Relaxed and sprawled across a chair at the British Columbia Lottery Corp. (BCLC) office in the Broadway Technology Centre, CEO Jim Lightbody reveals some of his plans to increase his Crown corporation’s more than $2.9 billion in annual revenue.
Looking fit, the 54-year-old former lacrosse player has been top executive for about 16 months, though the first 10 of those months were in an interim capacity.
BCLC racked up a record $1.25 billion profit last year, which went directly to the B.C. government to help pay for services such as health care and education.
It was a record year, but Lightbody thinks his gambling monopoly can do better, if for no other reason than because he has ushered in an internal cultural shift built around communication and “candour.”
Employees are all now clear on where the corporation is headed, he explained.
“We were going in lots of directions,” Lightbody said. “Now, it’s time to really focus on our vision as an enterprise, which is to make gambling widely embraced as an exceptional form of entertainment for adults.”
At least two new strategic partnerships are helping BCLC generate record profits.
One initiative that makes it easier for British Columbians to gamble is a deal with Save-On-Foods that enables grocery clerks to sell lottery tickets at the checkout, much like at a 7-Eleven. Separate lottery kiosks have long been in grocery stores but they required shoppers to stand in a separate line after they paid for groceries.
Lightbody aims to have similar agreements in place with all major grocery chains within a year. A second strategy focuses on boosting casino revenue.
Access to various forms of legal gambling in the province has never been easier, and Lightbody said he wants to increase access even more while simultaneously creating better games and earning a reputation as a trustworthy operator.
He operates a legal-gambling monopoly but is aware that competitors operate in what he calls a “grey market.”
Authorities have yet to shut down competing sites such as Bodog and PokerStars, and, as a result, Lightbody said, tens of millions of dollars in profit are likely siphoned outside the province as those sites nibble away at BCLC’s market share.
That’s why BCLC’s reputation as a responsible operator is so important, he said.
“If you win with us, you know you’ll get paid. If you deal with us, you know it will be a fair game and if you don’t like what happens, you know where to drive to complain.”
Friends believe Lightbody’s resolve might have been fostered in his 20s when he played for the New Westminster Salmonbellies.
“He has a quiet determination that perhaps comes from his competitive years as a professional lacrosse player,” said Destination British Columbia CEO Marsha Walden. “He has the championship ring and scars to prove it.”
Walden, whom Lightbody hired many years ago to be BCLC’s director of marketing and communications, describes Lightbody as fun, likable and a man of integrity.
Born and raised in Victoria, Lightbody completed a bachelor’s degree in marketing at the University of British Columbia in 1985 and was immediately hired by Procter & Gamble (P&G) to work in sales.
He persuaded the company to let him first take a three-and-a-half-month trip to Europe with a couple of friends. They criss-crossed the continent in a Volkswagen van and, along the way, Lightbody said, he learned the importance of working to live instead of simply living to work.
“Then I got a cold slap in the face almost immediately because P&G is a very strong company and very regimented,” he said.
His hard work prompted Lightbody’s bosses to promote him, putting him in charge of managing sales across Alberta. Valuable lessons followed.
Alberta’s demographics are similar to Middle America’s, so P&G tested several new products in the province. Lightbody learned about the value of innovation and the importance of relationships in making product launches go smoothly. After all, P&G could launch a new product but if grocers did not want to carry the product, the launch would not be a success.
A desire to return to B.C. prompted Lightbody to join Nabob as a sales manager. He spent much of the 1990s helping BC Hot House Foods market B.C. greenhouse-grown tomatoes.
Then, after a short stint at Sun Rich Fresh Foods, he joined BCLC in 2001 as vice-president of its lotteries arm. It was his first time in charge of an entire division – not just the sales department. He shifted to a role managing the casino side of BCLC’s operations in 2011 before taking his current position three years later.
Lightbody is married with two grown children and lives in both Kamloops and Surrey. He has given up lacrosse and instead plays golf, which he said takes less of a toll on his body.
His community involvement includes being the incoming chairman of the BC Sports Hall of Fame and a member of the Thompson Rivers University School of Business advisory board.
With all the demands on Lightbody’s time, he still keeps in mind his youthful realization about the importance of work-life balance.
“It comes in ebbs and flows,” he said. •
