20 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2025 That said, player, expectations, and the ways players interact with us have changed significantly over the past five to ten years. So, we need to evolve—not just in how we design games, but in how we engage and communicate with our audience. However, the fundamental desire to have fun and experience the thrill of a potential life-changing win hasn’t changed. While there may be limits to how much we can alter the structure of a lottery game, there’s huge potential in reimagining the overall player journey. By modernizing successful past games and refreshing the way we connect with players, we open up a broad landscape of opportunities for innovation. How does the idea that "what used to be old is now new" apply to retail? H.Mays: We see retail as a space with enormous potential for innovation. Consumer lifestyles and shopping behaviors are evolving, which is driving changes in retail itself. Since retailers are the face of the Lottery to consumers, we need to think about how we can help them optimize efficiency and profitability. The more we understand their needs and meet their expectations, the more engaged they’ll be with Lottery. There’s always room for improvement in how we support our retail partners, and we see that as an ongoing opportunity. Evolving, modernizing, and innovating our retail strategies is a top priority. As mentioned, we’re highly focused on expanding into new non-traditional retail venues, in addition to strengthening our traditional retail footprint. Lottery has been around for 50 years, so we’ve likely had conversations with many of the obvious traditional lottery retailers. But the world has changed—society, the economy, and consumer habits have all evolved. New retailers have emerged, and we need to revisit familiar territory while also building bridges to new distribution channels. By helping our retail partners evolve successfully, we can carve out a bigger role for Lottery and attract new consumer groups. Just look at how much convenience stores have changed in the past few years—change brings opportunity, and it allows us to reshape our value proposition to align with retailers' new priorities. The same principles apply to the digital space. While it has already been a strong driver of growth, we’re pushing even harder to expand our digital presence. Of course, we’d love to go beyond draw games. The Fast Play category, for example, has taken off, prompting us to rethink our portfolio and optimize exposure for more forward-leaning games and play styles. Our mobile app is already one of the highest-rated lottery apps on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. But there’s always room to enhance and refresh the UX. Even though players love it now, we’re constantly looking for ways to make it even better. How do these concepts of continuous improvement apply to promotional strategies? H.Mays: Like everything else, the way we connect with our audience is evolving fast. We have a strong digital promotions program and leverage our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform to better understand what players want. That insight helps us engage with them more effectively online. It’s an ongoing, iterative process—we’re constantly testing what works, seeing how players respond to promotions, and analyzing whether that leads to better engagement and more registrations. Alongside that, we’ll continue running email promotions to keep players informed and engaged. We regularly update players on our latest activities and offerings. From sweepstakes to secondary prizes and cross-promotions, we’re always looking for ways to add extra value. Whether it’s a second-chance draw or another opportunity to win, we explore every option to try to make our games exciting and help ensure players see value. Should we think of other game categories like sports betting and casino gambling as competition? H.Mays: Not too long ago, like many others, I believed lottery players largely stayed in their own lane. Sure, they may go to a casino or horse racetrack occasionally, but lottery was their game of choice. But that’s starting to change a little. With gaming, and especially sports betting, becoming so widely available, we’re seeing more and more overlap. We are working hard to responsibly grow our market share. A few years ago, we thought about competition in terms of the share of the discretionary entertainment dollar—competing with things like candy and movie tickets. That’s still relevant, but we’re also focused on the share of the gaming dollar. The good news is that the overall gaming market has expanded significantly over the past five years. And it’s not just existing players spending more—it’s entirely new consumer groups entering the space. When I think about competition, it pushes us to be the best lottery we can be because we are the only lottery that operates in IL. We need to keep doing what we’ve always done well while constantly improving. We have to refresh our game portfolio and introduce new products because today’s consumers have more choices than ever and can easily shift their attention and loyalty. We know casinos and sports betting operators are actively working to attract lottery players to their offerings, and online casinos will be an even bigger challenge if they get approved in IL. That’s why we need to understand what our players want—how they like to engage with games. Take sports betting, for example. What’s the appeal? Is it the fast pace? The timely results? The thrill of watching a game unfold in real-time? If “While there may be limits to how much we can alter the structure of a lottery game, there’s huge potential in reimagining the overall player journey.” Changing the Conversation: Connecting with the modern consumer and the next gen’ players — continued from page 12 continued on page 39
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