GMB - What technological advancement trends do you think we will see this year in your industry?
Pedro Marcos - I believe that with the rapid technological development we will have greater interaction between bettors, betting sites and events. I also believe that this technological advance will make it easier for players to make deposits and withdrawals and also bring more security to their transactions.
How do you think the pandemic will affect business results in 2022?
I believe it will not affect. As we saw last year, the results for the online sports betting/casino market were positive despite certain periods of quarantine and economic uncertainties.
I believe that now in 2022, the year of the World Cup and with the increasing participation of companies linked to the sports betting and online casino market, the trend is to have an economic growth higher than the year 2021.
Do you think the gaming's advertising restrictions will be deepened globally?
Unfortunately, we are seeing restrictions in certain markets regarding advertising for gambling sites, which can lead to financial losses. However, I believe that these restrictions will not be applied to the Brazilian market in the short and medium term. As we can see, more and more teams and events are receiving investment from companies in the betting market, causing many companies to benefit from these investments and keep the local economy heated.
What do you envision for the Brazilian market in terms of gambling legislation and regulation?
The base text that is about to be approved will cover a large gap in the gambling market. Brazil, a country of continental dimensions and a population of more than 200 million inhabitants, needs as soon as possible a regulatory law for gambling. I believe that the regulation will only bring benefits to the country, making Brazil have a billionaire tax revenue source, and this value can be applied in other sectors of society and also with a local regulation that will bring much more security to users and operators.
What are your company's main goals for the year? Are you planning more releases than in 2021?
Our main goal for 2022 is to increasingly establish our brand in Brazil, always seeking to improve and adapt our product and services to the Brazilian market to better meet the needs of our customers. We will also seek more local partners to place our brand as a reference. As we launched a new website at the end of 2021, we do not plan to launch a new website in the short to medium term.
To reach your goals this year, do you plan to make more investments and hires than last year?
Yes, as our main objective for 2022 is to increasingly establish our brand in the Brazilian market, we will make internal investments to adapt our departments to the demand of our customers and therefore we will increasingly need qualified professionals to assist us in our project.
What kind of sponsorships or marketing actions to promote your company's products and services do you think will be the most relevant this year within your roadmap?
At this first moment, we will focus on digital marketing actions and also on our social networks, where we had a very satisfactory customer conversion. And in a second moment we will seek sponsorships. We also want to work with those “out of the box” marketing ideas, as we believe that as the gambling market is relatively “new” in Brazil, many ideas and trends have not yet been tested, which can generate a large conversion of customers.
In your view of the global market, do you consider that 2022 intends to be a year with more number of mergers or acquisitions of companies than the previous year?
I believe so. We see that in Brazil we have many sites that operate locally and end up having a very satisfactory result. This fact can create a desire for mergers on the part of large operators, so they can have an increasingly strong local presence.
Could you name three events within your industry that will be pivotal in 2022? Why did you choose them?
I believe that 2022, as it is the year of the World Cup, sports betting operators will focus more on this event, without leaving aside the local leagues that increasingly rely on investment from sports betting sites.
Regarding fairs, I can mention three events:
- Bis 2022: Due to the success of the first event held in 2021, I believe it will be even bigger in 2022, in addition to being a great opportunity for professionals operating in Brazil to exchange experiences.
- Affiliates Brazil 2022: A great opportunity for those looking to establish new affiliation partnerships with local operators.
- ICE London 2022: I believe that ICE will be a very interesting event for 2022 due to its size and scope of professionals.
Source: Exclusive GMB
