Having worked closely with multiple LatAm government and sporting bodies, Managing Director of LatAm Sportradar, Luiz Gustavo Zonca, revealed their experience in the region: “The priority as for everyone we work with is to ensure that any betting framework is the best, in terms of oversight, value, responsibility and integrity. We have found state authorities, regulators and sports bodies to be hungry to understand and learn about how others have done it right and how pieces can be assembled to create the optimal ecosystem.”
In an interview with SBC, Zonca also outlined the reasons why Colombia is such a critical market for the LatAm region: “There are a number of reasons: a) the country is of a significant size; b) the population of the country is 50 million, and c) the country is super passionate about sports. In this context, no one should be surprised the world’s biggest operators are paying close attention and that their investments in the country are gaining the attention of other countries in the LatAm region.”
“From my point of view, what is evolving in Colombia is definitely causing an acceleration in the speed of regulation in other countries. It is becoming increasingly clear that delays in their own country’s regulatory process is leading to lost opportunities,” he added.
Zonca went onto analyse whether LatAm nations can develop a single betting industry code to allow for a unified business framework, or whether this an unrealistic process. “This is a really fascinating proposition with obvious advantages. But where we now are in the journey, my sense is that this is incredibly unlikely. Some countries remain unconvinced about opening up regulated markets. Furthermore, some have differences from province-to-province.”
“Another important issue we see is the assumption that the guys from overseas think they can run the show here. In my own personal opinion, there are a serious shortcoming with that, as local knowledge, relationships and understandings are critical. More and more I see operators fail because they do not recognise this reality. The result: heavy investments managed from Europe or Asia returning low profits,” Zonca concluded.
Source: GMB / SBC Americas
