After introducing the speakers, Gustavo Guimarães, Secretary of Evaluation and Lotteries (SECAP-ME), highlighted that he has a special affection for the themes, “which contributed not only to my professional training but also to my personal one.” According to him, the evolution of society has increasingly evolved as a result of technological development. “Behind the economic and social development in the form of a rupture, with society taking a leap due to technology, it provides sequential evolution and we human beings are flexible and adaptable and that is why we have evolved so much, with technology being a reflection of that.”
According to him, “this evolution affects all aspects and it is part of what we discussed about gaming, sports and eSports, which today can be added to games of skill. And we cannot fail to recognize that the intelligence games, such as chess, checkers, dominoes, snooker and poker, have conquered followers all over the world,” he said.
An important appeal of eSports and skill games is, according to the Secretary, to develop the cognitive capacity of individuals. “A society that encourages children and young people to develop skills such as logic and statistics from an early age, these games lead to that,” he commented.
“We want to create and propose regulatory security to develop this market in a healthy way, both for companies and for people in this market, with simplicity. In this sense, we are facing a window of opportunity and that is why we are going to listen to what the experts think.”
Igor “Federal” Trafane, president of the Panamerican Poker Confederation, businessman and responsible for the legalization of poker in Brazil through the Brazilian Confederation Texas Hold'em, began his presentation saying that “we represent a universe in this debate on games of skill, such as poker, chess, etc. and eSports, 137 million practitioners in seven sports in Brazil. The success of our cause benefits 9 out of 10 Brazilians, that is, almost the entire Brazilian population,” he said.
Leo de Biase, BBL's founding partner, highlighted that more than 90 million people practice eSports and skill games, which demonstrates the strength of these activities, “which puts us face to face with SECAP to debate demands that meet to Brazilian society,” complemented the opening speech of Igor Trafane.
“A well-made regulation by the government for the activities of eSports and skill games will impact Brazil as a whole,” highlighted Igor. According to him, the main cause at the meeting was “to defend the separation, in legislative and regulatory terms, of games of chance from games of skill, providing legal certainty for those who invest, work and practice games of skill in the country.”
After categorizing what is a game of chance and a game of skill, the brilliant panelists reinforced that the first action they defend is precisely to separate one practice from the other so that no confusion is created about the possibilities of each one of the activities.
During the presentation, the speakers pointed out that the Brazilian games market should grow a lot in 2021 and in the coming years. According to Biase, the sector had revenues of around R$ 1 billion in 2019.
Igor pointed out, in addition, that the productive chain in the area reaches something around 400 thousand direct jobs within the seven mentioned modalities, with around R$ 1.2 billion in salaries. "The e-games market should reach R$ 6 billion in sales in 2021, a growth of 600% in two years."
Even defending and fully supporting the creation of a gambling law in Brazil, the group represented by Igor and de Biase highlighted that they intend to create a separate chapter in the discussions about games in the country, especially for games of skill.
More than a hundred questions were asked by webinar participants, with topics ranging from regulation itself, taxation, licensing, betting, prize distribution, income tax, etc., which demonstrates the attention paid to eSports and gaming activities of ability in society.
Igor highlighted that the most important point at the moment is to create an adequate regulation for the activities defended in the webinar, with a view to offering legal certaity to the sector as an initial step to consolidate this industry.
"We will take a first step to build a regulation that meets the demands not only of the sector, but of society as a whole, formatting an initial text to be worked on by the main actors in this segment, so that it is broad and at the same time fair," explained Gustavo Guimarães.
The Secretary presented a question especially focused on sports betting in eSports, in which de Biase explained: "the entire betting market has already understood the strength of eSports. During the pandemic, a locomotive that came strong for betting was eSports, since there was not face-to-face interaction. They generate odds and all the statistics needed to provide the betting industry. There is a lot of discussion about this and the main sectors, such as CS:GO and League of Legends, are already very well organized on the issue of betting on the various world championships.”
De Biase highlighted as main activities in eSports Free Fire, League of Legends and Rainbow Six, in several platforms, which gives a small dimension to the business. “We have already had Free Fire world championships in Brazil and abroad, many Brazilian athletes are champions in a wide variety of tournaments, from the small ones to those that filled stadiums before the pandemic,” he commented.
In the other games, Igor added that the most important ones, considering the skill games, are poker and chess. “Poker draws attention for the financial aspect, as the prizes are huge and for the millions of people who play it. At the same time, we have chess, which is the most traditional of the sports of the mind and the father of the sports of skill,” he explained.
Gustavo Guimarães left as final message: "We remain optimistic in the discussion with the Congress and the Executive as we know how to do all the delimitations very well to meet the expectations of the skill games and eSports sector, as we are doing in the case of sports betting."
Source: GMB
