Brazilians love their soccer, but specially with the rocky road sports has walked in 2020, sportsbooks rather have a few more options. At Day 2 of the SiGMA Americas Virtual Summit, a panel of LATAM experts talked about what other options a bookie might want to explore, and what it will take to make them reliable.
If you look beyond the beautiful game, you’ll find several options, including a few marketing opportunities. “In Brazil in particular, I’m thinking about UFC or basketball,” said Domenico Mazzola, Comercial Director of Altenar. “Or even, I would say, regional football teams, local teams, that give the opportunity to operators that are entering the Brazilian market to evaluate the possibility to make some sponsorships or to invest in the sports teams in the market.”
Chris Nikolopolos, BetBy CCO, expanded on the options available. “It’s not only about football, there are many other sports that Brazilians are very passionate about,” he said. “Basketball, volleyball, futsal, esports, Formala 1, different things.”
Mazzola spoke about the need for infrastructure to improve. “The more the internet connection will penetrate that market, the more users, the more players we’ll see using that product as well.”
But operators can’t depend on infrastructure alone. “In general, what we have to try to do as an industry is create a whole package for an all-around experience,” Nikolopolous insisted. “It’s not only about the penetration of the internet, which of course plays a big role, but it’s about the whole player journey. From the moment he registers to the moment he’s able to deposit, this means payments, online payments, different marketing techniques that operators use. So we need to start from A-Z, view the whole journey of the player and understand what can improve.”
When traditional sports disappeared, the esports market accelerated in response. “We’re here to participate in this journey that traditional sports is having for this long time,” said Leo De Biase, CRO of Bad Boy Leeroy. “ We’re the new kids on the block but we’re coming, trying to find our space here, and the audience, like you said, is growing a lot. And the future is really good for us.”
A big surprise to some industry observers was the prominence of sports-centric esports titles in 2020, but De Biase said it could have been bigger. “Fifa was supposed to be even bigger, if it really had the full support of the publisher,” he said. “Other titles, the competitive titles like the shooting titles and the strategy titles are getting even more traction than the traditional, what we expected as to be an easy call like football, NBA or any other sports game that already have a user base and fans. Even with that, they’re not as big as the traditional esports titles.”
On that note, Mazzola suggested that if FIfa’s publisher wasn’t so focused on loot boxes, they might invest more into the spectator experience, a vital aspect of esports. But as it is, they are “busy making money with the ultimate team,” he suggested.
SIGMA Americas still has a third full day of content for you to watch, enjoy, and take lessons from. Watch it on CalvinAyre.com, and follow our continuing coverage.
