iGaming Daily

:
Time flies as we are already two months away from 2025, so don't blink or you might miss the ever-changing regulatory updates in Latin America. Welcome to iGaming Daily, where we will, or at least try, to take you through the news of a blossoming region that has caught the attention of the global gaming industry and is set to become one of the most important in the world. I'm your host for today, Fernando Nott, Senior Business Journalist for SBC Noticias, and as always, I am joined by... by the boss, SBC News editor, Lucia Agando. Lu, how are you today? Hello, Fer. I love my nickname. How are you? And I think it's catching up. It's like people are starting to call you boss. So I'm going to take credit for that. And also we have Isadora Marcanti, relationship manager, Brazil. How are you, Issa? Hi, Fer. Hi, Lu. I'm really happy to be here once again with you. I miss doing podcasts with you guys. So it's really good that like. Twice in a row, we're doing that together again. So it's nice. Yeah. Two weeks in a row. We need to find a nickname for you, Iza, because. We do, yeah. We do now. I want one. Everyone, if you leave a comment, if you are on a commenting friendly platform, leave a comment and say what nickname we should call Iza. But let's go back to this podcast episode, which wouldn't be possible without our beloved sponsor, OptiMove. the number one CRM marketing solution for the iGaming market. And as a special offer, OptiMove are offering new clients a free first month when they buy OptiMove. For more information and claim the free month, go to optiMove.com slash SBC. We will leave links in the podcast episode description of course, so you can find it easily. So Isa, last week you hinted a bit about what was happening, what was coming, the land-based casino debate in Brazil is coming in soon. So... There has been some movement on that front over the last few days, right? Yeah, right. So, what we have right now is that they said, like the Senate said, that they will vote on the bill that legalizes land-based casinos and land-based bingos after the municipal elections. So, it will be like, most likely in the first week of November that we might see a movement on when it comes to voting this bill. But we, of course, are discussing this so much in Brazil, especially after the sports betting and online games regulation last year when Lula signed the bill that turned into law. So we're discussing so much like the benefits and obviously like the problems that we might have if we legalize land-based casinos. But the tourism and the development institute of Brazil said that only with this only with approving this bill and actually start offering land-based casino products in Brazil will generate more than 10 million jobs in the tourism section in Brazil. This could actually, like their projections are that we're going to get national and international investments in the more than 70 billion BRL, which is a lot of money. And I'm not going to say Brazil could not use that. We could use that so much. It would be so nice to see new jobs being created. And Mansoura, actually, the former special advisor to the Minister of Finance that helped to start and to give a path to the regulation of the online sports betting industry in Brazil, he said that only in telemarketing customer support, 10,000 jobs would be created. So we're talking about a lot of new people being employed, the economy, like moving around and bringing more money to Brazil and becoming a nice spot for entertainment. So we most probably we're going to see this bill being approved by the Senate. And Lula already said that he will sign off the bill and turn into law. if it's approved by the National Congress. So yeah, it's a good movement. We're just like really waiting to see if they're gonna start voting on the bill after the municipal elections in the end of the month. So as a relationship manager, you do a lot of relationship managing in Brazil and have a lot of relationship shipping with people from the industry. So what's the feeling between the people in the industry about the land-based casino? Well, they are completely in favor of it. They really believe that this should be legalized. Some people really don't understand why we banned this in 1946 when the then president, Eurico Gaspar Dutra banned the physical operations of casinos in Brazil. And we never talked about that after that. And it's funny because we have a lot of hidden and clandestine casinos in Brazil. Sao Paulo, for example, is a big place, is a big state. We have more than 20 million people living in that state. And we have so many land-based hidden casinos there. So they're illegal. They're mostly run by criminal people actually as well, because like you need to like money laundering happens a lot in this sector because it's not regulated, it's not legalized. So, and if you go to one of these, one of these spots or if you see the news when the police breaks in and takes a lot of people arrested, you see how many people are working there. Waitresses, managers, the people that work behind the cash and the finance, the bartenders and the security guards. So it's a lot of people that could actually get a formal job and work without being afraid of being arrested or something like that. And they are normal people, normal people. And so the industry, like the online industry also really wants that the land-based industry gets legalized soon because not only for jobs but for the economy of the country will be very good. And so regardless of the land-based debate, there's also a lot of developments in the until December 31st, we have these companies operating with a provisional license, right, before they get finally authorized. So why don't you take us through the latest developments there? Okay, so yeah, I think the last time we talked, we were in like 96 companies. Right now, we are a 100 companies, and let's remind people, every company can have a license for up to three brands. So it's not only 100 companies, it's that one company can have more than one license for more than one brand. So actually it's one license for more than one brand. I'm sorry for that. So we have 100 companies already licensed and 223 brands that got the temporary license to operate in this transitional period that goes like Feyer said until the 31st December this year. So we have these new companies. One is very interesting. We have Reels Brazil, which owns the ReelsBatch.com. It's a very big company. Brazil has like a TV presenter that is really, who is really famous in Brazil as an ambassador. So they got the license as well for their three brands, not only Reels, but they have only another two other brands that not very known, but they got two. We have Sportfit Group that owns Another three brands Sport e Esportiva Vi, PCB Sports and Donos da Bola. They're not as well very famous, but they got the license. And we got other two here that were included in the list after a court order because they were most probably, we don't know exactly why they weren't in the list before. But what they say is they weren't complying with all the documents and everything. But after a court order, Esportes da Sorte. which is a very big company in Brazil, especially in the northeast of the country, is very famous. And Megapix got added to the list of national websites that can operate in the country. And we also got an update on the state license. So we have now 26 companies that can offer their brands in Brazil. Some of them are still in the implementation process of their sites. But we have companies from Paraná, from Maranhão, from Rio, a lot of companies from Rio licensed by Lotej. We have companies from Paraíba and Minas Gerais as well. So it's growing, the list of state licenses as well. And you can identify if a company is licensed by a state with the, because there's the. abbreviation of the state on the URL of the website. So you will see that this company's license is in that state and not nationally. So yeah, we got some very interesting new names added to that list. Well, that's great news for these operators because they were on the bad side of the news over the last few days, but now they are on the good side again. And we recently talked about Lula. and his warning about shutting down the market if things don't work out. We surely are hoping things work out, even though we don't entirely know what it means. Let's go with that one. What work out means. So the president's statement actually sparked some reactions from the industry, hasn't it? Oh yes, especially because people are saying like... What does he mean by ban everything, we're going to stop with everything? Because we know that even before the legalization of sports betting in 2018, we already had the sports betting sites. They were already happening, even though they were not legalized, not even regulated. So okay, he will maybe prohibit. online casinos and online sports betting if it doesn't work out and I don't understand what he means by it doesn't work out. What does this exactly mean? What not working out means actually for the government. So people are saying like, it doesn't matter because it's not gonna, it's not like it's gonna end with this parallel market because we'll always be there. The only thing that it's not gonna be regulated if actually, if he does actually that. But the operators and the affiliates and the providers and every company involved in the industry were quite concerned. Not the Brazilian ones because we already know how Brazil works, but the foreign companies are like, okay, this is a sign that we send to international operators and other companies that we're not very safe. So if you're in doubt of coming here, don't come because you don't know what's going to happen. which is really bad for the industry as well. So we got the National Association of Games and Lotters in Brazil, which is a huge association that really promotes responsible gambling and the regulated industry saying that this, the sentence said that the phrase that Lula said, it was really not good because it only helps the companies that don't want to get a license and work. properly and work in a regulated market. So this only satisfies them and not the industry, not the good industry, let's say that as a whole. So they really got concerned about it. They are also like trying to create right now a CPI of the bets, how we call here, and we don't say sports betting, we say bets. So like they want to do the CPI of the bets as well, like to... to try to investigate what's happening with the people that we see on the news saying that are using the welfare money to bet or that they're getting debts with their bank and credit cards just to bet that the marriages are being split over because of the bet. So we see so many news around that. And we know that Lula only said that, that Ray is concerned of the association. the lottery association, because it's an answer to the public. It's an answer to the audience. Like we are seeing so many bad stuff going on, so many bad news going on. What you're going to do about it, President? So it's really concerning. The National Games and Lottery Association really didn't help that. And they're really vocal on regulation topics. And now, like, again, it's been a while. I don't say I don't say that, but let's wait and see what's going to happen next. We'll wait and see and expect the things actually do work out for the Brazilian market. But now that I finished my Acaí, I'm going to take a short flight now to another blooming market for the gaming industry, which is Ecuador, where the government has finally cleared a while back now the segment to start operating there. But there has been some... There was an advertisement issue, like it turned out to be an issue for the previous administration, for the previous government, which banned all gaming advertising. However, Lu, that has just changed last week. Yes, it is. Well, Ecuador's ex-president, Guillermo Lazo, had previously banned advertising for sports betting around the end of 2022. And well, this ban was included in the Ley Organica de Comunicación, Organic Law on Communication, which is an extensive regulation on advertising and mass media that replaced an older one that further limited the field. So, well, it's part of a bigger law. However, the ex-president was also pushing for a new tax on sports betting at the same time. So it was very confusing for the industry as they were being banned at the same time they were being taxed. So it was confusing. But now the new government, the new president of Ecuador, Daniel Novoa, eliminated the ban on advertising for the sector through the executive decree 421. And according to César Ricaurte, which is the director of the non-governmental media organization Fundamedios, the measure leaves open the possibility that the media could be financed by sports betting companies, which are the main advertisers and have a huge advertising presence in football matches and on the Internet. So this opens a new window for the industry to develop, taking into account that land-based casinos and bingos and gaming in general is banned right now in Ecuador. So this opens a window for at least high gaming and sports betting to prosper in Ecuador. Yeah, Ecuador actually tried to legalize casinos or actually pushed for a referendum and see if people were actually on board with legalizing casinos and that eventually got dropped because there was an institutional crisis earlier this year. So yeah, we'll hopefully see the country pushing that again and getting the land-based industry regulated because like it happens in Brazil and happens everywhere. that already exists, of course, but it's underground, it's not regulated, and that brings with it a lot of dangerous things. So the iGaming industry, on the other hand, was recently a gray market, but like you said, like you said, Lou, it has evolved into a regulated one by the taxation first, and then get more certainty about the state of the market, right? Yeah, at least for now we are seeing that the tax is approved. So they are considered as a current industry that is working, that is operating. So we will see if they are going to establish more, a further framework for the industry. But right now this is all we have in Ecuador. Speaking of operators in Ecuador, the new issue of the SBC Leaders Magazine, of course, is out. It's issue number 33, I think, if I'm not mistaken. Of course, I had the pleasure of speaking with Nathan Dion, which is CEO of Playgreen, one of the leading companies in the country. He talks a little bit about how it is to be operating in Ecuador and the expectations of brands in the country in the next few months. So make sure you read the SBC leaders magazine. Make sure you go and read that piece about plaguing with Nathan Dion, CEO of the company. Of course, we will leave the link for the magazine in the description. You will find the English version there. And if you want to read the Spanish version of the interview with Nathan Dion, you will find it in Spanish in SBC Noticias, which we will also leave the link. down below. But one of the key topics of the SBC Leaders Magazine issue, of course, is once again Brazil. So I can help to ask you, Isa, what are your thoughts on this issue? I love this issue. It's not only the cover, it's beautiful. We have Livia Troas. I don't know how you say that, her name, but I hope I'm, Livia, if you're hearing us, I hope I'm saying it correctly, but Livia, the CEO of Patchmice, a Brazilian operator. that just combined forces right now with Casa de Apostas, another Brazilian operator. It's our cover of the issue. And her picture is great. The news, the article as well, it's really good. It was written by Elisa, another journalist of the house. And she will also publish the interview that she did with Livia on sbnoticias.com. So it's a very nice interview. the Brazilian market, how we see the M&A that are happening already and that will actually happen more in the future too. We have some interviews there as well with Felipe Fraga, the business director of Estrela Beti. We have a talk as well with Andreas Bardum, the CEO of KTO. And it's a very nice issue. It's a very beautiful magazine. Just by having like Brazil on the cover. says a lot as well, it shows that the market is booming so much. And we have other articles as well. My article written by me too, about the corruption, the match fixing in Brazil and all the things that are being done to prevent this from happening in this amount that we saw in the next few years. So it's a very nice article. It covers Latam, it covers Brazil, and it covers other parts of the world too. It's very worth it. Yes, speaking of other parts of the world, I also talked with Chief Strategy Officer at Stakes Technology Arm, Easy Go, Bryce Pena. So that's also Inder and a big shout out to Bryce Pena and everyone who participated in the issue. And of course, Lou, you have also spoken with industry leaders for this issue. Yes, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ileana Pineda. She's the... Directora Jurídica y Oficial de Cumplimento of WePlay in Colombia, WPlay. While she talked about the policies that the company implements to boost the development of women in the industry and her experience in the industry as a female leader. And I also talked with Facundo Giorgi, Gerente General, and Andrés Cascante, Gerente Comercial. from Ondis, which is a iGaming provider from Argentina. It's part of a bigger group that includes Casino Magic, Casino Clubs, City Center, and Bell Warrior Argentina. Yeah, we talked about how they see the Argentinian market, what are the different provinces doing about iGaming. development and the potential of their technology in general. These of course are all topics that will be discussed at the upcoming SBC Summit Latin America 2024, which is just one week away. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Like I said, time flies. So I hope to see everyone in Miami for SBC Summit Latin America. And this has been everything for today's episode of iGaming Daily. Thank you, Lu. Thank you, Isa. We will find a nickname for you. And we'll see you all in Miami next week.