12 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2025 has a different mix of online games, but yes, there are a number of states where e-instants figure prominently in their growth. Illinois is a bit of an outlier given we only sell draw games, but I believe we do that more than any other lottery. That's fantastic. It must be nice for the players to avoid the long lines when the jackpots get big. H. Mays: Giving players the option to buy lottery tickets online has been a huge driver of sales, especially when jackpots get big. Jackpot runs aren’t just important for the revenue they generate—they also expand our player base by attracting new and casual players. And when Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots roll up, iLottery revenues see a major spike. I think of our iLottery program in two phases: pre-2019 and post-2019. In the first half of our history, our compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was well over 30%, and that was just from selling Mega Millions, Powerball, Lotto, and subscriptions for our other games. Then, in 2019, we expanded iLottery to include all of our draw-based games— adding Pick 3, Pick 4, Lucky Day Lotto, and later Fast Play in 2022, alongside Mega Millions, Powerball, and Lotto. This expansion increased our sales by 50% the first year. Then came the pandemic which changed the world in countless ways, and for us, it helped significantly accelerate iLottery growth. The introduction of Fast Play online was a game changer as well. Our CAGR jumped from around 36% before 2019 to 64% in the five years since. What are the plans and strategies for growing the lottery over the next three years? H. Mays: That’s the question we tackle every day. The marketplace is evolving, and so are the pathways to success. But some of the old rules still hold true. For example, we’re committed to growing our retail presence because we believe there’s still headroom to grow our retail base. One of our key initiatives right now is to increase our number of retailers by 10% over the next year. The key to continued growth—in both retail and digital—is executing concrete initiatives with measurable results. One way we’re doing that is by expanding into new types of retail spaces we haven’t tapped before, like social clubs, bars, and restaurants. To support that effort, we’re launching a brand-new draw game that we believe will be a game-changer for these establishments. It's such an interesting idea to try to make a game that would be tailored to the play styles and preferences of the patrons of a certain type of venue. H. Mays: Exactly! These venues will bring a more social element to the playing experience. The game should be something players can enjoy while they’re hanging out, whether they’re interacting with friends or just relaxing. Since people will want quick results, we designed this new game with a faster play style, featuring multiple drawings per hour. That way, players can experience the excitement together in real time— hopefully with some wins to celebrate. It also opens up a new kind of conversation with our players, one we haven’t been able to have before. It sounds like you feel that retail continues to be rich with opportunity to innovate? H. Mays: Absolutely. We’re always looking at every aspect of the business for opportunities to innovate. And while there’s certainly room for more creativity in game design, the number of variables is limited—so there’s only so much we can do to fundamentally change the lottery game itself. We’ve been working with familiar game styles and mechanics that have been around for awhile — exploring ways to modernize them; updating classic concepts for today’s consumers or tailoring them for different player groups. The question is: how can we refresh a product and use it as a platform to spark a new and different conversation with players? Take Cash Pop, for example—you could argue that draw games like it have been around forever. Nothing new there, right? It was built on a concept players already knew, but IGT put a new spin on it, reintroducing it in a way that created a completely different player experience and conversation. So innovation does not have to mean some cosmic reinvention of the lottery playing experience. It can be about creatively revisiting things that have worked in the past. H. Mays: Figuring out what players want might seem challenging, but at its core, it’s pretty simple—they want to be entertained, and they want a chance to win. The key is to engage them in ways that resonate with them today. Just like in every other aspect of life, what was once old can become new again. Some concepts that worked years ago can be refreshed and modernized with small tweaks to the look, feel, or mechanics to appeal to today’s players. “We’re evolving from a traditional monopoly-based model with a core player base skewing older, to a landscape where players have more gaming options than ever before and is skewing younger.” “Lottery and sports are very different. We are not trying to sell sports to compete, we are trying to understand the consumer better to sell lottery products.” continued on page 20
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