Paper lottery, on your phone, in two countries

For decades, people had played the lottery on paper.

Moving it to the phone sounded easy. Getting people to come back every week and tell others about it was harder.

The challenge was habit. These were lifelong players, used to paper. If the app didn't give them a reason to come back, they had no reason to switch.

All of this, in two countries. Spain and Mexico each have their own regulation, and every feature had to fit the local rules.

I joined TuLotero in Customer Support. Eight months later I was the product manager for the development team.

From then on, my job had two halves: product and operations.

On the product side, we launched Peñas, Lotería de Empresas and Sorteos Tec in Spain and Mexico. Each one was adapted to the regulation of the country where it launched.

We built our anti-fraud function from scratch, with an in-house team.

On the operations side, I led teams across several departments in two countries: more than 30 people. In Mexico I also handled the relationship with public bodies.

When operations in Mexico needed stabilising, I spent 15 days in Mexico City.

To set up the company in Colombia and Bolivia, I negotiated with local accountants and lawyers.

Four parts. The first three are app features. The fourth watches over everything else.

• Peñas (lottery syndicates): you buy a share of a ticket, a percentage of it. That way you play more numbers without spending as much.

• Lotería de Empresas: the Christmas Lottery for companies, with no trip to the lottery shop and no paper tickets to manage. The company gives you a code, and with it you get access to its ticket in the app.

• Sorteos Tec: the Tec de Monterrey draws, in Mexico.

• Anti-fraud: looks for suspicious patterns and, when one is flagged, applies an automatic block.

The app pulled off the hard part: retention and word of mouth.

Over those years, the business grew from about 10 million to close to 100 million in gross turnover. That's down to the whole company, not any one feature. But operations had to grow at the same pace, in two countries.

What I took away: in a regulated product, local rules drive the design. Taking it to another country isn't a matter of translating the app. You adapt each feature until it fits.

And operations, anti-fraud included, grow with the business or fall behind. If they fall behind, the player notices.