A primer for Lottery startup

23 July 2014
Lottery is probably the oldest form of raising money for good causes. The Great Wall of Chi-
na is probably the oldest known project nanced by the lottery prots. Lottery business in-
volves many moving parts like any other business, but there are a few learnings specic to the
lottery industry.
However, the foremost difference is that almost all
the lotteries have a good cause to fulfill from the
profit, that is used for the betterment of people. The
leading example is UK health lotterys significant
contribution to the local health related causes.
The beginning
LocusPlay Mobile LotteryIn majority of the cases,
lottery jurisdictions are regulated by govt. or govt.
appointed entity. A business that is planning to offer
a lottery is required to secure a license. A lottery
start-up can start the operations only after securing
a proper license. In some cases, the design of lottery
games is also required in the lottery license applica-
tion. It is a good idea to complete the lottery game
strategy prior to commencing the operations. It is
also important to generate interest among the play-
ers. Around 2-3 months prior to launch is a good
lead time for marketing activities.
The research
It is important for lotteries to identify the target au-
dience from the pool of players. They can be cate-
gorized based on various factors like Age, Gender,
Occupation, Income etc. Once the target group is
identified as an initial pool of potential players, the
lottery games can be designed accordingly.
The build-up
Once the research is in place and lottery game de-
signs are complete, the marketing team can swing
into action to prepare a plan for the first few weeks
and review the impact of the campaign. It is impor-
tant to keep the initial campaign as tight as possible
in terms of time and budget to make the feedback
loop effective.
The tools
As they say, it is also important to find the right
tools for the right job. The jobs include lottery op-
erations, marketing and finance at the bare mini-
mum. All of these groups might need different
technologies to work effectively. It is advisable to
run a couple of pilots with the selected tools to do
away with surprises during the full-scale operations.
With the abundance of technology choices, it is not
a good idea not to use these tools and rely on pen-
and-paper operations or traditional pre-printed tick-
ets as it significantly limits the business sustenance
due to widely known security and scalability issues.
The partners
It is important to identify and secure partnership
with various service providers. The lottery business
does need the help of various service providers
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including financial service providers like bank, cel-
lular operator, hardware provider to keep servers
and databases, technology provider that helps in
minimizing infrastructure cost and increase profits,
retail partners. Lottery should forge a relationship
with these partners in a timely manner.
The finance
Based on all the above factors, the budget required
can be calculated. Once the number is derived, the
lottery can pursue various means to arrange the re-
quired financing to ensure the smooth operations.
Conclusion
A lottery has to analyze the basic needs in the tar-
get jurisdiction with a lot of emphasis on the legal
facet. A successful demonstration of meeting the
good cause could be a primary driver for the busi-
ness. A lottery also needs to implement a frame-
work to keep minors away from gambling in the
true spirit of Corporate Social Responsibility. With
all these considerations, a lottery can start smooth
operations with more social acceptability among
players.
To learn more about mobile lottery technology, visit us at www.locusplay.com