In conversation with Bragg: Amplifying lottery’s digital potential through gamification
What challenges do operators face in ensuring lottery games remain as attractive as other verticals?
“Lottery games are very traditional in nature, it’s a very granular format — you pick from a select set of numbers to have a chance of winning. The challenge is innovating that format, creating new experiences for players while still retaining the classic elements of the vertical that fans know and love.
“At the same time a lot of lotteries are land-based in nature, and have not transitioned online, or have transitioned online but have done so in a non-impactful way. In this environment, they can remain inferior to their competitors with a purely online heritage.”
How does gamification help solve these challenges and what market research did Bragg undertake prior to developing its gamification tools?
“Gamification can solve these issues by taking the best and most effective practices of online gambling marketing and making them accessible to a broader spectrum of verticals, such as lotteries and land-based lottery operators. Gamification can add another dimension to the offering by adding things like flash jackpots, tournament gameplay and bonusing.
“As an experienced supplier of content and content aggregation services to the igaming industry, Bragg is uniquely positioned to leverage these relationships to obtain data on what appeals to players, what players like and what they don’t like, and at a wider level, things which can shape all aspects of the player journey. We’ve used these insights to develop our Fuze toolset.”
Tell us about Fuze and how it can help operators to attract and retain players through gamification? What other features of Fuze make it unique, and in what ways will this boost a player’s experience, operator KPIs and increase a player lifetime value?
“As a marketing and player journey tool, Fuze is a one-stop-shop of tools which is constantly evolving and being added to as Bragg and its partners insights into players evolve.
“It is unique in that it’s a single piece of technology which can be easily integrated into any existing operator’s business, but not only that, access to the Bragg HUB for games and the Bragg player account management (PAM) proposition is included with the Fuze toolkit.
“Fuze can set up promotions to run on multiple games, with multiple game providers and in multiple casino, sportsbook, and lottery brands simultaneously, while its behavioural analytics help monitor and allow for adaptation of promotions in real time.
“Increasing player retention is the ultimate goal of any operator, and the Fuze platform carries the tools required to cater for players at all stages of their journey with our operator partners.”
In what ways can gamification have an impact on attracting new players as well as increasing player retention, and how is Bragg supporting this for its customers?
“Gamification can be applied to all aspects of the customer experience process, from converting early interest from potential players into actual customers, adding strategies to keep them engaged throughout their player journey and where applicable, to reactivating those players, who may have drifted away from the game for whatever reason.
“Our Fuze marketing tool utilises specific gamified marketing tools over these three stages, tools which are all accessible and easily interchangeable to suit the needs of the customer concerned.
“For example, at the conversion from potential player to customer, the operator can use our free rounds tool to encourage conversion and increase engagement. Later as a way of keeping the customer engaged with the offering, Fuze tools such as leaderboards, real-time tournaments and quests can be deployed, prolonging the engagement for the player.
“Finally, bonus promotions and promotional push notifications, and our game recommendation system can serve as useful tools to reactivate customer engagement, preventing churn and prolonging the player journey.”
Attracting and retaining players is just one part of the jigsaw for operators. Gamification tools can be useful for understanding player behaviour and individual player journeys, how do you feel this could prove beneficial to operators?
“Players and players’ habits change, that’s a simple fact. Today’s gamblers are a breed apart from their parents’ or grandparents’ experiences of gambling, especially in today’s smartphones, streaming and immediate gratification culture.
“Having the most up to date data on those habits, gameplay, play patterns, as well as the type of content which appeals to players is beyond useful for operators and this is something that gamification tools like Fuze allow operators to utilise.”
How does Bragg ensure its customers collect the most useful data for their unique ambitions?
“Bragg is perhaps unique in that it offers an AI powered Game Recommendation System which analyses player data and behaviour and generates personalised game recommendations, showing recommended games on multiple different channels.
“For me, responsible gambling should be high on the agenda for any operator, and we’ve been working to develop an industry-leading responsible gambling solution for our partners which collects data on players and uses AI-based automation to allow for early identification, detection and on-demand interventions where at-risk behaviour is identified.”
With these exciting data points at-hand, are there any downsides to gamification in lottery and how does Bragg anticipate and mitigate potential issues?
“Obviously, there will be players who do not need a gamified lottery, those individuals who prefer a traditional transactional style of lottery experience and inversely, there will be those whose experience of lottery is heightened by gamification.
“We want to cater to all types of our partners’ customers, and our gamification tools use player data to shape a less intensive gameplay and marketing experience for these players tailoring content accordingly.”
Do you follow certain metrics to ascertain the success of lottery games? Would you mind sharing some statistics to highlight the benefit of gamification in these titles?
“For me, success is never a finite thing, it evolves, and becomes something different every day. The overriding goal is to be as helpful and impactful for our partners as we can be, and the team and I are working constantly to ensure that becomes a reality.
“We are a data-driven content and technology supplier and of course, metrics are an important part of that delivery.
“Across the board, the benefits of gamification through the deployment of our Fuze marketing tools continue to be reflected in the numbers. For example, in 2022, games utilising Fuze tools saw traffic three times higher at game launch than those not using Fuze tools, traffic which drove a 280% increase in the number of players on these games. Additionally, Fuze boosted games saw a 250% increase in bets placed during 2022, with a 370% increase in average game rounds over the same period.
“But it’s not just about boosting performance over the short term, it’s about having a long-lasting effect on player engagement for our operator partners. On that score, we’re doing really well with players, bets and rounds being retained up to 30% more than those games where Fuze is not being utilised, 30 days post-promotion. So much so that 89% of operators that try our leaderboards have used them again.”
Working in a global industry can be challenging if an operator doesn’t accurately localise their content. How does Bragg ensure its clients are hitting key markets in varying regions?
“Great question. The importance of localised content when expanding into a new market can never be undersold.
“Bragg’s offering includes casino content from multiple in-house studios and multiple game partners building and releasing games exclusively distributed by Bragg, while our aggregation product has over 9,000 titles. Likewise, our remote gaming server (RGS) is licensed, certified and approved to offer casino games across 25 internationally regulated igaming markets, so in that respect our offering is tailored to be compliant with those markets.
“However, Bragg is unique in developing separate math versions of games for Europe and the United States, using knowledge of player preferences in these regions. We support our customers through all stages of the process, applying personalised interactions and proactive communications.
“Our customer support centre features access to native speakers, who are active 24/7 through multiple channels offering responses based on thorough data analysis and knowledge of player experience around the world.”
Conclusion
While fans of lottery have typically favoured tradition and familiarity, trends are evidently changing. It is Bragg’s confidence in the vertical’s digital potential that has led to the creation of the Fuze toolset, allowing operators access to accurate data stacks and the integration of relevant gamification.
But traditionalists don’t need to fear change, Mazij believes that gamification will not taint this vertical, but rather add a new dimension that stands to attract and diversify present and emerging audiences. Providing a positive effect on player engagement that is crucial for operators wanting to catapult their offerings ahead of the crowd.