Allwyn has kicked off a major rollout of over 30,000 new Lottery Wave terminals as it moves to the next stage of its transformation plan.
The terminals include a high-speed processor for faster transactions, a bigger and tilt-adjustable LCD screen, wireless 1D barcode and 2D code scanners, and a play slip reader that can be fed both horizontally and vertically.
They also provide retailers with more functionality, including enhanced reporting features and the ability to change numbers on National Lottery Fast Pay cards.
In the first six months of the year, Allwyn rolled out the new terminals to 8,000 retailers, which were previously using Compact Lottery Terminals.
By the end of August, nearly 4,000 more will have their legacy Altura terminals replaced with the new machines. From September, Allwyn is aiming to install thousands of the terminals a week.
“Having the new terminal in store has been amazing. It is so much more responsive and easier to use, which has been especially important to us as we recently had some PR around a millionaire made in store, so our store has been much busier selling those lucky tickets,” said Nisa retailer Stephen Harrison.
Allwyn director of operations Jenny Blogg said: “This is another massive undertaking from Allwyn as we deliver generational change to the National Lottery.
“We have invested more than £350m in a comprehensive plan to transform the National Lottery, substantially improving its operations and technology.
“These will support exciting plans we have for new games, a better player experience, and a commitment to double returns to Good Causes from £30m to £60m every week by the end of our 10-year licence.
“Over the coming months, our team will be delivering and installing thousands of Wave machines every week. We understand the importance of this new technology in enhancing the in-store experience for both retailers and their customers. We are thrilled at the highly encouraging feedback we have received for the new Wave machines.”
Largest-ever upgrade
The rollout follows the completion of the National Lottery’s largest-ever technical upgrade since its inception in 1994. It involved launching new terminal software, crucial back-end tech upgrades, and complex data migrations, including the transfer of tens of thousands of retailer records and millions of transactions.
When the technology updates took place from 2 to 4 August, National Lottery services turned offline from 11pm on the Saturday night, preventing players from logging into their online accounts, buying draw tickets or claiming prizes – in-store or online – until Monday morning.
Allwyn asked retailers to take a number of actions to streamline and speed up the process as well as to prevent delays, including retailers keeping their terminal plugged in and powered on all weekend, to allow critical software updates to take place.
It expected that a small proportion of legacy in-store terminals would experience delays coming back online if certain upgrade processes were interrupted for various reasons.
Several disgruntled retailers took to LinkedIn to complain about the “poor delivery” of the major systems upgrade, which left them out of service for days after it took place.
Go Local retailer Reuben Singh Mander said: “We’re now left with valuable till space taken by an unusable terminal, huge scratchcard stand gathering dust, and damaged customer confidence.”
An Allwyn spokeswoman said: “We always said that we expected that a small proportion of legacy Altura terminals may experience delays coming back up for various reasons – including some that didn’t download the new software successfully.
“We’ve been busy visiting and troubleshooting with the very small number of retailers who have experienced any residual issues. In Mr Singh Mander’s case, in addition to his legacy terminal issue, he has also experienced a further network/connectivity problem that we’re trying to resolve urgently for him. We’re really sorry for this and he’ll be getting another engineer visit today.”
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