iGaming Daily

Andrew McCarron (00:00.27)
Okay, and we're live from ICE 2025 Barcelona. It's day two. And we're joined by Marina Selmy, Sales Manager for LATAM at Sporting Tech. And before we begin, just a shout out to our sponsors OptiMove. Marina and I are going to a deep discussion and a deep dissect of what's going on in Brazil. And Marina, let's go straight into it. The market launched in January.

And my first question would be, why has it been so frantic? Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you guys for having me. think, well, I don't think I know Brazil is the country that grows the most when it comes to iGaming. So, I mean, especially people that been in this industry in Brazil and working iGaming for the last few years, the market is growing so much and so fast and there's so much potential on it. So.

I mean, we've been hearing, for example, about the regulation for a few years now. And with a bunch of foreign companies coming to Brazil, local companies making a lot of money and growing so much and the regulation just hitting, it's just everything is just heated right now. So much going on. So tell me for Sporting Tech, what's kind of the technology play for Brazil, which is a market that, yeah, the regulatory kind of foundation has been set. But do you know kind of the competitive elements and what are the interplays of the market?

So SportingTech focused in Brazil since like the early ages. We were one of the first platforms to actually use Brazil as its main market and arrive in Brazil and have a product built for the Brazilian, which is something that at the time and as a Brazilian, we would see a lot of platforms, but they didn't really have a technology focused for Brazil. It was mostly for Europeans and they would just try to implement in Brazil. So

It's important to have Brazil as it's our main market. So it grows so much. So we were prepared and lucky enough to be one of the first ones there. And right now we just see so much happening and so many players coming and it's growing so much. So let's focus on Brazil. I mean, how does it differ to other Latin American markets? And why is it such a different challenge compared to any other market that we've seen in sports medicine?

Andrew McCarron (02:26.744)
I think the first main key point here is think a lot of outsiders treat Latin America as it was like a whole thing. When in reality you have to treat each market so individually, it's like its own universe for each one of them. And of course, if you compare all Latin American countries, just Brazil by itself is so different than all the other ones. First of all, we're speaking Portuguese here, not Spanish. I mean, when it comes down to Brazil, I think...

just the consumer behavior, the ways things happen in Brazil. It's very specific. It's very informal. So I mean, it's down so many different aspects why Brazil is so different than the rest of it. But again, you have to treat each of them so individual to each other. And a market that has launched 90 brands have come out to play in Brazil. Such kind of a high competition at this early stage.

What do you think the competitive dynamics are going to be for these guys? I can they really engage with that? Can they really transfer that competition to scale? they take market share that quickly? Yeah, so I think the trend that we're seeing right now in the market in Brazil is the market is consolidating. So it's almost like a funnel. So there are so many brands. And now with the whole regulation coming, like only the big guys are here or the ethical guys are here.

So with that comes the need to be able to be different than your competitor, be able to personalize yourself and just be unique. And what's the word for it? Stand out. Stand out in the market. So you can definitely level up. Of course, if you're just starting now as an operator, it's hard because you're definitely competing with some guys have been around for a very long time. But again, if you're able to stand out, there's always that chance.

And tell me more about providing a true localized offer. How does Sportintech view that? And also yourself, from your personal experience, mean, what do you think the customer wants in Brazil and what are they getting at the moment? So in Brazil, iGaming, back in the days, it was such a taboo and nowadays it's something so common. And we see that culturally in Brazil. When you go to airports or like even in songs right now, you hear people talking about bats.

Andrew McCarron (04:49.92)
The market grew so much from the last few years to now, and we still have a lot of products that are not really designed to the Brazilian user. So it's products, again, that were built for Europeans and Americans. players noticed that. And it's just not even the product itself. It's everything. Everything has to be localized. It's having a team to take care of your customers that they're speaking Portuguese. You're not foreigners. They're in the same time zone. The product is built for Brazil. So I guess it's...

It's everything. you think that any kind of Western or European learnings can be transferred to a Brazilian audience? Yeah. Or are they just too niche, too specific? I think every country will always prioritize making business with their own. I think it's not just down to Brazilian. But I think they definitely can. It's just a matter of studying a lot, researching a lot about Brazil or the country you're going and seeing how it works, things there.

and giving enough autonomy to the people that are going to be working there and these people either being from there because then they think as the consumers are thinking or they know how to speak the language at least like that's a minimum but understanding well the market if you're a foreign company coming to Brazil and wanting to do the way you do in your country it's not going to work and it's not even just for iGame I think any industry. Sure, and indeed and tell me about Sporting Tech itself and

What are kind of the localized aspects of Sportintec for that Brazil market and for Latam as a region too? Yeah, so as I was saying more in the beginning, Sportintec was very pioneer and they arrived in Brazil kind of very early in the beginning and when iGaming was growing and the fact that we have a product that we actually sit down and study to know how the Brazilian customer, consumer behaves and it's a product built for it. We not just brought a product from outside and plugged it in.

I think that's their most advantage thing here. We have a lot of competitors nowadays in the market that are basically just have platforms to have plugins from different companies and they put there and just to use the experience itself is just not that great. Now, Sprint Tech was focusing on in Brazil. I think everybody was because of the regulation, but now they were expanding to the rest of Latin America and it's ideally doing the same thing. We're not just going to get a Brazilian product and plug in, for example, in Peru or Chile. It's making sure we're going to...

Andrew McCarron (07:13.75)
change our technology and build a product that is meant for that country that we're going. Yeah. And then what are I mean, how much of a game changer is Brazil's impact and effect of how the market works out for the rest of Latin America? I mean, how do you kind of see that territory changing in the next four or five years? I think it's all very new right now. But I think if you compare, for example, even not

to just other Latin American countries, but for example, UK. UK is an example nowadays of a really well regulated market, fragmily. And Brazil used a lot of that and influenced a lot on the UK to build its regulation. So I think right now we're just starting. I mean, we're still in January, so there's so much to come still, but I think we're in a really good direction. And there's a few countries still in Latin America that are not regulated, and they're definitely seeing all the movements that are happening in Brazil. So I think.

It's just going to consolidate even more the regulation and it's going to open door for countries in Latin America that are still not regulated to take that next step. focusing on 2025 and Brazil, what are your expectations for the market? Tell us kind of one or two nuggets of information that you want to put out to the audience in terms of how you think Brazil will play out in 2025. So what I think it's going to happen.

It's like I was talking about the funneling is the market is going to consolidate. So we had initially like 200 brands applying for regulation. Now we're down to like 60 some. have 14 companies that actually have a license that are not provisionary. And we have around 55 that are waiting to have it, actual license ready to go. So I think that's going to funnel even more. think only key players are going to stay in the market rather it's payments.

whether it's KYC platforms. And I think people are just going to have to start spending for other countries. So still in Brazil, but does First Mover Advantage really have any long term difference on how the market will play out? Of course. think, strategically speaking, there's two ways to view this. we have a lot of companies right now that because it's so new, there's so much change happening that they decided to like withdraw or hold for now.

Andrew McCarron (09:34.286)
into getting the license just to see how it's going to play out, what's going to happen because there's still a of changes to come. But for these guys that just came straight, these brands and operators that already went straight with the license, I think there's definitely advantages because you're getting a piece of that market and of these clients that the other guys that decided to wait are losing. So, yeah, I think it's good that the first level of guys already have that regulation in place, either it's provisionary or it's already working.

They're getting more market, so it's good for them. And then finally, what do you think is the fundamental technology challenge of Brazil for the platform provider, for your tech suppliers coming in? mean, what are they fundamentally getting tested on? That's a good question, because there's so many things to it. I think right now, the most important thing is making sure your platform has

everything that the government expects it to have. So your technology has to have the GLI certifications. You have to have like we're seeing some platforms that are having problems, for example, with their KYC products. So it's just making sure overall that your technology is ready for regulated Brazil. So sign us off please. Tell us why Sportintech are the technology company to watch in Brazil. I mean, we were one of the first ones to have the GLI license.

Like I said in the beginning, we have a product built for the Brazilian user. It's not a lot of plugins or foreign products that are not designed for your Brazilian average customer. So the technology is there, the team is there. We have a whole autonomy in Brazil, an office there. So really good clients. It's not about quantity, it's about quality. So just keep an eye on us. Well, Marina, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to interview you on All Brazilian Dynamics. Have a great conference.

Thank you guys, thank you for having me.