Case studies / Eesti Loto
From legacy Java 6 to a digital betslip platform
Estonia’s national lottery operator, serving thousands of customers daily through both physical and digital channels under strict regulatory oversight.
- Partnership
- 5+ years, ongoing
- Paper saved each month
- 55 kg
Challenge
The lottery was running on Java 6 with Oracle and an aging WebLogic stack, plus a boxed third-party engine that supported only one game type. Five development teams shared one test environment, and the printers needed to read paper betslips were going end-of-life.
Solution:
- Digital betslip. Customers pick numbers online, the system generates a QR code, and the ticket is validated at any physical point of sale — replacing paper-scanning hardware that was about to disappear.
- AI-paired development. The team uses Windsurf, Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT across the daily workflow; most code is AI-generated and developer-refined.
- Hybrid cloud architecture. AWS tunnels bridge cloud features to existing on-premise systems, letting modernization happen without a big-bang migration.
- Lightweight Scrum. Two-week sprints with weekly client check-ins keep momentum without ceremonial overhead.
- AI
- AWS
- Backend
- Java
- Oracle
- Public
Result
- Digital betslip live — paper-ticket dependency on path to retirement.
- A 3-developer team often waiting on client feedback, not the other way around.
- Architecture ready for a third lottery engine to replace the existing two.
- Compliance risks reduced through better monitoring and data integrity.
Key takeaway
A regulated, mission-critical legacy system can be modernized by a small AI-paired team faster than most organizations can review the output — without compromising stability or compliance.
