Yuval Ganot,  Co-Founder and CEO of LottoYard

 
Yuval Ganot has been immersed in the Lottery Messenger industry for the last five years, building and managing 3 global, B2C Lottery Messenger brands.
More recently, Yuval founded and manages Lotto Yard, the world’s first B2B Lottery Messenger platform, which already boasts a number of quality, operational white labels.  Lotto Yard has offices in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Israel, Georgia, Philippines and Spain.
Yuval has 19 years of diverse, International sales and marketing experience, spanning several online
industries. Before entering the lottery messenger industry, he was the founder and CEO of a leading Green Card Lottery company for 10 years, having previously been the founder and CMO of an autonomous robotics company.
Yuval is married with 3 sons, holds an LLB and a BA with a major in Accounting.  He’s a keen runner, an extreme sports enthusiast, and loves hiking.

1) What has been happening in the lottery industry over the past year in terms of growth, new brands and new affiliates?
The industry has grown greatly and new brands are being constantly added. There is a greater interested in international lottery brands which are becoming more readily available to customers. One example is of a customer from Iraq who but an online ticket in the American lottery in Oregon.  This player won $6.4M and received the funds. This story received international coverage and helped increase the interest in international lottery sales.
There has also been an increased interest of affiliates. More and more affiliates from the gaming and binary fields have identified the potential of the lottery field which have resulted in an increase in media companies and affiliate networks opening up in this area.
 
2) Numbers – what are the main numbers in the industry (player value, term, costs, etc)?
Player value –The average is 800 Euros over a 9 month period.
CPL – $3-5
CPA – $40-80

3) In the past few years there was high expectation that the lottery industry would grow very rapidly. This has not occurred – what is your opinion about this phenomenon?
There was a lot of buzz about lottery and it naturally attracted people who were not previously involved in the industry as well. As a result few brands opened quickly and did not grow as planned.
We choose our business partners very carefully and ensure that they have the right qualifications and capabilities which greatly increases the chances of success.

4) What are the new regulations?
Every country has its own regulations and it is therefore advisable to check each case individually.
 
5) Developments – What are the latest developments on the technical and marketing side?

• Ticket iframe – This tool embeds a lottery ticket iframe widget on your site, thus improving customer engagement.
• Smart links – Used to pre-fill your customers’ carts with a variety of lottery products, resulting in increased revenue.
• Push notifications – Ideal for sending notifications to clients for increasing retention.
• Email marketing – Integrated within the leading mailing service companies, thus resulting in optimized campaigns that create more traffic, as well as higher conversion and ROI (return on investment).

6) What do you think needs to be done in order for a new lottery brand to succeed?
It is important for the brand to have a high level of marketing and sales skills and to be prepared to invest a significant amount of resources in these fields. The brand would need to hire the right people and know how to manage them effectively.

7) What is your company’s uniqueness?
We are the world’s leading lottery platform with proven success. We have 5 years of experience in the lottery field and a professional team with over 20 years of call center and online experience.  We are result oriented and are very focused.  I think focus is an important factor for success.