Exclusive: Giovanna D’Esposito on Why Global Lottery Growth Requires Local Fit, Strong Partnerships and Trust

In this exclusive interview with iGaming News Today, Giovanna D’Esposito, Chief International Officer at FDJ UNITED, reflects on the lessons she has learned from building businesses from the ground up, including Paddy Power and Sky Betting & Gaming in Italy. She explains why successful international expansion requires the right combination of skills, discipline and mindset – and why local legitimacy can sometimes clash with the processes and expectations of a central organisation.

She also explores the changing lottery experience, from the continued importance of retail to the rapid growth of digital and the emergence of omnichannel products that connect physical and online play.

Q1. You have had a diverse career across different industries and markets. What initially drew you to this kind of work, and what has kept you excited about it over the years?

Giovanna D’Esposito:

For almost 20 years, I have found myself involved in high-growth or hyper-growth environments, transformation, internationalisation, expansion into new territories and the development of new products.

What has attracted me to this work is the opportunity to introduce innovation and transformation, and to take established, well-functioning businesses and test them in a different geography or context. It is very challenging and comes with both external and internal difficulties, but seeing the results is incredibly fulfilling, both from a business and human perspective.

A crucial ingredient is of course to take people on the journey with you. They need to stretch themselves, test their abilities, adapt and sometimes change their mindset. That can be difficult, but it is also very enriching personally and professionally.

Q2. You have built businesses from the ground up, including Paddy Power and Sky Betting & Gaming in Italy. What did those experiences teach you about what it really takes to build a successful business in a new market?

Giovanna D’Esposito:

I would summarise the lessons in three areas: skills, discipline and mindset.

When you start building a new business from the ground up, you need people who are adaptable and able to move between operational detail and strategic thinking. The ability to be nimble and flex your skills as the business evolves can initially be more important than having deep expertise in one particular technical area. Specialisation and deeper expertise become increasingly important as the business develops.

The second element is discipline. When you are building something new, you set yourself in start-up mode, even when you have a large corporate behind you. And like in a start-up, you lean towards fast moves, overlook planning, and prioritise short-term output over processes, automation and structure. The issue is that when you are part of a broader corporate context, this often comes at a high price, i.e. dysfunctional ‘shortcuts’ that the organisation can’t absorb, relationship damage, and ultimately longer-term operational and financial sustainability.

Having the discipline to build efficient and sustainable ways of working may not always deliver immediate benefits, but it pays back over the longer term.

The third element is mindset. This is particularly important when a local business is supported by a strong central organisation. The center brings capabilities, resources and processes, but those typically come with expectations about how things should be done, whether this is linked to the group’s risk profile or plain and simple human preference for the devil we know

That mindset naturally can clash with local legitimacy and local requirements. Addressing it requires a mix of diplomacy, coaching, courage and strong leadership at group level. In my experience, that is at the same time the most crucial and most overlooked aspect of such projects

Q3. When you are working across multiple markets, how do you decide what should be part of the wider strategy and what needs to be adapted locally?

Giovanna D’Esposito:

There’s no one-size-fits-all model. Lotteries can run as full end-to-end B2C operations or as B2B setups, where a company supplies only parts of the value chain – and the right fit depends heavily on local laws and regulations. Markets also differ depending on whether we already have a foothold there: FDJ UNITED, for instance, may already run betting and gaming operations in a market before entering it with lottery.

Still, some principles hold across the group. The first is positioning-what the brand stands for. Play Safe is central to FDJ UNITED: sustainability, responsible gambling, and regulatory compliance aren’t up for negotiation.

The second is leveraging expertise. FDJ UNITED has run the French lottery for nearly 100 years, building deep know-how in product portfolio optimization, retail distribution, and commercial strategy-backed by roughly 29,000 points of sale in France and 5,000 in Ireland. That’s operational knowledge worth exporting.

But some things have to stay local: regulator relationships, government affairs, institutional stakeholders, partnerships, local ecosystems.

So the approach is essentially hybrid: take the best capabilities from the centre and adapt them locally. What is centralised should not simply be determined by a fixed rule such as technology always being centralised or digital acquisition always being local. The principle should be to centralise  those assets and capabilities that need to be safeguarded and are unique for a given brand, and those where efficiency can be created without impacting local execution adversely.

Q4. Partnerships are clearly important for international expansion. When you are looking at a potential partner in a new market, what makes you think, “Yes, this is someone we can genuinely build something with”?

Giovanna D’Esposito:

There are several things I look for.

First is complementarity. For example, FDJ UNITED builds a significant part of its own technology stack, but as a primarily lottery-focused operator, there are certain technology components that we may decide not to build ourselves. In that situation, we look at the quality, price, availability and time to market that a technology partner can provide.

The second consideration is whether the partnership strengthens our right to win in a particular market. If we are entering a new market, a partner with strong local credentials, distribution capabilities or retail relationships can significantly strengthen our position and credibility with decision-makers.

The third element is cultural fit. We need to understand whether we can actually work effectively together. That includes how partners approach joint decision-making, external stakeholders and, where relevant, working together as part of a consortium or equity partnership.

For example, FDJ UNITED places a lot of importance on having constructive relationships with regulators. We therefore need to make sure that a potential partner’s approach to regulators and other external stakeholders is compatible with our own.

Q5. Lottery has traditionally been closely associated with retail, but consumer behaviour is changing quickly. How do you think the lottery experience will evolve as digital and mobile gaming become a bigger part of everyday life?

Giovanna D’Esposito:

Digital lottery is growing significantly faster than retail lottery in many markets, although the pace differs considerably between regions. Some of that is related to the maturity of local regulations and the products available.

In some European markets, particularly parts of Scandinavia, digital has become extremely significant and has almost replaced retail in certain areas. In other markets, digital penetration remains in the low single digits, often because the retail distribution network is particularly strong and there is a good combination of entertainment products available at the point of sale.

Over the next five to ten years, this development will continue, but at different speeds across markets. One particularly interesting area is omnichannel.

In some jurisdictions, digital lottery still faces restrictions or suspicion from local governments. In those markets, omnichannel products can provide a gradual route towards digitalisation.

For example, FDJ UNITED has products where a player buys a physical scratch card at a retail point but can then continue the experience online through a QR code. If they win online, they can still collect their winnings at the physical point of sale.

This creates a bridge between the traditional retail experience and digital and mobile play. The future is therefore not necessarily about choosing retail or digital, but about creating a seamless experience across both.

Q6. AI is becoming part of almost every business conversation. When you look specifically at lottery and gaming, where do you see the most interesting opportunities for AI?

Giovanna D’Esposito:

FDJ UNITED has a very strong focus on AI. Around two years ago, the company appointed a Chief Data and AI Officer at leadership level to ensure that the technology is being leveraged across the business.

The approach is comprehensive. AI can support customer experience, productivity, anti-fraud initiatives and responsible gambling, rather than being limited to one specific area.

One obvious application is game development. Developers are increasingly using AI, which can shorten development cycles and support creative processes. AI can help create more engaging content while also allowing teams to bring products to market more quickly.

Another important area is cybersecurity and system security. AI creates new risks because it can be used by bad actors, but it can also become part of the solution and help strengthen security systems.

For FDJ UNITED, one particularly important application is responsible gambling. The company has developed proprietary, AI-enabled tools designed to identify potential problem gambling at an early stage and support appropriate interventions.

The objective is to detect potential problems earlier, implement the right remedies at the right time and ultimately reduce the proportion of problem gamblers.

Q7. You have led businesses through market entry, rapid growth and transformation. When so many things are changing at once, what is the one thing a leader needs to get right?

Giovanna D’Esposito:

For me, it comes down to trust, although that word gets used loosely.

In a leadership role, trust extends well beyond your direct team. Leading transformation means winning the trust and support of stakeholders across the wider organisation, even when the change is hard on certain parts of it. You also need trust outside the company-entering a new market or forming a partnership means building credibility with people who don’t yet know you or your business. Without that trust, your odds of success shrink fast.

I also don’t believe there is one single type of leader. Everyone draws on different tools based on their personality, experiences and background. For me, building trust means walking the talk – making sure my behaviour is aligned with the values I communicate to my team.

The other piece is truth-telling. Sometimes leaders have to say plainly that what worked yesterday won’t work tomorrow-markets shift, competitors emerge, new markets bring new rules. That can trigger defensiveness or fear, so truth-telling has to be constructive, not confrontational. It’s about having the courage to name what’s working and what isn’t, while offering a path forward.

Consistency, courage, and constructive truth-telling-that combination is what builds trust that lasts.

About FDJ UNITED

FDJ UNITED is a leading  gaming and betting group in Europe operating across lottery, sports betting, online gaming, payments and related services. The group says it serves 33 million players, has more than 5,700 employees, operates in over 10 locally regulated markets, and generated €3.7 billion in revenue in 2025.

Following the integration of Kindred, FDJ UNITED operates through four main business units, including International Lottery, alongside French Lottery and Retail Sports Betting, Online Betting and Gaming, and Payment and Services.

The International Lottery business is focused on building a multi-jurisdictional lottery position through a combination of international expansion, adaptable and scalable models, strategic partnerships and investment in iLottery.

Giovanna D’Esposito leads the International Lottery business, and FDJ UNITED officially lists her as Chief International Lottery Officer within its Executive Committee.