Sports betting offers can be made available through both digital and retail channels. In either case, the lottery operator must ensure that only people over 18 years of age can access sports betting products and that they are able to moderate the amount they spend betting on sports.
Digital channels
Attractive platform
In recent years, the effort invested in selling lottery and sports betting products online has intensified. Globally, the majority of players bet online. The Internet is where lottery operators face the toughest competition, particularly from illegal and unauthorized lottery and betting operators.
Sports betting offers on digital platforms must be extensive and competitive in terms of the type of sports offered, the number of competitions, and the diversity of markets covered, and they must be user friendly. Therefore, it is important to increase the number of events and markets that your sports betting offer provides, to benchmark your lottery against its competition, and to continually upgrade your sports betting products.
Although most state lotteries enjoy a monopoly in their respective jurisdictions, they should strive to maintain their gaming products on a path of continuous improvement. Players will often compare your gaming platform with those of illegal and unauthorized gaming operators. They will complain if they find your gaming products lacking in features or unengaging. In order to maintain player loyalty, it is essential to take their feedback seriously.
Maintaining a competitive approach allows you to achieve two objectives :
- Increase your GGR
- Channel the public’s natural desire for fun and entertaining games into legitimate, regulated gaming offers.
Restrictions on offers and functionalities
It is important that the regulatory restriction of illegal lottery and betting operators be maintained. As state lotteries generally operate solely within their own jurisdictions, they usually do not have the financial capacity to invest in their gaming products to the same extent that online, illegal operators do. As such, illegal gaming platforms, if allowed to operate unfettered, will always have a competitive edge over state-authorized lotteries and sports betting operators.
In order to adhere to responsible gaming policies, some lotteries may opt not to implement certain features of their sports betting offer. For example, they may consider that the cash-out functionality does not align with their responsible gaming policy.
For this reason, before you optimize your sports betting offer, it is essential to balance its marketability against its potential risk for exacerbating gaming addiction.
Once again, a business case that takes your opportunities into consideration while doing a thorough risk assessment is of vital importance. This helps you bring both the financial aspects of the product development and the potential responsible gaming risks together into proper perspective, so that you can make informed decisions about your sports betting offer.
Once the marketing and IT teams agree on the product, the responsible gaming team should thoroughly vet the product to ensure that all guidelines have been respected and that the sports betting offer does not pose a risk to your players. Age restriction in online platforms is easy to implement. Player registration is generally mandatory on legitimate online lottery platforms. If there are age restrictions, lottery operators can consult their database to see if the player meets age requirements or has shown any potential for gambling addiction.
Betting limits and player profiles
Online betting platforms provide many tools that can be implemented in helping players who are prone to compulsive gambling to keep their playing habits under control. Allowing players to set their own betting limits is one such feature of online betting platforms that has proved to be effective.
Such tools generally allow players to set daily, weekly, and monthly playing limits, or to set their limits according to their budget. Once players have exceeded one of their limits, they will be excluded from the platform for a designated period of time.
Playscan is a behavioral analysis tool that is used by many lotteries to detect risky gambling habits and to notify the player and the lottery operator when a player shows signs of gaming addiction. Through an initial questionnaire, Playscan evaluates each players gaming habits. A color code – from green to dark red – lets players know if they have a low, moderate, or high, risk profile. The tool also keeps track of how often players play and how much money they have spent. As players approach their designated limits, they are warned by the system and encouraged to slow down. Lotteries that are currently using Playscan include Svenska Spel, Norsk Tipping, FDJ, and Loterie Romande.
Retail channels
Age limits
The legal age requirements for sports betting vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In most countries, sports betting is restricted to people over 18 years of age. Sports betting fans are typically under 35 years of age. People of this population segment are generally more vulnerable to gambling-related problems.
Age limits should be clearly recognizable for players at retail outlets. All Point of Sale Materials (POSM) and terminal screens should prominently display the legally-designated age limits for betting products.
Should there be any doubt about a player’s age, the retailer should ask the players to provide identification. Some lotteries require that players enter their date of birth into the lottery terminal at the retailer to verify their age before play is initiated. At any rate, the retailer bears the responsibility for ensuring that gaming products are not sold to minors. Retailer training and education should be an important part of any lottery’s responsible gaming program.
Pictograms
At the retailer, different touchpoints are used to inform players about the availability of sports betting and to promote among other items, key competitions, the game of the day, and the betting odds. Like many other product categories competing for attention at the retailer, lottery and sport betting products need to stand out. Marketing is a vital tool for making potential players aware of your gaming products and for animating them to play. However, it is essential that responsible gaming measures are an integral part of your marketing communications; in part to satisfy your regulators, but largely for the protection of your players. Effective marketing communication will help your lottery grow sales and GGR while ensuring that the well-being of your players is safeguarded.
Integrating pictograms into your lottery-product POSM can be an effective way of introducing responsible gaming measures into your marketing material. Examples of effective pictograms include:
- The 18+ symbol, informing players that a particular category of gaming product is only suitable for people over 18 years of age.
- The “Play responsibly” symbol, reminding players that they should enjoy playing within their financial limits.
Such pictograms raise the player’s awareness to the sensitive nature of the games they are about to indulge in and remind them that they should play moderately.
Self-service terminals
Unfortunately, competition from illegal operators can be found at some Points of Sale (POS). Through the use of VPNs, some retailers have been known to offer illegal sports betting products from offshore betting platforms on their Self Service Betting Terminals (SSBT).
However, in order to remain competitive and to make your products widely available, distribution expansion through the use of SSBTs is worth considering. SSBTs provide autonomous product availability at the retailer and in environments that have little or no connection to the lottery.
To prevent minors from playing on SBBTs, some lotteries are exploring the integration of age controls, whereby players must enter their age and additionally scan in an ID that is verified through an external database. This poses a minor technical challenge but would meet responsible gaming requirements where age limits are a concern.
Lotteries should consider the retailer an important partner in their effort to protect minors and secure the well-being of their players. We encourage lotteries to ensure and support the efficient and effective application of responsible gaming principles by retailers and their front-line staff. In this regard, providing your retailers with training in responsible gaming, distributing literature on gambling addiction at the POS, and introducing responsible gaming measures into your marketing materials, are indispensable and worth the effort. The WLA Responsible Gaming Framework (WLA-RGF) requires member lotteries to support their retailers in an efficient and effective application of the seven WLA-RGF responsible gaming principles. Visit the WLA website for more information.1
1 The WLA Responsible Gaming Principles. https ://www.world-lotteries.org/services/industry-standards/responsible-gaming-framework/principles
