The future of lottery after a decade of online evolution

Lottery is big business. Its online variant has been around for the last 10 years and while it is in many ways understated, it’s now time to for it to be widely accepted as a true revenue driver across global markets.

The key reason for online lottery’s rise and continued success, in general, is that it offers simplicity and more social acceptance. As a basic concept, it’s one of the oldest forms of gambling for entertainment, so as such, has had the time to become ingrained within societal consciousness.

This favourable image means it compares favourably to similar alternatives such as slots, or table games – buying a ticket and being part of the draw is something that requires little prior knowledge and, as a consequence, lottery enjoys fewer barriers to play.

Looking at player behaviour over the past pandemic-influenced 18 months or so, the potential in lottery as a viable cross-sell alternative to sports bettors has been most apparent.

When lockdowns first came into force, live betting products emerged as being able to offer the live experience sportsbook customers were missing out on.

We’ve found that betting on live outcomes, especially lottery results, will always be a stronger cross-sell than the world of RNG-based betting offered by slots and virtuals – especially for those players looking to take on the house.

We’ve also learned that the key to player engagement is a low-spend proposition without the risk of big losses and this has been exacerbated during the long periods of few social gatherings.

You only have to scratch lightly beneath lottery’s surface, and you can start to easily see the parallels with sports betting that attracts players. It’s all about the betting markets – you can easily offer over 70 betting markets on a lottery draw, just as you’d expect to see for any pre-match selections on the sites of leading bookmakers.

Tied with that is the need for a straightforward game, and one that doesn’t overwhelm newly visiting players. Looking at the evolution of the product since 2010 taking that forward, it’s all about simplicity while embracing complexity – betting needs to be as diverse and as simple as sport.

Nine years ago, lottery draws were running maybe once or twice per week. The first online lottery providers disrupted that market by introducing frequent live lottery draws (60 per day initially), with an instant outcome and a fantastic variation of betting offerings and it saw great success across many different regions.

Today, it’s a whole different league, and you’re now looking at the leading suppliers offer more than 36 draws per hour with more than 200 outcomes available to bet on – all of which can be streamlined to deliver multiple games in one.

Of course, key to engagement is the player experience – but again, the beauty lies in the simplicity – and not disrupting the game mechanics too much is therefore essential. Whatever you do, lotteries will always basically work, but some will work better than others. It’s more about the aesthetics, the experience and its delivery – and this is the crux of creating a market-leading offering that can stand out from the pack.

Aside from the emphasis on presentation and gameplay, integrity is going to be hugely important in lottery’s evolution. Quite apart from the licensing and compliance requirements, the player needs to have faith in our systems and the more we make our integrity transparent, the better it is for long-term engagement and retention.

Next-generation

Looking at what we’re doing internally – and expect others to be doing too, is transforming the tech. For us, the upgraded machines that we now use and the additional camera angles across our studios are all key parts of this drive and one that shall remain at the fore of our efforts, and indeed should be for all those looking to usher in the next generation of lottery.

The next decade is going to be hugely exciting – and I’m greatly looking forward to seeing how one of the industry’s most reliable revenue drivers will continue to evolve as a fantastic product in its own right, as it indeed has over the last year.

Looking at the likes of Europe, and in particular state-owned monopolies, the opportunity for innovation and bringing something truly new and exciting is there to be taken.

What we will be concentrating on is the areas in which we can provide products and services and our new lottery offering is a genuine alternative to those who may want to look elsewhere from the state-run models, not to mention the perfect alternative to sports fans out to try something new.

The current shifts in player behaviour and tastes are just what we expect to continue, at least in the short term. The future of lottery is already here – and I definitely predict it’s going to have a big part to play.

As CEO of the industry’s leading live dealer and betting games supplier, Andreas Köberl’s brief is to lead BetGames into its next level of growth. Köberl joined the firm from Playtech Sports where he started out as commercial director before leading the Trinity Bet Group, operating the Germany and Austria-facing sportsbook brand HPYBET.

Having cut his teeth with several B2B industry leaders over the past decade and built up a B2C operator in a highly competitive market, Köberl’s wealth of experience across both the retail and online sectors equips him perfectly to ensure BetGames remains unique and continues its impressive development.