Intralot training starts

Some Victorian newsagents start training on the new Intralot lottery offer next week. The considerable change this will bring to our businesses will be welcome. Beyond having new products backed by an advertising and marketing campaign, there is the change in mindset Intralot is bringing to the lottery space and newsagencies more generally.

Since newsagencies were created we have lived with a territorial mindset. Our discussions with suppliers and our views of our colleague newsagents have been through the prism of territories. In 1999 that was broken but not really since the new contracts from newspaper and magazine publishers and distributors maintained the territories – albeit with some changes.

Intralot changes that for Victorian newsagents. There is no territory. I see this as a good thing because it treats us like other business people. Whereas previously we could rely on geographic exclusivity to drive traffic to our Tattersalls counter, for the Intralot products our efforts as retailers will be more important. The smart operators will pick up this opportunity and run as fast as they can to beat other Intralot outlets.

While some newsagents (and others) are angry at the changes in the lotteries playing field, I suspect we will look back on the non-territorial position Intralot has adopted as being the wake-up call newsagents needed. We are business people after all and the best exclusivity or territory we can have for our businesses is the one we make and own for ourselves.