SG technology set to improve post-COVID lotto landscape

SCiQ technology developed by the Scientific Games Corporation is set to make it easier for lottery retailers to adapt to the ‘new normal’ of a COVID-19 world by modernising the customer experience. 

The technology developed by Scientific Games has been implemented to reduce staff labour hours and re-imagine how lottery instant ‘scratch’ games are sold by streamlining the purchasing process and creating operational procedures critical to new in-store health and safety standards. 

Randall Lex, Vice President Retail Sales, stated: “COVID-19 is making C-stores and other retailers take a good, hard look at how every product in store is sold, both from a health and safety standpoint and from an operational modernization standpoint.

 “This is a very good time to make much needed changes to how lottery instant games are sold, and SCiQ modernizes it from every aspect. SCiQ encompasses business intelligence elements from our award-winning lottery self-service technology while alternatively allowing consumers to social distance from the ordering process, with only the clerk touching the screens.” 

The SCiQ technology will now allow C-store customers to make quick and easy instant game purchases at the checkout counter, with retailer benefits including staff cost savings as well as an uptick in instant game sales – this has already been seen in roughly a dozen US states which incorporates through an increase in the category’s sales by 12% to 15%. 

Lex added: “SCiQ eliminates the challenges to purchasing and selling lottery instant games and, up until now, there has never been technology that automated this for C-store customers and retailers at the checkout. The SCiQ ecosystem also offers customers the ability to advance-order games via mobile device and further reduces their time in-store.

“Scientific Games is responsive to lottery retailer needs and we are continually seeking opportunities to modernize the in-store experience and reduce operational hurdles.”

Regarding the sales of instant games through the SCiQ system, the retail sales associate simply selects the games the customer requests through the digital ordering screen and dispenses the tickets with the touch of a button. 

A statement released by Scientific Games concluded: “SCiQ is an intelligent system that automatically tracks every unit of product sold in real timerealtime. This level of category management, which was not previously available to retailers, allows greater visibility into sales performance and available inventory. SCiQ also automates the shift accounting reconciliation process, significantly reducing staff labor to manage the category in store.”