The World Cup is the most prominent sporting event on this year’s calendar, offering an abundance of opportunities for sportsbook operators in LatAm markets. There is practically limitless potential for growth here, but the peculiarities of each jurisdiction can differ greatly, meaning attracting and retaining a customer base can be more difficult than anticipated.
A strategy for helping operators to effectively roll out across emerging markets like those seen in LatAm needs to be as varied as the regions themselves, as each country has its own level of complexity. Within every nation is a variety of cultures with their own preferences in sports. This year, the World Cup is the focal point: football drives the majority of sportsbook turnover across LatAm, representing a common ground for each market. However, country-by-country, there are still varying degrees of interest – an in-depth understanding of individual market trends, therefore, is important to maximising the acquisition and retention of a solid customer base.
Tailored to fit
A regionalised approach is one of the most important factors to consider, with a one-size-fits-all strategy offering little to the hugely differing markets of LatAm. Displaying to each country that its needs have been identified and addressed with an offering that has been carefully tailored to the sensibilities of the population makes it much more likely to attract and retain the customers there. The first consideration is to offer the relevant language option across every jurisdiction, whether it is Spanish, Portuguese, English or Dutch. Although a relatively simple and practical point, it is of huge importance to players and immediately proves an operator has taken their needs into account.
Of course, an intimate knowledge of the sporting preferences in a given region is essential to the overall process. The excitement surrounding the World Cup is proof enough that LatAm’s most popular sport is football, but there are a number of other sports that also feature on this list – each jurisdiction has its own loyalties and preferences regarding a wide range of sports, with some regions favouring American sports such as the NFL and MLB over European and domestic football leagues. While the World Cup will be the focal point during November and December, the cross-sell opportunities are just as important during a major sporting event.
The ability to quickly adapt to change is key, as the regulation in the region is constantly shifting. For example, Brazil, although set to launch regulated sports betting by the end of the year, could see the ongoing development grind to a halt should the current presidential race head in an unexpected direction. Brazil has the potential to eventually become one of the biggest sports betting markets in the world, but the ability to act quickly will be vital in capturing market share. Providers with a detailed knowledge of the landscape will be essential going forward, as operators look to navigate it and take advantage of its many rich opportunities.
Preparation is key
With an aim to speedy acquisition, making a streamlined offering, especially with more recently regulated markets, ensures the onboarding process is made much more painless for those that are not used to online sports betting. One of the Sportingtech initiatives developed to do just that is the Popular Bets and Popular Events widget. This collates and displays the 10 most popular bets and events across an operator’s platform, refreshing every five minutes. Such a product has been designed to quickly and easily introduce bettors to the excitement of a huge event like the World Cup, while also providing added value for more established players.
Features like Sportingtech’s Bet Assist tool are designed to make traversing platforms more intuitive by generating automated betting tips based on historical data, live-score and AI analysis, covering both pre-match and in-play markets across seven sports and with complete bet slip integration, user engagement is increased, as well as retention and turnover rates. In addition, FastBet is unique in the industry, enabling users to wager multiple single bets across all sports at the touch of the user’s screen without creating a betslip. New, exciting tools like these are highly effective at retaining existing audiences but also attracting new ones to the world of sports betting during this time of massive opportunity.
The best of both worlds
Attracting more and more players to the world of sports betting coincides with the recent surge of sportsbooks and casinos embracing the online market. The omnichannel experience is going to be a vital facet to operators looking to retain the biggest slice of market share as possible, with a presence both on and offline key to attaining a high level of player engagement and retention.
The World Cup represents a significant opportunity for the world of online betting, and the ones that will truly flourish will be those that embrace the omnichannel experience. The betting industry has a landscape that is rapidly shifting in its approach to omnichannel betting offerings, and this constant shift must be mitigated by platform developers to ensure the player is transitioned efficiently. The companies that have demonstrated success in LatAm have often been the ones that have shown a clear focus on the omnichannel experience, and this is indicative of its importance to long-term success – a presence both on and offline is key to attaining a high level of player engagement and retention. There are major opportunities for online betting in LatAm and, with the right platform, committing to a digital presence can result in serious gains.
The omnichannel experience has become an incredibly important aspect of the modern gaming landscape, and the two spaces dovetailing is a viable future for the industry. Player acquisition and retention can be achieved through the next-gen capabilities of a high-quality platform like Quantum, which gives operators the ability to evolve their offering, giving customers more options and providing players with a greater level of engagement through the medium of multiple channels.
The World Cup presents the industry with opportunities ripe with potential, especially for emerging markets in LatAm. Platforms that offer a quick and easy way to market, while providing the very best of what the industry has to offer, are sure to attract and retain the biggest share of the market.
Colin McDonagh
Sportingtech Chief Sales Officer
