icelotto

icelotto logo
18 ratings
Overview
  • Payment options : Credit card, debit card, and a long list of e-wallets
  • Available languages : EN, FR, RU, DE, ES, NL
  • Customer support : email, chat and phone
  • Number of lotteries:
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icelotto is a leader among the online lottery carrier service providers. It has gone through some transitions and balanced at a good spot. Veteran players can notice the change of recent couple of years – new features, better stability, screen support, and a new app. Lottery industry experts see icelotto’s impressive booths at gaming exhibitions and can only aspire for such a positive momentum. Not all is sunny as the basis of the icelotto site is quite old and new features and elements are designed and developed to match the now outdated theme. icelotto is powered by Lottoyard’s platform and makes the most of it by using practically every feature it provides. Features and management are this brand’s highlights, but there are some past wrong doing to amend. All these will be covered in great details on this comprehensive review. Some of the elements taken into consideration are number of lotteries tickets are available for, payment methods processed, hidden fees, and more. No stone will be left unturned, and by the end of this page you’ll be left with a quick summary and a score. These two should help you make up your mind about icelotto.

REVIEW ASPECTS

To carefully and truthfully review the services Icelotto provide its players, several review aspects were gathered to provide a comprehensive image.

SECURITY

How safe is Icelotto’s site for players to visit? What value Icelotto’s trust logo’s and icons has. How well Icelotto score on neutral security test?

PRODUCTS

What selection of products Icelotto has to offer its players? How well these products perform? What added value players get?

FEATURES

What features Icelotto makes use of? How does these features affect the players’ experience? Are there any missing features other carriers offer?

PLATFORMS

On what platform can players visit Icelotto? How well available platforms are supported? How experience on each platform is tailored?

PROMOTIONS

What promotions are available for new players? How well are loyal players rewarded? What discounts are available on different products?

SUPPORT

How can players easily reach Icelotto’s customer support? What methods are there for reaching an Icelotto representative? and when – day and time?

Each one of the above review aspects is important on it’s own, and some readers would prefer to focus on just some that they care most about, but as a group they cover everything a new and experienced player would want to know about Icelotto as lottery ticket carrier services provider.

SECURITY

Under this section are the measurements Icelotto takes to keep the site secure, players data inaccessible to those of malicious intent, and servers stable. It’s of the utmost importance as you, an online lottery player, put your trust in the brand you buy lottery tickets from. This review aspect checks Icelotto is trustworthy.

HTTPS stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure, while SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. These two certificates are an assurance the site is secured and safe to browse, fill in personal details, and complete payment on. This is a server level protection. All data transferred between your computer and Icelotto’s servers is encrypted and unreadable to any other. This technology is widely used and for site’s dealing with users and processing of different payment methods, it is a must. An immediate visual identification signal is a padlock icon appears in the browser’s address bar. You can check yourslef the site’s certificate is by GeoTrust and a quick review shows it is installed correctly.

 

icelotto’s Google safebrowsing status is not dangerous. This means Google, that review billion of web pages each day to see if they’re dangerous for users to visit, consider icelotto to be safe.

 

As seen on other sites, icelotto are making use of a trust logo of McAfee’s SECURE services, but an inspection shows this is not the case . It doesn’t mean the site is not protected, but not making use of that antivirus service. Reviewed with both McAfee’s SiteAdvisor and Norton’s Safe Web there were no red flags raised, no threats detected, and no apparent security issues. Community rating on Safe Web is an impressive 5 out of 5.

 

Two other trust logos used at the sites footer has to do with the site’s online reputation. Webutation and Trustpilot both provide a platform for internet users to rate companies. While Webutation gives Icelotto an oddly perfect score of 100/100, TrustPilot considers only reviewers average score and gives a bad score of 2.7/10. These two are given a low value as has little to do with security, but users reviews were read and taken to consideration on other review aspects.

At the bottom of the site you’ll find several completely irrelevant trust logos and icons – iceSecure, ice+Responsible, guarantee 100% satisfaction, and Player Satisfaction score – they, of course, had no weight on score as they have no meaning or completely bias. This is even though this practice in not recommended. Only verified security services and audits take part. icelotto meets the security requirements and there’s no reason to worry about account details reaching wrong hands.

PRODUCTS

Icelotto is powered by Lottoyard’s online lottery ticket carrier platform. This platform, while not polished, offer a varied set of features and product types and icelotto makes use of most of them. They offer far more than the online lotto industry’s standard and really stand out on this review aspect with very few competitors scoring higher. Any lottery player will find a product to match his needs and wants, from those coming for the first time and want to try out to those who have been playing for years and playing big.

The basic lottery product. It’s one lottery line to the name of the player. Any prize this lines entitled for, is credited to the player’s account. There might be fees or tax to pay, depending on player’s country of origin. This is were the carrier service is used, there’s a person going to a kiosk at the lottery’s country of origin and completes a purchase. Other than providing the service of purchasing a ticket local for global users, there’s no other benefit.

Group is a pool of 50 different single lottery lines of one lottery. As there are 50 lines, the odds of the group to win a jackpot is x50. To buy into a group, a player has to buy a share. Each group is split to 150 shares. Whatever the group wins is divided between shareholders, meaning the more shares a player holds the bigger his prize. This product has a high chance of winning and a relatively low buy in, but it comes at a price of having to share the prize with other shareholders. This product is where online carriers really bring an added value, they manage a product that otherwise would have been complicate to create – 150 people joining efforts to purchase 50 tickets.

Buy once play multiple times. By completing one purchase, a player can buy a mixture of products, personal line and group share, of different lotteries and different draws. Some of the products cover draws three months ahead. Some of the products are only available through customer support. Some products can get weird and one should check from time to time a bundle is priced fairly as they can seem more attractive than really are. Bundles are a great example of the global service icelotto provides, with one transaction, a player can “locally” buy tickets from three continents.

For those who settle for nothing less than nine figure wins. You participate weekly on the lottery with the highest jackpot. It’s a shot and forget strategy. You can buy up to 100 auto picked lines of only the highest weekly jackpot. This promises you always participate in the lottery with the highest top tier prize.

icelotto offer four different product types, each one has it’s own benefits, and together they cover almost every player need. Not all is perfect, product description is missing on some occasions. Pricing can get a little complicated for comparison, it’s hard to tell if a bundle is priced to save a player money or just look like it.

FEATURES

Just as Lottoyard’s platform products are put to use on Icelotto, the features are to. Many of what the powerful platform offers comes into play on Icelotto’s site. Some nice to have but not so important features are missing, will probably show at some point in the near future.

A mandatory feature for an online lottery ticket carrier service is the multi-draw. It is the option of completing an identical product purchase to multiple consecutive future draws. Goal is to allow a player to complete one payment transaction for multiple future draws, and save a hassle – user can buy the same line to his favorite lottery for the next 2/4/8/26/52 consecutive draws. A big plus is the discount of each multi draw tier. It’s the logical choice if you play the same same product.

Next multi draw tier is a theoretical infinite number of draws, when completing a subscription purchase Icelotto will re-charge you every 2 or 4 weeks for the product. You’ll never miss a draw. It will continue to charge you until asked not to. It is advised to skip this attractive offer, forfeit its generous discount and stick to a limited number of multi draws.

Let Lottoyard’s random number generator automatically pick numbers for a lottery line for you with one click. Also one of the mandatory features as it is something players grew accustomed to from completing a purchase at the kiosk. Filling more than one or two lines could be tiring. There’s also the option of a Quick Pick 5 and 10 lines. Note, clicking 5 or 10 would reset and already picked lines and not fill in the missing lines to 5 or 10.

Proceed to checkout with a pre-picked lines with one button. While the features is welcomed, there is an issue of inconsistency in the language on the site and it’s hard to tell if a click would lead to a product page or straight to checkout.

Other than the standard lottery results feed, there’s the option of querying for past winning number. While limited – can only check winning numbers of last 10 draws – it should answer most players’ need. Most would check if they won in the account section. There are brands who got this feature much better.

Lottoyard’s most attractive unique selling proposition to its licensees is it’s cart feature. This is a key feature allowing users to complete multiple products purchased in one transaction. Icelotto wrapped this feature nicely with a couple of additions – the ability to edit pretty much any product setting from within the checkout page leaving no reason for a player to go back to a previous page, an option of adding leading products to the cart with one click and without leaving the checkout page.

icelotto got the key features right, there’s room for improvement, but there always is. Cart is a big step for competitors to gap. There’s a constant stream of updates to the site, and tracking how well icelotto perform on these same features in the following months would be interesting.

PLATFORMS

Players switch between devices many times throughout the day – mobile, tablet, office PC, and home PC are a standard for many. The services that not only supports, but cracks user needs and usage, platforms wins! Users make use of these devices on different times of day, and on different locations. A good service to users would be to tailor the user’s experience to the platform he’s using.

 

site is outdated at a width of 980px, it’s most likely to meet needs of a variety of desktop users, but in contrast to current design guidelines. Definitely room for improvement with a smarter responsive design. There are some bugs and scripting failing to load issues, but nothing critical. Just a matter of not paying attention.

Served with the desktop view tablet has a very poor experience – page doesn’t fit the width of the iPad the site was reviewed on, and some elements were broken. This is definitely something Icelotto should handle ASAP. Since this is the desktop version, there’s no support for gestures where it is acceptable to use theme. This is leading to a confusing UI. Picking numbers for a lottery line is terrible, their clickable area is just too small.

For mobile devices Icelotto offer a dedicated view with limited functionality. Features that were excluded from the mobile version are those who might not be as useful on the go as those who were included. Overall experience is decent, but there is a lot of room to grow on this aspect. Clicking on a BUY TICKETS button could redirect to a group product page or a personal line product page, you just can’t tell until you’re being redirected. Main menu is amateurish at best. The interesting products of bundles and jackpot hunter are far at the bottom and it’s a shame.

On an impressive effort, Icelotto came to market on January 2016 with a very appealing app for both iOS and Android. iOS app is available for download on the apple’s App store, and the Android version is available through direct download from Icelotto as Google doesn’t allow gambling apps on its Play store. There’s a missed opportunity as the apps are not promoted on the mobile view of the site and there’s a poor landing page, with many errors and mistakes, for downloading the Android installation file. The app allows for a stream of updates through push notifications, this is helpful for avid players.

One one hand, icelotto released a nice app for iOS and Android, but on the other, the overall web experience is lacking. There was no though put into tablet view, and that’s a shame. Mobile has a more tailored experience, but limited functionality and unimaginative UI damage the flow. They’ll have to put the same effort to the web design as they did with the app.

PROMOTIONS

Players are used to getting an extra boost from gaming operators. Promotions are a tool of acquisition, and the more attractive, the more new players they will draw in. It’s important not to relay on this aspect exclusively, as it is of low importance on the long run.

Icelotto rewards multi-draw purchases with a tiered by number for draws discount.

  • 2 draws 2% off
  • 4 draws 5% off
  • 8 draws 15% off
  • 26 draws 22% off
  • 52 draws 25% off

4% off on a constantly renewing purchase charged every 2 weeks, or 15% off if charged every 4 weeks. Be careful with this one, Icelotto will keep charging unless asked otherwise.

There’s a free lottery line with the first purchase with Icelotto. In addition to the free ticket, there’s a 100% bonus on the first purchase with no found cap.

Loyalty program is not as straightforward as should. It starts simple as for each €1 spent 1 VIP point is awarded. The more VIP point you’ll get, you’ll level up to higher tiers. Each VIP tier has a dedicated offer, that is not self explanatory.

  • Bronze Level (1000-8999 Points) – Enjoy 5% Cash Back in Bonus Money
  • Silver Level (9000-29999) – Enjoy 10% Cash Back in Bonus Money + 1% additional discount on your purchase
  • Gold Level (30000-99999 Points) – Enjoy 15% Cash Back in Bonus Money + 2% additional discount on your purchase
  • Platinum Level (100000+ Points) – Enjoy 20% Cash Back in Bonus Money + 3% additional discount on your purchase

icelotto reward players for the expected actions – first purchase, loyalty, purchase for future draws (multi-draw). This is were lottery carriers fall short behind other gaming operators. Hopefully we’ll see better bonus engines on lottery platforms so players would enjoy a bigger variety of bonuses and rewards. icelotto score well on this as they make full use of the platform’s tool set.

SUPPORT

Only comes into play when things go wrong or unclear, many consider this as a nice to have element thinking nothing could go wrong with something simple as completing a lottery line purchase. This review gives it the proper attention, and score it accordingly. You’d want your lottery carrier to be responsive at as many days of the week and hours of the day as possible. Also, the number of contact options is of great importance, the closer you get to the person dealing with your issue, the better.

There is a real time chat, but it’s unclear what it’s working hours and days are. It’s not mentioned anywhere. Icelotto use https://www.zopim.com/ for the service. It would have been helpful to have an icon indicating there is a chat service, even when it’s unavailable. Just to know when to check back. Offering a service as an option is not a guarantee for scoring high in this review, it has to be friendly and communicated. There’s no chat on mobile devices.

Icelotto takes calls on a UK number, company is based at Cyprus. They advertise the phone number on the contact us page +44 8081 890 001 and are available Sunday to Friday, 10am to 7pm GMT. This is a reassuring sign as not a common practice Icelotto’s competitors use.

Icelotto’s customer support email address is also advertised on the contact us page [email protected] and the response time while inconsistent, still reasonable.

No contact form, and for no good reason. This is something that’s easily incorporated to the contact us page and would save opening the mail client for sending an email.

VIP players get a VIP treatment with a personally assigned account manager.

Having a phone number icelotto’s customer support answers on is a great benefit. Email and live chat are important, but create a distance between the service provider and it’s players. Missing is a contact form. It’s something so simple to implement, icelotto not making use of it is strange. All in all, icelotto do very well with the customer support they offer players and visitors. Other brands should follow and align to icelotto’s standard.

SUMMARY

What is missing- Icelotto is offering the desired features you’d want to have at your online lottery ricket carrier. They might be rough and in need for polish, but they’re there. The features missing are those who are nice to have. Shortage is at the basis of the study of economics as it is what forces use to make decisions and choices. Icelotto has a limited amount of resources – designers, developers, QA, etc. – and so it has to prioritize. Best would be to refine the current site and its functionality before going to developing new features. But once they do, these are some that are needed.

  • Favourite numbers- Lottery players are highly superstitious and most would play the same lines over and over for years, and add to theme some randomly generated ones. There’s no way of setting liked numbers for future use.
  • Repurchase – having the ability to repurchase an expired product from within the account details pages. There’s no need to have loyal players go through the purchase funnel for products they already bought in the past. It’s an issue of UX of the site.

icelotto of today is a trustworthy brand with a good customer support, variety of product types, useful features, and handy mobile application. There’s a dire need to polish the web experience, a relatively simple feat for tablets, but a complex one for mobile. icelotto stands with the top lottery brands, but needs to make an extra effort to really shine. Good luck with your next lottery line!