Given that partnership in its many forms has become the essential business growth strategy, it is not surprising that examples abound in the lottery industry today. In addition to significant organizational mergers and acquisitions, however, great progress is being made in the area of lottery-supplier relationships that are also yielding results.
What will future lottery-supplier partnerships yield? The basic answer can be reduced to three very essential components:
• More diverse players;
• More opportunities to play; and
• More diverse sales channels.
Lottery-supplier partnerships of the future will need to be able to align new technology and content to an evolving player set more efficiently. Moreover, partnerships that produce gaming innovations in one jurisdiction must consider the applicability of that innovation to multiple jurisdictions. For example, a new mobile game in Finland today should also be capable of working in jurisdictions around the globe at some point in the future.
Successful lottery partnerships contribute greatly to ensuring that the demands of lottery players are being met. A true partnership between a lottery and supplier can yield innovative technology and content, which ultimately play a huge role in providing increased revenue to good causes.
“We will be receptive to focused partnerships with European lotteries and other industry suppliers that have a clear mission and drive value for our customers’ good causes,” said W. Bruce Turner, President and CEO of Lottomatica and GTECH. “European lotteries are among the most sophisticated in the world and where many of the technological thought leaders of our industry reside. It is our goal to aggressively pursue appropriate partnerships with lotteries that share our vision for the future to ensure a healthier lottery market in this region of the world.”
From a GTECH perspective, the convergence of players, technology, sales channels and content will continue to drive the imperative of partnership to arrive at innovative solutions to meet those needs. The merger with Lottomatica is not viewed by GTECH as an exclusive arrangement – GTECH will be looking to partner where and when appropriate.
“We will continue to invest in lottery innovation and collaborate with our customers and prospective customers to answer the demands of lottery players – now and in the future,” said Turner.
There are already examples where that spirit is evident and achieving results.
essentially in its infancy, it is starting to yield important results. Just as importantly, the Innoka experience offers a telling example of how lotteries and their service providers can work together to yield advancements that benefit all.
“The ultimate goal of this partnership is to ‘productize’ and ‘commercialize’ innovative game content and technology solutions that provide games to players where and when they want to play,” said Risto Rautee, Innoka Sr. Director Business Operations. “We are extremely excited with not only the developments we have achieved, but especially those future-focused projects on which we continue to work.”
For example, Innoka has already designed several electronic instant games which will be placed on top of Veikkaus’ existing eInstant platform. One example is their EuroCup game, a branded soccer-themed game that is intended to attract the attention of soccer fans around the globe. It is a perfect illustration of how partnership can yield exciting new developments, and in this case a new game content opportunity on an expanding new game channel designed to reach new players in new ways.
In addition, Innoka has several compelling new projects underway with exciting potential. Innoka is studying new game opportunities for mobile TV, a digital television network for handheld terminals. The new technology can offer a mobile platform for live betting.
A similar success story lives in Luxembourg, where GTECH and Loterie Nationale have joined together to launch the first online lottery self-service solution in Europe.
Loterie Nationale, a smaller but innovative and cutting-edge lottery, has decided to work with GTECH to launch five GamePoint™ terminals in an effort to introduce online games into the relatively mature lottery self-service marketplace, where only instants are currently available. The GamePoint terminal combines the best of instant ticket vending with online self-service capabilities.
“We have experience with Instant Ticket Vending Machines (ITVMs) in our lottery and have been very pleased with the result,” offered Leon Losch, Director of Loterie Nationale. “But our goal is to become known as a ‘state of the art’ lottery that is always seeking ways to improve our performance and our service to the people who play the lottery.”
In addition to the instant games already offered in ITVMs (Elo!, Pink Panther, Oxo, Piccobello, Tutti Quanti, Vegas, Kado, and Cash for Life), the GamePoint launch will enable Loterie Nationale to include online games like Euromillions on the GamePoint platform.
The GamePoint rollout in Luxembourg did not occur until mid-November of 2006, so no current sales data is available. There are positive indications that the online offering will be well-received by players who are already acclimated to self-service in the lottery.
Take, for example, the story of GTECH’s strategic alliance with Veikkaus, and the partnership’s entity now known as Innoka™. The primary focus of Innoka is to develop government-sponsored games and solutions, over expanding interactive channels such as Internet, Mobile phones and Interactive television. And even though the Innoka partnership remains
Loterie Nationale and GTECH work together to launch five GamePoint terminals.
Innoka's latest electronic instant game EuroCup is a branded soccer-themed game designed to attract the attention of soccer players around the world.
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