The European Lotteries (EL) recently staged a webinar highlighting the fast-growing world of lottery instant games, both e-instants and paper instants.
Hosted by Israel’s national lottery Mifal HaPais, the webinar comprising 200 participants looked at instant games’ growth across the continent and featured a panel that offered perspectives on several issues impacting the sector.
Valtteri Merikallio, Market Insight of Finland’s Veikkaus Oy opened the online event with a market overview showing the growth of instant and e-instant products around Europe.
Here, it was indicated that there remains much room for growth in this vertical in many EL member lotteries, based on trends in those states who have a history of developing innovative products and exploring various themes as well as differentiated price/prize points.
Zvika Philipps, Manager of Sales of Mifal Hapais, provided a chronological history of the development of instant games in POS in Israel. Retail agents in the country contribute to the cost of the lottery POS, proving that they value its beneficial effect on their outlets.
Philipps noted that the Israel lottery has succeeded in both improving its brand image while at the same time securing the most desirable counter spaces – next to the tills – in the retail outlets.
Guillaume Pernette, Interactive Factory Director at La Française des Jeux (FDJ), gave examples of the French lottery’s platform for digital innovative games.
Fusing interesting design features, extended play and the combination of chance/choice, Pernette provided game samples like ‘Doubles or Quits’, where the player can take control even within a game of chance. He also described the Super Jackpot family of games with its compelling proposition based on a low stake with the possibility of winning a progressive jackpot.
Fotis Zisimopoulos, Product Director of OPAP presented on the instants annuity product propositions in the country.
Zisimopoulos demonstrated how the generic idea of the win-for-life or be-secure-for-a-year was cleverly tailored by the Greek lottery to the COVID situation by offering a choice of two games, one promising a return to the good times with a weekly prize for a year while the other offered a long-term solution financial planning, with a monthly prize for 30 years.
The EL webinar concluded with a supplier/partner panel with Jacqueline Deragon of IGT, Michelle Annandale of Pollard Banknote, Kevin Anderson of Scientific Games, Abhishek Kumbhat of Skilrock, and Yariv Sarig of NeoGames, who gave responses on many instant games issues raised by Ray Bates, who moderated the panel.
The panel unanimously agreed that, despite the accelerating growth of the e-instant/digital scratch card, the paper scratch card was not in danger of fading away. Green tickets were proving popular but there was some uncertainty about premium lotteries being prepared to pay for the genuine article.
The panel also reached an agreement on 20 being the optimum number of games to have active in a market at one time. They also felt that not all lottery companies were profiting fully from the broad practical experience the suppliers could offer based on their customers’ experiences all over the world.
The suppliers ended the panel by reassuring EL Members that they were more than prepared for what the future would bring, both in terms of traditional retail or in the online space.
Last week, EL celebrated International Women’s Day, declaring that women play an important role in the lottery sector and that they deserve recognition.
