WLS 2022

Reuniting the lottery community

More than one thousand international delegates attended the World Lottery Summit (WLS 2022), the industry’s flagship event. Highly successful and the most sustainable WLS to date, it took place at the iconic Vancouver Convention Center at the city waterfront.

Organized together with North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) and hosted by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), it was the most sustainable WLS to date.

An outstanding business program

Keynote speakers, recognized globally as leaders in their fields, addressed themes of importance to the lotteries.

Sustainability

Caitriona Le May Doan, former world and Olympic champion speed skater and inspiration for the next generations of athletes talked about the need for leaders to adapt and innovate and that in her view, leadership was defined by resilience and how to deal with both failures and successes.

Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa, physician and advocate for diversity and inclusion shared examples of how to make organizations more equitable and productive, by ensuring more diversity in discussions throughout an organization and to encourage diverse representation at the highest levels.

WLS 2022 attendees were able to see many of the good causes supported by WLA members at the “Play for Society” wall, reminding everyone of the reason for our existence. Marga Hoek, global thought leader on sustainability in business gave effective examples of doing ‘Business for Good’, such as novel ways to curb pollution and address global hunger. She underscored the importance for lotteries to contribute further to projects that strive to solve large-scale global problems.

Innovation

Paramount for lottery industry growth, innovation is also vital for competing with direct gaming competition, legal and illegal, as well as with other players in the entertainment industry who also vie for the customer’s discretionary income. Michel Laprise, Emmy award winning director at le Cirque du Soleil noted that in his experience it was key to gather new ideas from all employees for the creative process and that the best results came from projects with greater challenges.

Leonard Brody, recognized as a ‘leader of the new world order’ examined the impact rapid change that innovation has had on the world and talked about the need for the lotteries to choose the most effective means to make their story and values clearly understood by the next generations of customers. Jim Harris, another bestselling author discussed disruptive innovation – the trends of the future and how to mitigate their associated risks. He also noted that the lotteries needed to improve at telling their stories of the great causes they support, which should be easier to find online.

Technology has never been more pertinent to all our lives. It has always been the backbone of operations, but COVID-19 drove home the point that the agility of our systems permitted us to keep working and to grow during the pandemic.

Ayesha Khanna, Co-Founder and CEO of ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) solutions firm spoke about AI and how new technologies disrupt and transform, something we continue to see in our industry, whether marketing our products in the metaverse or making them safer and more responsible for players using AI. She also highlighted that with sustainability as a driving force, the future lies in a world that is highly digitized and highly multi-functional, providing people what they want via artificial intelligence and that with increased digitalization came more responsibility around data management.

Our final keynote was Lars Silberbauer, a digital engagement and brand market guru whose focus on a people-first digital strategy and demand marketing led to successes in his work at Lego and the International Olympic Commission. Silberbauer talked about how to transform a brand. He emphasized the need to belong to a community, be consumer centric and to do what feels right rather than safe.

The nine parallel sessions offered lottery industry experts the opportunity to discuss and exchange on how our organizations are addressing the issues raised by our keynotes. They delved into topics including the evolution of sports data, illegal gaming and dealing with non-authorized operators, as well as marketing and reaching new audiences, the links between transformation, innovation and security, responsible gaming and corporate social responsibility.

Participants were able to discover latest developments in technology, products and services from over 40 international exhibitors, including WLA Platinum and Gold Contributors as well as suppliers, who demonstrated the latest in technology and marketing innovations at the WLS 2022 trade show.

WLA General Assembly

The WLA General Meeting took place on 19 October, during which the membership approved the suspension for 2022 of the two-term limit for the President and re-elected the Rebecca Paul as WLA President for a further term. The eight members elected to serve on the Executive Committee were:

• Andreas Kötter, Westdeutsche Lotterie GmbH & Co. OHG, Germany, as Senior Vice President
• Younes El Mechrafi, La Marocaine des Jeux et des Sports, Morocco as Vice President
• Jannie Haek, Nationale Loterij, Belgium
• Lawrence Lim, Magnum Corporation, Malaysia
• Stéphane Pallez, Française des Jeux, France
• Francesco Parola, IGT Lottery S.p.A., Italy
• Nigel Railton, Camelot Group PLC, United Kingdom
• Silvio Vivas, Instituto de Ayuda Financiera a la Acción Social, Argentina

Two Honorary Member nominations were approved during the meeting. Honorary Members are not directly responsible for representing a WLA lottery and are recognized for their significant personal contribution to the lottery industry.

Congratulations go to Tan Soo Nan – former CEO of Singapore Pools, Member of APLA Executive Committee, and WLA Executive Committee APLA representative, as well as PGRI Hall of Fame member, and Risto Nieminen, former CEO of Veikkaus, WLA President and Executive Committee member, and member of the EL Executive Committee member.

WLA Awards – Recognizing excellence

As is the tradition, WLA recognizes outstanding work and personal contributions are celebrated during the World Lottery Summit.

For more information about the WLS 2022 Award winners for:

• WLA Advertising Awards
• WLA Responsible Gaming Awards
• Guy Simonis Lifetime Achievement Award

Passing the torch to WLS 2024

Members can log in and relive the great moments of WLS 2022. Check out the videos, listen to the inspiring keynote speakers and experts in the parallel sessions here: