Singapore Pools, a state-owned gaming operator, provides safe and trusted betting to combat illegal gambling activities in Singapore. Their over 300 branches and authorized retail outlets allow people to place bets on lottery games such as Toto, 4D and Singapore Sweep as well as sports betting events like football matches, motor racing events and horse races.
The company is constantly innovating to meet their customer’s needs better, so to meet this aim they need to ensure their IT infrastructure can keep pace with future business environment shifts. They also embrace digitization for operational efficiencies as well as strengthening responsible gambling measures for customers.
Collective Campus was chosen as their partner to equip their employees with the skills and tools to become more creative, as well as generate better ideas for Singapore Pools. After two one day tech crash courses covering ideation methods, innovation theory, and key emerging technologies – participants were empowered with practical knowledge they could bring back home with them and implement immediately into their teams.
Singapore Pools recently switched their application monitoring system from on-premises to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), giving them greater insight into the operation of their applications and improving service quality for their customers. OCI allows Singapore Pools to quickly address issues faster and minimize outages during times of peak demand; its automated alerts and dashboards help optimize system efficiency to provide a superior experience to its users.
Singapore Pools was established in 1968 and has always taken an innovative, IT-enabled approach to lottery and gaming operations. For its 2022/23 financial year, they collected close to S$9 billion from players; approximately 70% was returned as winnings; 22% went towards tax revenue collection from government; while 5% went directly to Tote Board grants for arts, community development, charity, education health sports sectors.
In 2022, Singapore Pools enhanced its e-services portal to make it easier for people to learn about self-exclusion and find help for problem gambling. According to data provided to ST by the National Council for Problem Gambling (NCPG), almost twice as many individuals banned themselves from online Singapore Pools gambling compared to last year.
Counsellors whom ST consulted noted the rise could be attributable to several factors, including Covid-19 regulations and emergence of alternative gambling options like sports betting and casinos. Counsellors also pointed to increased awareness campaigns regarding social safeguards as well as Singapore Pools’ enhanced website and e-services portal which allowed people easier access to information regarding gambling addiction and recovery support services.