Malta’s National Lottery Goes Cashless with NOVOVISION

NOVOVISION is the solution of choice of National Lottery plc, the exclusive concessionaire of the national lottery of the Republic of Malta. The company operates a network of 240 licensed lottery shops, 170 of which are operated via a network of authorised distributors, while 70 are directly operated by the National Lottery of Malta. National Lottery offers a broad range of lottery products, sports betting, electronic gaming machines (EGMs) in the retail market. All products offered through the retail network are also offered online via three distinct ecommerce sites, offering casino, sports betting and lottery products.

The operator has implemented several modular NOVOVISION functionalities to support smooth business processes and maximum user convenience for the players. The NOVOVISION wallet serves as a unique single wallet solution for slots play and sports betting, and is supported by biometric fingerprint recognition to guarantee secure authentication for all wallet transactions.

NOVOVISION cash terminals have been deployed by the National Lottery of Malta with the aim to establish cashless payment transactions in the proprietary retail network. A total of 32 cash terminals have been installed in the shop network to date, half of which are the NCM 40 model and the other half the slim-line successor model NCM 70. This medium-capacity cash terminal provides reliable cash handling for mid-size venues with up to four possible denominations and 500 banknotes per cassette, as well as a 11” PCAP touch user interface. The robust cabinet guarantees best-in-class reliability and ease of use with excellent ergonomic positioning for all user interface units and front service access. A broad variety of options such as NFC reader, numeric keyboard, fingerprint scanner and full TITO capacities recommend this cash terminal for all operator requirements.

The rollout of the NOVOVISION cash terminals with the National Lottery of Malta started in July 2022, with 16 machines installed by the end of 2023, and was accelerated in 2024 with a further 16 terminals installed in March and the remaining 24 units pending delivery in the weeks to come. The terminals have been customised to perfectly fulfil the operator’s requirements and facilitate a number of processes, such as cashless top-up and withdrawals from the player’s NOVOVISION wallet, cash payout of the National Lottery’s EGM, lottery and sports betting tickets generated by third-party systems from a single terminal as well as the issuing of vouchers for non-dispensed cash.

“The implementation of the NOVOVISION product across our retail network is part of an innovative strategy that the Group has been pursuing over the past years. Our intent was to provide a customised solution for our retail customers via a single wallet across a diversified product portfolio. The NOVOVISION solution has proven to be an ideal solution for our environment and has been very well received by our customers. The product has enabled us to implement a process that is built on delivering efficiencies and enhancing our safety measures across the retail network. The customization of the product to our needs has been one of the most important elements of this project,” Franco de Gabriele, Chief Commercial Officer of National Lottery plc, said.

“Our solution for the National Lottery of Malta is a prime example of the high degree of customisation that NOVOVISION delivers – with a unique product that facilitates slots, lotteries and sports betting payments from a single cash terminal, while having a single wallet that caters for different products with the use of our NOVOVISION wallet solution. It allows for ultimate customer satisfaction. We are very grateful for the excellent cooperation with the teams of National Lottery plc in this project and particularly proud to provide a leading-edge cashless solution that brings so many benefits for both, the operator and its customers,” Werner Kearns, Sales Manager at NOVOMATIC Biometric Solutions, said.