On 30 September, the fourth EL Data & Research webinar took place, focusing on online business, which no doubt had an irreversible one-off growth impulse due to Covid-19 and the restrictions in place. Some players forcefully migrated online while lottery operators broadened their online games portfolio and tuned their communications to satisfy their needs.
The webinar, moderated by the chair of the EL Data & Research working group, - Václav Štěpán from SAZKA (CZ), covered several aspects of the online business, highlighting the best practices of EL Members from various online game verticals, including new innovative ones like E-sports.
Václav Štěpán from SAZKA (CZ) and David Henwood from H2 Gambling Capital (UK), focusing firstly on an overview of the EL online business historical evolution and the impact on COVID-19 on this last year. As many retail points of sales were limited or closed, the online sales share registered a significant step up in 2020, which seemed to remain. David Henwood complemented the EL internal view by H2 Gambling Capital's global comparison of the impact of the pandemic on global and European gambling and added their forecast till 2026.
Harri Järvinen from
Veikkaus (FI) presented their in-house e-instant game development experience, explaining the company’s unique process of developing successful e-instant games, combining internal game mechanics design and game development management with an external game delivery supplied by a game studio selected via a tender from a wide portfolio of a long-term collaborating suppliers.
Jan Horyna from Sazka (CZ) presented the company's successful entry into
E-sports as a new gaming product vertical via developing and managing Sazka eLeague, becoming No.1 league in the Czech Republic, and sponsoring the best Czech team competing in the top global league. He also stressed Sazka eLeague’s positive impact on the lottery brand attractiveness for younger players and its strengthened entertainment aspect.
The e-casino was the topic that followed whereby Lars Martin Ottesen from Norsk Tipping (NO) addressed the historical development of Norsk Tipping’s internal iGaming platform into successful e-casino product vertical while balancing it with players protection. The company implemented and is running advanced responsible gaming tools putting the player protection being at the centre of any new development.
This Data & Research webinar was the fourth of a series of five Data & Research working group’s webinars, to take place during 2021, planned to cover various aspects of lotteries operations. Next webinar, targeted on “Future of Retail”, will take place on November 25, 2021.
