. The very first step in acquisition is registration, and that step is also what enables meaningful responsible gaming interventions. Now, back to your question, Gretchen — how do we acquire and retain players? Many lotteries have had success using digital engagement tools like second-chance promotions and loyalty programs. But there are broader strategies too. For example, in Maryland, players can sign up for a monthly e-newsletter. Using CRM, we identified over 1,000 people who subscribed to the newsletter but hadn’t registered for the loyalty program. With targeted outreach, we converted many of those subscribers — and they went on to enter over 40,000 tickets. Using our CRM system, we can identify players who already show an interest in the lottery. This insight allows us to give them the final nudge they need to participate. In Delaware, the Lottery collected contact info at live events. By flagging those individuals in the CRM system, we were able to guide them through the registration journey and turn passive interest into active engagement. Targeted digital marketing is also proving
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