Big lottery operator plans to step up the fun factor
Australia’s largest lottery operator is developing a new smartphone app because its digital operation has done a poor job of recreating the fun of playing the lottery.
Lottery Corporation, which operates Powerball, Oz Lotto and Set for Life, plans to launch an AI-powered smartphone app built from scratch within the next 12 to 18 months.
Loren Somerville, the company’s chief digital officer, said online lottery tickets are more convenient and more profitable for the company, but something about the retail experience is missing.
“This was never just a transaction at retail,” he told analysts at Wednesday’s investor day.
Ms Somerville said buying tickets from a local newsagent was a fun, ritualistic experience that could include joking with the person behind the counter, while The Lott’s smartphone app meant simply choosing numbers from a table and paying.
“It’s a transactional chore, perhaps a task on a never-ending to-do list,” he said.
“But we don’t want to be transactional. We want to be part of our customers’ entertainment universe, not their to-do list.”
Lottery tickets compete with streaming services, social media and exciting viral games for customers’ attention.
“To do this, we’re going to up the fun factor,” Ms. Somerville said.
The basic flow of the new app will remain the same, but it will be redesigned so that every interaction carries a sense of reward, surprise, and anticipation.
Ms. Somerville also said she would try to reintroduce some of the thrills and progressions of televised lottery draws with personalized in-app explanations.
He described lottery draws as one of the most fun and entertaining parts of playing, recalling what people would do when he was little to watch the results on television.
“You would sit there with your ticket, waiting for the numbers, and in the few minutes before the draw your whole future just kind of opened up to you,” Ms. Somerville said.
Today, players receive results via email notifications.
“Just like you find out a package has been delivered, you find out you haven’t won,” Ms. Somerville said.
“We took that moment, made it special, and jumped in quietly.”
Lottery Corp also plans to modernize Keno into a licensed, venue-focused social gaming game.
He is reviewing Oz Lotto’s options after raising the price of the Powerball by 20 cents to $1.40 in November.
Lottery Corp will also “revamp” the Set for Life game in September, increasing the price from 60 cents to 70 cents, adding additional cash payouts, and the top prize will remain $20,000 a month for 20 years.
Callum Mulvihill, the group’s head of lottery operations, said the changes had been well tested in research and promotions.
Lottery Corp uses artificial intelligence to help design its games, drawing on data from its millions of customers and billions of potential prize permutations.
“This is exactly the environment where AI adds value,” Mr. Mulvihill said.
“This gives us the power to perform product development at scale, speed and with greater precision.”
Lottery Corp shares were down nearly one percent at $5.21 on Wednesday afternoon.
National Gambling Helpline 1800 858 858
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
