The world of iGaming is fiercely competitive, forcing operators to work very hard to differentiate themselves from the herd. They must be creative, agile and respond quickly to market changes. EveryMatrix helps address the Rubik’s Cube of regulation, player preference and content management with a product suite and services that address Integrated player management, payment gateway and a plethora of games.
The European-based company founded in 2008 boasts over 550 employees in 9 offices and services operators in jurisdictions across Europe, Latin America, and soon, the United States. The latest commercial hub opened in 2021 in Miami, Florida, to provide support to clients in North and South America. EveryMatrix’s government lottery client list already includes multi-vertical venerable industry names such as OPAP and Norsk Tipping.
In 2020, EveryMatirix hired Frank Cecchini as Senior Business Development Manager. His storied career includes four years as CEO and Managing Director of NOVOMATIC Lottery Solutions and 14 years at GTECH (ending as Regional VP-Central Europe).
“My primary role at EveryMatrix is to help the organization better understand and address the needs of customers from the World Lottery Association (WLA) world,” explained Cecchini. “My experience in the lottery combined with new learning from the much faster moving and more competitive iGaming arena will help us deliver products to level the playing field for lotteries. This is a world where online companies compete for the same player, in the same jurisdiction with the same games. This sector has far more competition.”
Cecchini has one foot in the lottery world and the other in the commercial gaming arena. “The biggest difference I have seen in the past two years is how quickly this very flexible technology can be applied to update and enhance platforms or content,” observed Cecchini. “When a rule or law changes or perhaps a newly released game becomes very popular and must be included, the system can adapt very quickly. Speed is everything. One of the key strengths of EveryMatrix in the global gaming market is the rate at which the company can integrate new game vendors, payment providers, or betting markets.”
EveryMatrix helps online casino and sports betting clients operate in a fast-moving environment with razor thin margins. “iGaming websites are like department stores that sell the same products, and even if some are organized differently, in the end, they sell largely the same brands. How to differentiate? Why do some customers go to Neiman Marcus and others go to JCPenney,” said Cecchini. “It is because of pricing, ambiance, and other factors that need to be captured, understood and applied. You must leverage data to win the players.”
Fierce Competition
Cecchini’s mission is to bring the same tools commercial operators use to maximize responsible play and returns to good causes. “My heart is in this lottery space,” confessed Cecchini. “The pressures are different, and competition is intensifying. When the first secondary lotteries came on the scene, they were able to generate sales of $300 million in Germany alone. These operations have ridden on the back of lottery brands, but as there is no pari-mutuel element, they have far more margin to play with. They can market a much wider variety of games, including sports betting which makes them more attractive to younger players. No doubt, WLA lotteries will face increasing pressure from these gambling sites.”
Globally, Covid-19 has facilitated a significant channel shift from retail to online. In common with other retail-based industries, lotteries with a digital presence have been able to mitigate loss on revenue from the closing down of retail outlets. “My personal objective is to work with first-tier lottery organizations as lotteries are 30% of the gaming market. Serving major partners from the WLA lottery world is without any question a big component of the future of EveryMatrix.”
Lotteries around the world—and in particular in Europe—face increased competition from the private sector. “We have the rise of the secondary lotteries,” warned Cecchini. “They have applied the lessons from the gambling companies in going for lottery customers. In the end, it is the same product. The difference is less money for good causes and more to marketing and profit for private firms.”
Cecchini emphasized that lotteries can compete and turn the tables on secondary lotteries, but now is the time to do so. “The longer the lotteries take to learn the lessons of customer management, the more customers they will lose. That is especially true for younger players who do not have the brand loyalty to traditional lotteries.”
The EveryMatrix system also enables lotteries to integrate third-party game providers in a matter of days instead of months. EveryMatrix has about 175 content providers offering about 11,500 games. EveryMatrix organizes how those games are personalized to the player depending on the kind of player they are. This information is in the back-office profile of that player.
On the continuum between lottery and commercial gambling, EveryMatrix is in the middle. “We are not operators,” explained Cecchini. “We are a B2B company. EveryMatrix can help lotteries maximize profits for good causes, just as we do with commercial operators. We are here to make lotteries more competitive and help defend their markets. We can increase their revenues safely and responsibly. The technology that most gaming operators use is way ahead of the legacy platforms being used by many state lotteries. They are far more agile and cost significantly less.”