程阳：《彩票人》Lottery Insider CEO

厄尼•奥基夫 Ernie O’Keefe 访谈

 

Interview with Ernie O’Keefe

Managing Editor and CEO, Interplay Multimedia - Former Editor, Lottery Insider

 

Since 1996, virtually everyone in the lottery industry has relied on Lottery Insider for daily news and a whole lot more. Ernie O’Keefe has served as its editor and primary driving force since he launched the service after a successful career with NSW Lotteries. He recently stepped down from the day-to-day production of Lottery Insider to focus more on strategies for the company as Managing Editor and as Chief Executive Officer of its parent, Interplay Multimedia. With a bit more time on his hands these days, he spoke with Insights about Lottery Insider.

 

www.lotteryinsider.com

 

What prompted you to create Lottery Insider in 1996?

 

During my ten years at NSW Lotteries I was always annoyed that the hard copy industry magazines we received in those days were always between four and six months out of date. So when I left to join the board of Interplay and take up the role of Chairman of Access Gaming Systems, neither of which was a full time job, I found I had some time on my hands. As I had been involved with the Internet since 1992, I thought the logical thing to do was start a website service aimed at the lottery professional who wanted to keep up with the latest industry news, stories and government decisions affecting our industry in a much more timely manner.

 

Tell us a little bit about what it takes to produce the newsletters every day and every week. What goes on behind the scenes?

 

The staff of the Australian branch of Interplay consists of three full-time employees, one permanent casual employee and a number of casual employees (university students) who assist with the daily research.

 

Our day is divided into shifts. A typical day starts around 2:00 a.m. (AEST) when my daughter Tracey starts putting the newsletter together. She will start with sorting through the mountain of articles that were assembled by the team the day before, including anything our social media manager has found on Twitter and related sites that she considers relevant to our subscribers.

 

Thankfully we have also built up many connections in the industry over the years, so a lot of the information that we receive is actually sent to us by NASPL members and other associates and vendors within the industry. These press releases are sorted and assigned a priority, as we receive far too many for use on any one day.

 

The newsletter is usually uploaded to our server and released between 5:00 - 6:00 a.m. (AEST). This compensates for the time difference between Australia and North America.

 

The Mittagong office opens at 8:30 a.m., and two of our team work normal office hours, while Tracey works a broken shift. Our casuals work from home and email their contributions throughout the day and night. Of course, in addition to producing the daily newsletter, there are the usual financial activities and site maintenance that have to be attended to each day.

 

In total, our permanent and casual employees working on Lottery Insider usually put in around 200 hours a week.

 

 

Lottery Insider is more than just a newsletter, it’s a well-developed website with lots of information. What are the most popular parts of the website?

 

Yes, Lottery Insider has grown over the years to being much more than a newsletter. There is news on legal, legislative, political and government issues, along with news on lotteries, Internet gaming including lottery, vendors, charitable gaming and bingo. There are separate sections for lotteries/vendor/director profiles, media releases, feature articles, lottery results and even an events calendar. Our classified section is considered an invaluable resource and is utilized extensively by the industry for posting jobs, tenders, industry publications, etc., and by people searching these subjects.

 

The headline page www.lotteryinsider.com/subs. htm and the NASPL news page www.lotteryinsider.com/ nasplnews are the most popular, with people checking in each day to see if any releases interest them. We naturally have peaks and troughs throughout the week, but mostly every page receives its fair share of traffic.

 

Our recent foray into social media has produced amazing results. Our social media pages (Twitter, mobile and iPad and breaking news) seem to be really gaining a dedicated following. Readers can check in and see what “up and coming” news is happening pretty much by the hour depending on our staff workload. The complimentary weekly edition has always been popular and that remains so, although we are currently working with our UK team to see where we can broaden this offering and add a new mix to the page – it’s a work in progress you might say.

 

Lottery Insider has also expanded from just lottery coverage to slots, bingo and online games, and not necessarily only those areas with only lottery components. Do you see this expansion continuing?

 

Has your subscriber base changed in response to that expansion, or was your expansion based on a changing subscriber base? Or maybe it’s just that none of the lines are black and white anymore.

 

It’s a mixture of all those things. As you say, there is no black and white anymore. And, yes our subscriber base has changed. For instance, we now have a large number of financial gaming analysts (Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and many more) who subscribe to Lottery Insider. When you consider we also count among our subscriber base a very large number of lawmakers, advertising agencies and gaming commissions, you can see just how far our subscriber base has changed.

 

Nonetheless, we still see ourselves as essentially a lottery trade resource. The lotteries are our passion and the support we offer them in recognition of the great contribution they make to good causes throughout the world is paramount to us – it’s our core business, so to speak. However, like any business we see the lottery industry as expanding – we now have lotteries engaging in online game play, operating casinos, and some are even heading into the poker arena. It’s a broad platform out there these days, and the competition for the lottery player’s dollar has never been greater.

 

We try to keep our finger on the pulse, offering an insight into changing legislation and interesting articles that keep our readers informed on just what is hap- pening in both the hard and soft sectors of the gaming industry.

 

We believe that lotteries need to know who and what the competition is, what works and what doesn’t work. We review what has been tried and what is being contemplated. And we even offer a whole segment on promotion and marketing, simply to give our readers an insight on what’s current in advertising.

 

With over a million hits per month, we have broadened our offering to include a vendor’s directory and more comprehensive data on our lotteries – and this is expanding with the plan to have greater depth in statistics and sales figures moving forward. It’s not a question of what are we going to provide – we want to cover it all essentially – but our team can only work so many hours and that’s our limitation at present. We are working on ways around it, perhaps providing them with more coffee!

 

You truly have a global perspective. Any thoughts about regional trends?

 

I agree with a number of analysts that predict the Asia Pacific region will be the fastest-growing region for casino gaming spending over the coming years. Legalization is being considered in a number of Asia Pacific countries, while established jurisdictions continue growth spurts and regulatory changes.

 

A number of Asian countries are planning to advance the number of casinos that they currently have in a bid to attract tourists and become completely resilient to the crisis linked with the global economy.

 

Aside from the many casino complexes in the Asia Pacific region, the expanding online markets are continuing to impact revenue in a positive way. Growth rates for digital gaming is expanding in the region as more and more players are using smartphones and the Internet to play roulette, slot machines and poker online.

 

Obviously the lottery industry has changed dramatically over the years. From where you sit, what are the most positive changes and what are the most troublesome?

 

The most positive change is probably the almost universal acceptance of multi-jurisdictional lottery games.

 

The most troublesome is online gambling. It is the elephant in the room. Whether it’s online casinos, poker or sports betting, online gambling is a world-wide phenomenon that is gaining momentum regardless of whether regional, national and state regulators and lawmakers like it or not.

 

As you are aware, recently a number of jurisdictions have introduced legislation authorizing some forms of Internet gaming, while others have passed legislation specifically prohibiting all forms of Internet gaming, including the sale of lottery tickets over the Internet.

 

The problem here as I see it, is that if state lotteries are not put on an equal footing with international commercial gaming companies, their monopoly status will be diluted by restricting their ability to offer competitive services. Eventually it will erode their capacity to maintain revenue.

 

What lawmakers must realize is that the Internet makes gambling services more accessible to consumers and commercial gaming companies operating out of foreign jurisdictions can offer very low-cost access to most forms of gambling.

 

And, as gambling taxes constitute an important revenue source for state governments, I think lawmakers will eventually come to realize that future income from legalizing and taxing online gaming will be a useful source of revenue as they struggle to rein in deficits. To this end the European Commission is continuing to move toward the licensing of inter-country and interstate online gaming services, where liquidity is pooled and tax shared on an agreed basis between different tax authorities.

 

Take a look at your crystal ball and tell us where the industry is heading.

 

It is obvious that lotteries are losing their monopoly status in a number of jurisdictions. I think they will move rapidly to have lawmakers expand their product portfolios to retain and expand their player base.

 

Video lottery is an area I see more and more state lotteries moving into. The desire of lawmakers to raise revenue will no doubt override objections raised by faith-based and community organizations.

 

Competition by commercial gaming and bookmaking companies to introduce sports betting games into regulated environments will lead to an increasing number of lotteries emulating jurisdictions like Ontario (OLG) and British Columbia (BCLC) by offering betting on the outcome of sporting events. This could be a perfect fit with a lotteries product portfolio.

 

The push by commercial gambling companies will also force state lotteries to not only offer the sale of lottery tickets over the Internet, but also see them offer online casino type games.

 

These are just some of the areas I see lotteries moving into.

 

What will you miss the most moving away from the daily production of Lottery Insider?

 

I think I will always be 100 percent involved in Lottery Insider – it’s in my blood, and after working at it so constantly over the years it’s a little hard to switch off. However, I am looking forward to moving onto more exciting projects and the development area rather than the mundane day-to-day work of maintaining the site.

 

What will you miss the least?

 

The 5:00 a.m. starts.

 

OK, now for the most important question. How will you spend your newfound free time, since you basically have had none in recent years?

 

As Managing Editor of Lottery Insider, as well as taking on the role of CEO for our parent company Interplay Multimedia, I am not sure I will have that much free time, although I will no longer be putting in the ten to twelve hours a day.

 

My role now will be to focus on the company’s longer term strategies. We already have a number of other products and ventures underway which we consider vital to the company’s future.

 

But on a lighter note, I have three wonderful granddaughters and I am hoping to spend some more time with them now. I am lucky enough to cover all bases as two are teenagers who keep me up to date on the latest social media and tech ideas and the third is only two, so she keeps me fit just trying to keep up with her.

 

Of course my wife Carol and I are also involved in several community groups where we live in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. We are members of the National Trust and the Australian Garden History Society to name a few.

 

To sum up, I have had a wonderful time and made some great friends while I have been associated with our industry and now look forward to taking it just a little bit easier.