Leading the development of AI for lotteries at Veikkaus

How important is technology, in particular AI, to Veikkaus?

Technology is very important to Veikkaus, which employs around 60 data and analytics professionals. We were the first to launch a web store in the gambling industry in 1996, and have been one of the forerunners in this industry, for deploying artificial intelligence.

Our web store is the largest in Finland in terms of revenue and customers. Since the beginning of 2024, all online and physical gaming has required identification, even scratch cards. Consequently, we have a vast amount of player data available to us, upwards of 200 TBs, from our 2.5 million registered customers.

Artificial intelligence offers many benefits, for the services we offer to this scale of customers. We began to develop AI models in 2011, when we put some black box AI solutions into use and soon built an in-house AI machine system called Sense in order to achieve full transparency. Sense was launched it in 2017.
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We now have a modular recommendation engine for the website, mobile app, CRM and digital marketing. This transparency has enabled us to see what works well and what doesn’t, and further develop the models.

We have also been able to scale the performance and development of AI solutions in the cloud and increase the number of use cases. Our first pilots using generative AI were run in 2023 using best in class solutions.

It is also important to note that in 2021, Veikkaus published ethical guidelines with key principles for the use of artificial intelligence across its operations. This covers transparency, privacy, responsibility and customer focus, including the secure storage and processing of data used by AI tools.

How does data and AI help your business operations?

Such large volumes of data combined with utilization of AI and advanced business analytics, greatly benefit our business, whether it is our customers or gross gaming revenue.

We use data from our business operations for traditional reporting and data visualization, business analytics, and monitoring our marketing services. We use customer data to personalize player experience directly in the customer interface, where over one billion automated decisions are made, and to providing effective responsible gaming measures.

How does data and AI enhance the player experience?

Our employees find the customer data invaluable. A deeper understanding of player preferences and habits enables, for instance, better designed games and targeted customer-centric content.

During the WLA/EL Marketing seminar in February 2024 we presented examples of how Veikkaus uses AI to personalize the front page and other pages of the webstore with improved, tailored offers to customers.
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We have integrated Sense into our website and our app to be able to provide customers with choices. Our webstore is the largest online store in Finland and therefore it is the main channel to enhance better customer experience with personalized offerings.

For example, customers receive a ‘next best action’ after they play a game. This could be customer loyalty program benefits, or useful content to read. Our website offers vast sports content, including news, reports, and statistics.

Another one of our aims is to optimize the way players can find the games that they want more easily and to use different formats to present the options.

One of the success stories has been a personalized banner for e-instants games. Our presentation at the WLA/EL Marketing seminar demonstrated the success of the A/B testing, where players were five times more likely to click on the game that was being customized by our Sense AI tool, versus using our popular gaming selection offering. Additionally, Sense learns from the choices it provides players, based on the offers they click, which continues to improve the experience.

How do you use AI to achieve Responsible Gaming?

AI is at the heart of our Responsible Gaming activities. For instance, with the AI system we have integrated into the cloud, we use player data to establish a gambling risk score for each player. All players must set a gambling limit.

With this information, we can help those who may be at risk of gambling addiction. A couple of years ago, we began a pilot project, where we contacted at-risk players when we saw changes in gaming behavior. The calls were very well received, and helped players to set better limits.

Find out more about Veikkaus Responsible Gaming measures.

What does the future hold?

Fennica Gaming was established by Veikkaus and is part of the Group. It is a B2B company that provides gaming solutions and services to lotteries, currently on three continents.

Fennica Gaming continues to develop use cases for AI with the aim of offering our products and services to our lottery customers. Looking ahead, we would like to better understand what stage lotteries have reached in the deployment of AI, what interest they have in it, and what capabilities already exist. We have already had some conversations with our lottery customers to see if Sense could be a useful tool for their portfolios, if we were to further develop it, and it seems that there is a lot of interest to use our Sense tool.

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