Coming off a strong 2023 performance, Allwyn is focused on building on that in 2024.
To do so, the lottery supplier wants to expand on its digital innovation to drive more customers to its online product.
As the lottery provider for Illinois, Allwyn is looking to create digital promotions to build and retain Illinois online lottery players.
During La Fleur’s 2024 Raleigh Conference, Allwyn North American detailed its approach toward building its online player database.
Mega Millions, Powerball draw in new consumers
Allwyn looked to Nike as the roadmap for what it intended to do with its marketing and promotions.
It ideally wanted to create an infinite loop of product discovery and use. The overall goal was to convert consumers to the online product and retain their business.
To begin the process, Allwyn needed a catalyst. That came in the form of Mega Millions and Powerball.
Allwyn’s research showed that two-thirds of the Illinois adult population played one of the multistate lottery draw games in the last month.
That’s a big opportunity to draw people to the online lottery, according to Allwyn North America’s Director of Digital Products Brad Heathcote:
“Players are organically coming to us for Powerball and Mega Millions. Now it’s our job to let them not slip away, and lapse.”
Over the last two years, Illinois saw a 17% increase in participation in the two multistate draw games.
Allwyn leveraged that by drawing players to the Illinois online lottery app. There, it features a ticket checker that has scanning ability through the user’s phone.
Average app downloads increased by 53% during high-jackpot periods for Illinois. There was also a 43% increase in tickets scanned using the app.
Promotions take new players deeper into Illinois Lottery app
Once Allwyn is able to get a new user to the app, sweepstakes promotions have been the key to moving players beyond utilizing just Mega Millions and Powerball.
With Powerball, Allwyn ran a corresponding promotion called Powerball First Millionaire. It was a free-to-play promotion for a chance to win $1 million.
Allywn found that one in 10 retail players signed up for the sweepstakes, which required players to register for the iLottery platform.
One in three iLottery sweepstakes entrants went on to make an additional purchase on the app.
Allwyn also ran a promotion for a free Hot Dice online Fast Play game. The cost per acquisition (CPA) of the promotion was $17.73, which was about $20 less than the average CPA of a game or promotion.
According to Tina Wolf, VP of Product Strategy & Growth, these promotional introductions are key to growing the online audience:
“We all see it that these games help us organically drive people to understand our brands, but also create that initial engagement with us.”
The company found that its promotional messaging for these events led to 35% greater engagement compared to non-promotional messaging or evergreen advertising.
Key principles to keeping fresh online lottery players
Once Allwyn had brought in new players to its online product, it cited five key principles to its digital marketing approach:
Diversify look and feel: Offer games with a different look and appeal to different player segments. “It’s not one size fits all, give players a reason to try a new game,” Heathcote noted.
Increased value for increased spend: Encourage players to move up in price point by adding value to higher-priced games in terms of look and gameplay.
Recognize upsell opportunities: If a game is succeeding at a certain price point, consider making a similar game at a higher price point. Include what was appealing about the first version, but add to it to build on its success.
Minimize jackpot fatigue: Don’t look to rely on big jackpots frequently to garner one-time players. Make the games strong enough that players aren’t waiting for big jackpots in order to play.
Innovate, innovate, innovate: Create games with unexpected experiences that provide excitement for the consumers.
Through these keys, Heathcote and Allwyn are reporting increased online sales by 25%, while online players are up 30%.
“We are creating opportunities that have the widest reach, rather than just focusing on the same players over and over again.”
Photo by vectorfusionart via Shutterstock
Graphics from Allwyn and the Illinois Lottery
About the Author
