Lottery umbrella organisation European Lotteries (EL) recently hosted a ‘Data & Research’ webinar about the lottery sector and the trends and learnings from COVID-19.
Held on January 28, the EL Data & Research working group members presented trends recognised in the newly released EL Report 2019, as well as some learnings from members from the COVID-19 impact on their operations and their adaptation to an abruptly changed trading environment in 2020.
EL members’ contributions to society amounted to nearly €18bn in 2019, meaning almost 50% of the gaming gross revenue generated by members went back to society in their respective countries.
Draw based games, instant games and sports games sales showed an increase of 5.2% in comparison with 2018, while the growth of online sales was the dominant lottery sector trend, in line with previous years.
COVID’s impact on EL member operations created huge repercussions on retail sales due to lockdowns, especially during the first wave, while online sales kept growing.
As for the organisations themselves, they reported swift business continuity awareness and a growing digitalisation of all activities. Most EL members put in place socially responsible actions to help their communities such as donations, material support, PR initiatives, or corporate volunteering.
The Data & Research webinar was the first of a series of five EL webinars scheduled to take place during the course of 2021. Planned topics include the use of artificial intelligence in lotteries, rejuvenation of DBGs, growth of on-line and instant games innovations.
Back in December, EL joined forces with the European Casino Association and the World Tote Association to fight illegal online gambling and embrace the foreseen Digital Services Act package.
