Public Gaming International May/June 2020

6 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2020 Visit Our Family Of Websites PublicGaming.com industry news & information PGRITalks.com videos of conference presentations PublicGaming.org PGRI conference information PGRIDigitalLibrary.com magazine archive of past issues PGRIDirectory.com listing of lotteries and vendors PGRIAwards.com Showcase of industry honorees recognized by the Lottery Industry Hall of Fame PGRI Lifetime Achievement Award Sharp Award for Good Causes Lottery Industry Statesman and Stateswoman Award Rebecca Hargrove Mentorship Award Collaboration Award Subscribe To Our Free Digital Newsletters Receive our daily newsletters at no charge, published 5 times a week to bring you the latest breaking news in the global lottery industry. Send an e-mail to: sjason@PublicGaming.com with “add to Daily Digest list” in the subject line. F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E S D E P A R T M E N T S 8 From the Publisher Paul Jason 56 MUSL NEWS (Multi-State Lottery Association) Navigating the Pandemic: MUSL Positions Itself for Year Ahead 76 Pulse of the Industry Synopsis of Recent Industry News 82 Lotteries in the COVID-19 Crisis: The urgent need for a multi-disciplinary Lottery task force to support technology-driven sustainability Philippe Vlaemminck, managing partner and Dawid Muller, advocate – Pharumlegal 58 Doing Good: In 2019, Lotteries contributed $31 billion to communities in North America 62 Ukrainian Gaming Market: which way will it go? Ukrainian gambling market is on the eve of opening its doors. The question is - to who? Evgeniy Vlasenko, Vice President, MSL State Lottery Ukraine 64 Three Steps to Become Jackpot-Ready Pollard Banknote 66 We Are One: Moving forward together to serve our lottery customers around the world Scientific Games 68 Adapting Traditional Lottery in a Social World Pilot Games 70 The need to reinvent the wheel Abacus partners with Scientific Games on in-lane lottery retail solution 72 Building iLottery Games that Work Rick Weil, Industry Consultant, IWG (Instant Win Gaming) 74 Jump-Start POWERBALL ® & MEGA MILLIONS Sales with Pooling Ticket Option Andy Amada, President, Relationship Marketing Systems 45 68 74 72 36 50 "Pennsylvania Payout is a perfect example of IWG utilizing iLottery game best practices and blending our PA Lottery wehave adistributionnetwork thatwe can relyon to extend a game’s reach.That ismuch harder and riskier todowhen youonlyhaveoneor two iLottery instant clients.” STAYINGNIMBLE WITHGROWTH One of thekey challenges for an organization in growth mode is remainingnimble to ensure high qualityproducts forLotterieswhilemaintaining deadlines and launches. It’s something that IWG iswell awareof and look to stay true to its roots.“Actually, it’s amazinghow IWG is workingwithus thesedays,” saysDeHaven.“Weobviously have a planned roadmapwith many of these concepts being built from the ground up, so not an easy task.Then, in the midst of allof this, IWGwill share four or ve game demos that are readily available thatwe didnotknowwere coming.Sometimeswe’ll take the games,other timeswe’ll use them as shelf content. It’snopressurebut certainly nice to havewhen unique circumstanceswarrant shifts in our roadmap.” So,how does IWGdo it? Again, it fallsback on the company’s experience of deliveringhundreds of titles to deliver a seasonal game that created a sparkwithplayers,” explains JonDrysdale,Head ofProduct at IWG.“We saw tremendous successwith our JunglePayout game in Michigan, setting andholding records formanymonths after its launch.Wedecided it wasworthour effort tobuild aholiday gamewith Jungle Payout’smechanic. "Frosty Fun proved to be very popular with players. In fact, with Michigan’s impressive track record, we’re proud to say was the best-selling holiday game in the history of the Michigan’s iLottery program." Obviously,holiday games have a shorter sellingwindow than your typical iLottery game. Committing resources to build such apowerful game that only lives for a fewweeks during the yearwould assumingly be a hard pill to swallow from a game studio point of view. However,not the case for IWG,asFisher explains.“Yes, the time and energy tobuild a powerful game takes time and investment.Frankly,a few years ago, such an exercise for our organizationmay have been dif cult.However,aswe have grown andourLottery partner listhas increased,we knowwe can take shots like this because Since that integration, IWGhas launched themajorityof content forMichiganLottery.Shannon DeHaven,MichiganLottery’s Director ofDigitalOperations, touches on the importanceof having an additional iLottery games supplier. "IWG’scontenthas steadily innovatedover theyears,whichhasbeen shown in theirgrowing marketshare.Theyhelp usdelivergames toour playersevery twoweeks, whichhasreallyproven tobeasweetspot forour launchcadence,andreally emulated throughout the industryasbestpractice." One of themost recent IWG successes inMichiganwas to help deliver a stringof holiday games in the run up to a festive season.While a launch every twoweeks is a sweet spot for Digital Instants, introducing a urryof contenton aweekly schedule for speci c periods of the year can be a real boost. InMichigan, they typically launch one game perweek for a 4-week periodduring the holidays.This year, threeof the four holiday gameswere provided by IWG, led byFrosty Fun, the latest concept from the IWG studio. “Inourplanning sessionwith theLottery,wewanted to IWG CEO,Rhydian Fisher, is proud of its success in the US market and beyond.“We have partnered with 21WLA/ NASPL clients on a global level, giving us broader reach than any other supplier in the Lottery landscape,”Fisher says.“While we’re delighted of our market penetration, it’s more than just ags on a map. It’s really about the learnings that can only be had through real market experience.Future clients can greatly bene t from our expertise from a strategic point of view and our games are only getting better with this experience.” MICHIGANLOTTERY EXPERIENCE Rick Weil, has over 20 years’ experience in the Lottery industry and is considered an expert in the space. He spent some time with Instant Win Gaming (IWG), leading digital instant supplier, to find out how IWG is a driving force in the online lottery market. IWG - BUILDING ILOTTERY INSTANTWINPROGRAMS THATWORK BYRICKWEIL IWG launched the rst remote game server in theUSwith MichiganLottery in2016. At this point,we all know that the Michigan Lottery set the bar for US iLottery success. The strategies that support its iLottery program have become best practice for those who aim to follow in their steps in the Internet Lottery space. Pennsylvania Lottery was the rst Lottery to really take hold of these best practices that were learned in Michigan and drive their iLottery program to great heights. Great partners, too, are obviously major reasons why a Lottery succeeds in the internet Lottery space.When one thinks of Pennsylvania, Scienti c Games comes to mind. Same for Michigan,with NeoPollard a driving force. What may not be as well- known in the industry is that IWG is the common thread in the successful Pennsylvania and Michigan iLottery programs.The third-party game supplier works with both lotteries daily, collectively delivering over 100 games to both iLottery behemoths. Lotteries,but alsooptimizing itsoutput tobemost ef cient. SimonBucknall,COO of IWG, provides furtherdetail:“It’s impossible to startup aLottery games studio andbe ring off all cylinder’sdayone.Lotteries are so uniquewith regulations and custom state-by-state framework, that there isnot a blueprint to follow.We’ve learnedhow todo thisover the years and have evolved our department structure, systems, processes and procedures.For us,our success comes down toour client support,but also the IWG team that isnot seen byour clients.We are lucky to have a great, committed team in Londonwho take great pride at being the bestwhen it comes to iLottery instant content.” CUSTOMIZED CONTENT While offering games across a network ofLottery clients maximizes the investment it takes tobuild a game, it is often the customwork speci c to aLottery that is themost rewarding forplayers.For IWG, it is very important to leverage this experience tobuild custom games in tandemwith theLottery. “We are in a fortunateposition whereourLotterypartners really trust and lean on our iLottery game experience,” says JasonLisiecki,VPofNorth America at IWG.“Whatmakes a retail game successful does not always apply to the iLottery instant game. It’s important thatwhenwebeginworking withnewLottery partners, they are receptive to learningwhat makes an iLottery gamework well.On the ip side to that, weunderstand that it isnot a one-way street.Weneed to lean on their in-market experience to reallydevelop a game that makes theirplayers excited. It is when youblend this local-how- toknowledgewith iLottery game bestpractices,when you get amazing results.” Oneof the best realmarket examples that showcases this product blendbetween iLottery bestpractice and local know- how is PennsylvaniaPayout. The goal for this gamewas simple, to leverage a successful scratch game and applydigital bestpractices,according to Lisiecki.“Weutilized simple things, like the same retail game title artwork,keystone symbols that relate toPennsylvania players,offer a familiar game mechanic and utilize the recognizable color scheme from thePennsylvaniaLottery logo.” The gamewas a tremendous success fromdayone and isproving to have strong retention forplayers several months after its launch. knowledge from our Products team," says Stephanie Weyant at Pennsylvania Lottery. “I think this gamewas really appreciatedby our players because they are sopassionate about the Commonwealth.A simple thing like“Pennsylvania” in the title really standsout fromother games inour portfolio,and it’s proving tobe ahit.” WHAT’SNEXT FOR IWG 2020 is shaping to b a big year for the iLottery games supplierwith several additional integrations on the horizon, new and exciting game concepts andmorepartnerships within the industry.The company is also taking its unique iLottery instant experience and starting up a Strategic Servicesbusinessunit to offer additional value to current clients andprospective cli nts.Fisher adds:“It b came clear tome thatwe canprovide unmatched support from a strategic point of view.For example,weprovided a custom report toAtlanticLottery Corporation, capturingNorth America iLottery InstantWin bestpractices.TheLottery executedmany of the strategic recommendations and their dailyGGR increasedby over 50%.Notmany people realize this,butALC is the longest tenured onlineLottery in NorthAmerica, so to achieve awesome results like this is no small feat.” In addition to Strategic Services, IWGwill of course continue to p oducehigh quality games content for its vastLotterypartner list.One thing is for sure, in the land of giants, it’s clear thatLotteries whopartnerwith IWG can relyon its speed,agility and experience to enhance its iLotteryoffering.