ICT crucial in the National Lottery's competitive world
The National Lottery combines the fun of responsible gaming with added social value. The stakes are high, and Proximus NXT is helping the country's biggest lottery operator to protect its players online and to stay ahead of the competition, thanks to digitalization.
Piet Van Petegem, Chief Technology & Information Officer, and Marc Genin, IT lead at the National Lottery, work with a fifth of all the National Lottery employees in the IT department. A fifth. That makes the importance of ICT within the organization immediately clear. They give the National Lottery a place in the digitalized market, together with Alexander Van Balen, Account Executive, Dirk De Smet, Success Manager at Proximus NXT and with the Proximus NXT ecosystem partners.
Competitive market
Piet: "At the National Lottery, we work hard every day to make millions of Belgians dream while supporting sports, culture, and charities to make society a little bit warmer. In recent years, our market has become very digitalized. The point of IT is to help us stay competitive."
Marc: "Anyone playing with the National Lottery can do so at any of the more than five thousand outlets or online. While around 75% still prefer offline channels, our digital platform is growing rapidly. It has about 1.8 million active players. Improving player security, the continuity and quality of our services, and the performance of the games are serious challenges where we count on Proximus NXT."
From telecoms to ICT
Alexander: "Our partnership with the National Lottery started back in 2016. At that point, our partnership focused on managing telecoms. We have been ensuring the link between the points of sale and the National Lottery headquarters for many years."
Marc: "Proximus is a long-standing partner of the National Lottery. When it came to renewing and modernizing our digital channel, Proximus NXT immediately positioned itself as a key partner for the success of the project. At one point, Proximus NXT provided network traffic to our points of sale, and has now become a partner that lets us implement a range of player experiences across our various sales channels securely. We now face a range of multichannel challenges. For us, Proximus NXT is an ICT partner that can offer a high level of expertise and service.”
Piet: "A key moment in our collaboration was the expansion of our Secure Content Street, a secure online gaming platform. We have really taken innovation to heart."
Cybersecurity priority
Piet: "We process about 365 million transactions a year. That is also why the National Lottery constantly has to ward off cyberattacks. The keywords of our cooperation are security, reliability, and availability."
Marc: "That brings high security requirements and requires scalability. Proximus NXT, together with Codit and Davinsi Labs, have helped us to build an environment and a set of solutions that can guarantee this security and quality to our player at the level of Internet access and the platform."
Alexander: "Under no circumstances can it be possible for the winning numbers of the Lotto to be leaked in advance. Together with the experts from our affiliate Davinsi Labs, we carry out threat assessment to ensure that all players can play safely online."
Our large pool of experts in our ecosystem helps our teams grow along with the needs of the National Lottery
Dirk De Smet, Success Manager at Proximus NXT.
Cloud-first
Dirk: "We also support the National Lottery's cloud-first strategy. Codit's data experts help us with integrations of different platforms and with the development of APIs for Business Intelligence purposes."
Marc: "In terms of strategy, everything concerning the cloud is going perfectly. The technical aspects and the operational aspects sometimes create challenges for both of us."
Dirk: "Our large pool of experts in our Proximus NXT ecosystem help our teams grow along with the needs of the National Lottery." That means that we can always offer the right solutions. Trust develops and we naturally grow together by developing and delivering successful projects together.”
Together, we are building ultra-modern platforms and taking the innovative path.
Piet Van Petegem, Chief Technology & Information Office at the National Lottery
Around the table and at the coffee machine
Piet: "The contact with Proximus NXT's ecosystem is very enriching. Right from the beginning, we were assisted by Proximus NXT's management and they in turn have been supported by the necessary experts. That has led to an exciting coalition with a team of experts along both sides. We come with new plans in meeting rooms but we also enjoy an informal chat at the coffee machine."
Company profile National Lottery
The National Lottery organizes public lotteries, competitions, and games of chance in a socially responsible, reliable, and safe manner. The National Lottery enjoys a unique profile within the world of gaming. It is the only gaming provider where 100% of the profits go straight back into the community.
Piet Van Petegem is Chief Technology & Information Officer at the National Lottery.
Marc Genin is IT lead at the National Lottery.
Alexander Van Balen is Account Executive at Proximus NXT.
Dirk De Smet is Success Manager at Proximus NXT.
