Foreign lottery operators in Nigeria lose N25bn on low technology

The Managing Director of Lotgrand , operator of Grandlotto Yellow Terminal brand, Mr. Niyi Adekunle, said that foreign operators in lottery business in Nigeria spend an average of N25 billion annually to acquire, deploy and maintain lottery technologies.

Adekunle, whose company has revolutionised the lotto business in Nigeria with the Machine Number Series (MNS), while speaking with Business247 Online News in an interview in Lagos noted that lottery, has emerged as one of the most popular form of gaming in the world.

“We can save huge foreign exchange for the benefit of the economy if our technology sector can support our business with the right technology software and hardware,” he opined.

According to him, technology hardware component alone constitutes 40 per cent of lottery operators’ technology spend. “Payment for the acquisition of software licences and support services constitutes another 20 and 40 per cent of our annual technology budget spend respectively,” he explained.

He spoke further that the game has more followers than online casino and easy to play, adding: “lotteries are extremely thrilling, and promise players good profit. As such, lottery operators strive to make these games even more fun by utilising technology.”

Amid a highly competitive digital landscape in the lottery industry in the country, Adekunle projected that the operators’ annual spending on technology would witness an exponential increment in 2017.

“I see more players in the industry spending huge on instant game inventory management systems, lottery gaming systems, retail point-of-sale technology, mobile apps, USSD platform, data and communications links and internet platforms,” he added.

While forecasting the growth rates in mobile lotteries sales in 2017, he said smart operators were now adopting the USSD codes to attract new set of target market and obtain a higher percentage of infrequent players and net new audience.

He challenged indigenous IT players to focus their innovations on the lottery industry and compete for a big chunk of the market share so that the local economy can reap from the hyper growth of the lottery industry.

He lamented that with the country’s high level of sophistication and global view, it has remained “net importer of lottery technologies.”