What is SMS?
Short Message Service: An enormously popular way for mobile phones to send and receive text messages. Each individual message can be up to 160 characters in length.
What is interesting about SMS?
First of all, SMS is available on every mobile phone using GSM. This is the mobile telephony standard used in most of the world. The number of GSM subscribers has grown from 1 million in 1990 to 787.5 million in 2002. (Source: GSM Association)
Second, SMS has become the most popular way to communicate for the 18-35 year age group. On average one billion SMS messages are sent per day (Source: Mobile Data Association).
Okay so it's very popular. But how can my lottery organization benefit from it?
There are a couple of ways how lotteries can take advantage of SMS. First as a means for players to get information about lottery games and drawings.
Second as a means for players to buy a lottery ticket impulsively and pay for it right away. The player pays through his phone bill or through a prepaid account with the lottery. This way, a player can read a lottery advertisement in the train or watch a show on TV and participate in the lottery draw by buying a ticket right away.
Finally, it can make the playing experience a lot more fun, allowing impulse purchase of rapid draw games, anywhere and at any time. Winners can be alerted right away that they have won something.
The key thing is that it allows lotteries to offer lottery products to the 18-35 year age group using a channel that this group is very familiar with. This group uses SMS to communicate with friends and colleagues and for entertainment. SMS is the perfect means to engage the 18-35 group leading to higher sales from new players.
You mean that a player can simply pay through their phone bill?
Yes, in many jurisdictions it is possible to work with the phone company in the same way as one would traditionally work with an agent. The phone company guarantees the payment for the player.
Are there other organizations that take advantage of the benefits from SMS?
Yes, in particular in entertainment and gaming. TV broadcasters are getting substantially more revenue by having viewers participate in shows using SMS. In the UK, the TV show Big Brother generated 6.6 million SMS messages at a premium rate within a few hours.
The phone companies are getting about 10% of their profits from SMS. SMS messages containing ringtones and logos were worth about USD1.7 bn in 2002 according to the Wall Street Journal.
I have read a lot about new technologies for mobile phones. How do they relate to SMS?
There are indeed a lot of new SMS like services being launched. The most popular ones are EMS and MMS. These are like normal SMS messages however sounds and video can be added. The nice thing is that this will make the playing experience even more fun. Imagine playing oddset and getting a message that shows the winning goal of the match.
It is important to keep in mind though that few of these new services have reached the mass market penetration that makes SMS so attractive. Therefore, the key is to start with SMS to take advantage of the fact that every mobile phone supports it and that it is very popular with the 18-35 year age group. One should make sure that the underlying technological platform can support the new technologies from day one.
What registration methods does Openlot support?
The Openlot platform supports a number of registration methods that can be implemented depending on the local requirements.
- Internet registration
- SMS registration
- Voice response registration
- Combination of SMS and voice response registration
- Mail-in registration
The registration process typically includes name, address, mobile phone number, date of birth, bank account number, fiscal (Social Security) number and permission to receive special offers. Openlot has a patent pending method for using the combination of SMS and voice response to register as well as a challenge-response method that verifies the identity of the person entering the information. Depending on the local situation, the information can be checked against public records. Age verification can be applied depending on the regulations in a jurisdiction.
In which ways can Openlot connect to the GSM operators?
Openlot supports most of the ways to connect to GSM operators and their billing systems, including SMS, EMS, MMS, USSD, IVR over connections varying from X25 to HTTP. New ways to connect to the system can easily be added, as Openlot’s structure is completely flexible and modular.
What payment methods are supported for players to pay for lottery entries and for players to receive their prizes?
Openlot supports all conceivable payment, excasso and wallet options, including:
- Bank transfer
- Payment through the phone bill for prepaid and postpaid telecom subscribers
- Prepaid card dedicated to the lottery
- Openlot E-wallet (customer virtual account) and other E-wallet systems
- Credit card
- Payment at lottery agent
Openlot has a patent pending method whereby players can start playing by paying through, for example, their phone bill. The moment that a player wins, automatically an e-wallet is created. Players can then select if they want the money to stay in the e-wallet, to be transferred to their bank account, to be credited towards the phone bill or to be paid out by an agent.
Is it true that SMS is not secure and that a small percentage of SMS messages get lost?
Much like E-mail messages, SMS messages are encrypted. This encryption can be broken by skilled hackers. Therefore, Openlot has designed a solution that does not require any secure messages to be sent from the player’s telephone to the system. Openlot also takes care of the fact that a very small percentage of messages get lost.
My lottery has had discussions with telecom operators in our jurisdiction. Since we pay out more than 60% in prizes and since the telecom operator wants a large percentage of the money that they collect for us, we don’t think it is possible to use SMS as a billing mechanism.
Openlot has designed business models that allow lotteries to work together with telecom operators. Telecom operators such as Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, KPN and O2 are working with these models together with lotteries. The Openlot solution also takes care of the fact that, unlike telecom operators, lotteries typically do not charge VAT or sales tax.
What games does Openlot support?
Openlot supports all the traditional lottery games such as Lotto, Oddset,Tote, rapid games and instant games. In addition, Openlot has designed a portfolio of games that are specific to mobile phones and the Internet.
If one starts with the minimal configuration for Openlot, what is the upgrade path?
Openlot is independent of the underlying database, application server and operating system. The system is designed in such a way that it can be upgraded easily and quickly.
As a minimal configuration, we recommend PostgreSQL database, Jboss application server and Linux operating system. As a high-end configuration, we recommend Oracle, BEA under HP Unix.
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