GreenRun was founded in 2020 at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic and took more than two years to start its commercial operation. This decision, according to co-founder Marcos Araújo, was the strategy of internally developing its platform and making all the necessary adjustments to differentiate itself in the market.
GMB - GreenRun is less than a year old and already emerges as an important player in the market. How did you achieve this growth in such a short time?
Marcos Araujo - GreenRun was launched in May 2022, but we had been operating since 2020 to make the product suitable. Our biggest differential is the product and our brand. The current market has many players, the vast majority from abroad, who do not understand as well the day to day of the Brazilian. On the other hand, there are smaller bookmakers, who don't know much about technology. So, we want to be in this way, because we understand a lot of the Brazilian culture at the same time that we dominate technology. That's why we define GreenRun as a betting technology company.
With this mentality you highlight two important things, technology and knowledge of the public, as the differentiation factor!
Undoubtedly. Our platform is quite different even visually and you can even see that most bookmakers look the same. When we look at some of the main competitors we see this difference. That's what we're investing in to occupy our space in this competitive market.
And are you getting it? We can see that GreenRun is growing, including the opening of an office on Paulista Avenue. What are the plans for this space?
We don't just have GreenRun. We also have Esportudo, a media company with more than one million impressions and views per month. With this, we will create even more content for the ecosystem of the group, which also involves other brands, both in the area of sports and eSports. We want to be increasingly involved with everything that covers national sport and betting. When you enter our office, you come across a complete environment that involves GreenRun and Esportudo, where we develop content such as videos, podcasts, etc.
You have recently been nominated for major awards such as "Rising Star” at the SBC Awards in both Barcelona and Miami. What do these represent for GreenRun?
It represents a lot. Our company battle enough to always offer the best for the market. It's part of our culture to work harder than our competitors and this was reflected in the awards. It is gratifying that we have little time in the market and give us an extra incentive, because we have a lot to do and countless plans in development and such nominations give the feeling that we still have a big horizon ahead.
From the point of view of technology, do you have your own platform for the operation of sports betting or do you adopt a product of current use in the market?
Everything we have is own and have been developed in house. We don't use third-party platform and I think that's why we can control our user experience more than our competitors. Some operators may use good market platforms, such as BetConstruct or Entain, but we prefer to do everything from scratch. That's why I say we started in 2020 and we're only officially on the market. It's been two and a half years running and developing our platform and I even understand why many companies don't adopt this stance, because it's a very difficult thing. This involved more than 50 engineers both for the technological part and to understand issues such as regulations and legal aspects.
How have you been working on the issue of sports data and definition of odds?
We do this through Betradar, a company of Sportradar, which supplies us with such information. The data and odds comes through this important partnership. We set up with their API's all the data structures and probabilities directly on our platform. And we maintain an internal team to improve the odds of our departing sportsbook to offer an even greater user experience for our customers.
With all this tools in hand, how is GreenRun positioning itself for the arrival of the Qatar World Cup?
With all this, we will do many promotions and events, as well as own content. For this reason, we also implemented the office in São Paulo with Esportudo, with excellent studio for both recording lives and podcasts. We want many influencers and sportsmen participating in these contents. In addition, we are launching a partner program, so they can be part of our ecosystem, bringing players to win with us. It will be released in November and many new features will also come. It will be a great World Cup, not only for us, for Brazil as well.
Are you with plans to hire influencers and brand ambassadors, as seen in the market, or initially will you work more with affiliates?
For now, let's focus on affiliates, since we've seen some companies paying a lot but with not-so-interesting results. We've done tests with great influencers, but we realize that working with micro-influencers brings more feedback. At the stage we are in, this strategy applies better. We may be working with great influencers next year.
You said "phase" of the company. We are in a phase of uncertainty, still waiting for the regulation of sports betting. How do you see that?
Regulation is very welcome. I was born in Boston, USA, and when the regulation came out in the United States, it was very good for users, since it guarantees the protection to bettors and in Brazil will happen the same. There are complaints against some bookmakers who do not pay bettors, and with regulation this will end, because bettors will be protected. There is nothing more to discuss and it is important that the government finalizes this process. For our part, we will comply with all legal determinations and follow in a very transparent manner. I believe that those who do not work accordingly will end up not staying in the market.
Do you believe that the December 12 deadline will be met?
I think it will happen, but it still depends on the directions to be followed with the end of the electoral process. Anyway, I think even if it comes out, the adjustments of the bookmakers will take some time, because it is a difficult process. Also because I don't see an adequate structure in government to meet all license applications.
With regulation, what will be GreenRun's plans?
Let's follow what the regulations determine. Let's get our license, just like we already did in Mexico. We are used to working in regulated markets and this will greatly facilitate the way operators will act. It is much better to work under rules defined for the good of the entire sports betting market. Our plan is to fully meet what the regulations determine to grow in the market, adjusting issues such as taxes, marketing, payment methods etc. And when everything is defined, we intend to expand our portfolio with the casino offering.
Source: Exclusive GMB
