Self-service is becoming the standard for quick and easy POS retail service – with excellent customer acceptance and a growing number of machines and applications worldwide. Self-service machines are positioned in all kinds of environments: Tradition- ally used for dispensing parking tickets, drinks or snacks, these devices in recent years have become a common sight in fast food restaurants, post offices, shopping malls, fashion stores, airports and super-markets as self-service solutions for purchasing almost any kind of product or handling customer service requests faster and more conveniently. Nowadays you can purchase freshly cooked Ramen, an electric bike or even cryptocurrency from a vending machine.

The NOVOMATIC ITVM was specifically deve- loped as an instant ticket vending machine and represents a state-of-the-art design and technology solution for discerning lottery operators, but its potential fields of application are endless. Based on the company’s comprehensive experience and market-leading position in the areas of video slots, sports betting and gaming equipment – which act as self-service gaming machines – NOVOMATIC decided to develop a POS solution that will shape the future of lottery retail.

The self-service lottery ticket vending machine fea-tures eye-catching advertising content on a vertical 43” 4K PCAP display that draws the attention of nearby customers in every point of sale. The lottery can increase its footprint and revenues at low ope-rating costs with a centrally-managed vending machine that offers multiple cross-sale and up-sale opportunities via its integrated state-of-the-art, web-based digital signage content management system. In idle mode, the ITVM transforms into a powerful advertising tool for the lottery, displaying full-screen video advertisements.

With a vibrant and responsive touch-screen user interface, every purchase is a memorable, interac-tive experience and gives traditional lottery pro-ducts a refreshed look and feel. Up to 16 different types and sizes of physical instant tickets from any ticket manufacturer can be offered on the vending machines, as well as a practically unlimited num-ber of lottery games (quick pick or self-pick), sports betting, e-instants and many more products. For increased security reasons, the instant tickets can also be activated through the device. The ITVM offers a variety of menu and product infor-mation options for players as well as functionalities for the lottery to up-sell products during the pur-chase process. Via the user-friendly menu, custo-mers can select and add various lottery products of their choice to the dynamic shopping basket that allows them to review and edit their selection prior to check-out and purchase.

Fully compliant with modern Responsible Gaming requirements, the secure and modern age-verifica-tion via contactless credit or bank card guarantees the protection of minors as it forestalls under-age play. If the age-check is passed, customers can select their preferred payment method from a variety of convenient cash, cash-less or contact-less options: bills, coins, credit card, bank card, contactless and mobile payments. Once the purchase is complete, the ITVM dispenses the selected products, which may be the lottery’s standard scratch card or a lot-tery ticket produced by the integrated compact ki-osk printer, together with any cash change in the collective dispensing compartment.

For lottery players, the ITVM offers a user-friendly, quick and entertaining customer experience that can be conveniently positioned in public waiting areas like train and bus stations, airports or malls. In busy retail locations, it helps to reduce queuing and increase sales, thus serving the lottery, the re-tailer and the customer. The vibrant 4K touchscreen is ideally poised to promote jackpot announce-ments and special promotions via the full-blown content management system, to increase customer curiosity and impulse sales.

The modern and flexible vending application and its functionalities support an entirely personalized customer journey – depending on the operators’ demands or pertaining regulatory requirements: player card, prize check and payout, favorite games, e-wallet, loyalty programs etc. The integrated 1D/ 2D barcode reader guarantees instant ticket and mobile app compatibility as well. Through its capa- bility to read smartphone screens it offers an en-tirely seamless premium customer experience.

Lottery operators benefit from best-in-class cabi- net technology and premium quality components as well as sophisticated back-office functionalities with maximum security. The lottery can remote-ly and in real-time monitor every ITVM across its entire network: machine status, inventory and maintenance status, plan-o-grams, customized notification settings as well as comprehensive sales and reporting data complement the powerful CMS tools. For guaranteed customer satisfaction, each ITVM is also equipped with backup power to en-sure that running purchase transactions can be completed in case a power failure occurs.

The first customized series of ITVMs has been rolled out in co-operation with the national lottery in various locations across Austria – among them shopping malls, supermarkets, post offices, cinema centres and gaming venues. Branded in the lottery’s typical red-and-white logo style, the machines offer the complete portfolio of instant tickets as well as Lotto, EuroMillions and Joker games. The initial response from players signals that NOVOMATIC’s several decades of self-service gaming machine experience as a manufacturer can bring real inno-vation to the lottery sector.

Daniel Óvári, Product Manager: “I believe self-service is currently living its second revolution and will shape the future of retail. NOVOMATIC’s brand new SelfService Lottery16 can help Lotte-ries to stay on top of emerging technology trends and to remain relevant to the new generation of players.”