On the panel, besides Renato Almeida, also participated Sebastián Salat, CEO of Zitro; the Director of Big Bola Casinos, Emilio Quirós; the General Manager of Enjoy Viña del Mar, Fabián Giame; and Elizabeth Leiva, CEO of the CGS Group.
The FBM executive commented that at the beginning of the pandemic it was not expected that it would last that long. “In February of last year, we did not imagine that the problem would drag on until now, with periods of closure and opening. Unfortunately, this caused an awfully bad situation for our industry, especially for land-based operations, which faced many restrictions.”
In his assessment, the problem should continue until the end of the year, with the possibility of a recovery beginning in the fourth quarter. “The land-based sector is very affected, because the virus is not favorable to the activity due to the crowding of people, especially the older ones, who are one of the most captive audiences in gaming rooms around the world. The fear is great, and the health authorities try to give the appropriate guidelines, but as long as we do not have a real advance in vaccination, everything will continue to be difficult,” he analyzes.
In his assessment, some actions in different countries make some compensate for the others, but as long as the pandemic is not controlled, the sector will continue to suffer. “Today, for example, we have about 90% of Mexico's rooms open and in operation, but a new wave may happen, and they will have to be closed again. The same for Europe. At the same time, the online sector has been making great progress and this will continue to strengthen our activity in this vertical,” says Renato Almeida.
According to him, FBM is quite advanced in this segment and has large investment plans. "With our recent achievement of the license by Malta, we will invest in both the online sector and a hybrid project, to serve those who have land-based and online operations," he says.
For Almeida, regulators should pay close attention to the online issue “as a way of guaranteeing to their jurisdictions that the tax collection previously generated by the onshore operation is driven by this important vertical of our industry.” According FBM’s director, “new jurisdictions will emerge for the industry to search for these spaces, taking seriously to obtain their licenses for online operation. The big advantage at this point is that the society already feels safe to bet online as it did in land-based casinos,” he says.
Renato Almeida says that a hybrid platform will help the land-based segment and increase the confidence of players, who will continue to bet in traditional casinos in the future, but will, depending on the moment, choose whether to play attending a gaming room or in trusted websites. "The online world will continue to grow, but people will want to continue socializing in face-to-face rooms," concludes Renato.
Source: GMB
