24 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 courier world. “High jackpots are a huge opportunity for us as well because they draw so much attention to lottery,” he said. “We’ll be in 20 states by early 2024 and the jackpot runs certainly help introduce us to the new markets. Jackpocket offers promotions to stimulate interest, such as entering a code to get a free ticket, buy a certain number of tickets and get an additional ticket free. To me as a former director (Arkansas Lottery), the more innovative promotions you can offer, the more success you’ll have in attracting and retaining players. Stephanie added a few additional thoughts on attracting players. “We’ve seen success with licensed properties,” she said. “You have players who are not familiar with eInstants and are coming to the site because of the high jackpots. So we’ll make some changes in the lobby. Perhaps we’ll move up the progressive eInstant games or show a licensed game that they can easily recognize. We’ve had great success getting players to try eInstants through games like Monopoly that they know.” Moving to the subject of eInstants, Stephanie asked the panelists about the importance of offering strong content. “Lotteries are launching eInstant games more frequently, usually a minimum of every two weeks if not more,” she said. “How important is it to have strong content to retain and acquire new players?” Scientific Games’ Steve Beason jumped into this discussion. “There are three very important things when it comes to keeping your eInstant players,” he said. “Make really good games, make really good games and make really good games. It sounds silly but at the end of the day, good games and a diverse set of games are critical. I think the lottery industry is a bit stuck on our existing styles of games. We need to build as many different play styles as possible so we can attract different players with different tastes. Most lotteries are looking at their iLottery programs’ return-to-player. Some players might want an extended play style which will have a lower RTP. A higher RTP will be a faster game. The reality is that the more games that are out there, the better it will be for everyone.” IWG’s Jason Lisiecki agreed. “Variety is extremely important with eInstant games,” he said. “One threat of launching eInstant games at a slower rate, like every two weeks, is that of the product becoming stale. So we need to figure out how to keep players on their toes, surprise them. Perhaps catch them off guard a bit with some new features, new themes, new style of play. When you do this, you’re opening the door for an acquisition opportunity but you’re also providing something refreshingly new and interesting for your core players and maybe increasing the retention chances. Lotteries need to make sure that there are strong products available that are successful and create a roadmap that works best for them.” Stephanie asked Jason about the industry’s first multi-state eInstant progressive game launched recently with the Virginia and Pennsylvania Lotteries. “This game was about two years in the making,” she said. “There were some unique challenges we all faced and when something is an industry first, you don’t have other experiences to fall back on.” Jason said the road to launching the Mega Money Jackpots progressive game was long and bumpy but the end result has been better than expected. “It’s a cash-themed game and players seem to really like it,” he said. “The jackpot has grown alongside the big Powerball run so it’s been interesting to see how that impacts player conversion. Behind the scenes, there have been a lot of new things for IWG – custom reporting for each lottery, separate prize structure approvals, operational differences. While it’s a bit more work, the outcome has been positive. Our hope is that other lotteries join onto this or a future game.” Scientific Games also recently ramped up its innovation game for iLottery with the launch of the SG Content Hub and partner program, and Steve said it’s all about easing the integration process. “The SG Content Hub allows for one single integration for the lottery which can then receive content from a lot of providers,” he said. “We developed the hub to also be used to analyze our data, how our games are doing and are we measuring the games equally and making the right decision on what content the lottery should offer. Offer the games and then look at performance to determine what is working and what is not. So the SG Content Hub is a technology program that offers curated games from lottery-focused game studios around the world. It also adds value to partner lotteries with competitive reporting and access to the largest portfolio of licensed properties in the industry.” Switching to where iLottery fits within the retail channel, Stephanie said that many consumers today shop both online and at retail. “These are the most valuable customers to lottery,” she said. “We know that retail will always be the face of lottery to the consumer, even for those who are building the online experience. For lotteries, it is important to break down the silos so the two sides of the house are working together and providing a seamless experience for players.” In DC, Frank said that they encourage players to join their Players Club so they reach them with multi-location offers. “If we can get players to join the Players Club, then we can cross promote platforms, and drive retail players online and vice versa,” he said. “We think about this cross promotional strategy when we’re putting together our game strategy, creating games that work at retail and also through iLottery. Then we can advertise everything at once and take advantage of those synergies. If the player is in the Players Club, we can easily send them promotions for both products. Since we’re a small organization it’s easier for everyone to work together. We do have product managers dedicated to iLottery and other products. But they also collaborate on initiatives that drive player engagement and, ultimately, revenue.” Carefully considering what products will be sold and where is an important ingredient of the overall product mix, Karri said. “Omni-channel is often misunderstood,” Continued on page 44 “If we can get players to join the Players Club, then we can cross promote platforms, and drive retail players online and vice versa.”
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