From June 28 to 30, at Espaço Boulevard JK, in Sao Paulo, the Brazilian iGaming Summit and Afliados LATAM will take place. The first two days are reserved for BiS, focusing on B2B and B2C, and the third day will be dedicated to affiliates, which Alessandro Valente, creator and president of the events, calls B2A – Business to Affiliate.
It will be the first exclusive event on the iGaming affiliate market, covering sports betting, casino games and lotteries and adding to the already established BiS. The success of the 2021 edition was so great that all spaces for this year's meeting have already been sold and the organizers are structuring the schedule of lectures and technical panels.
Check out the main excerpts from the interview:
GMB - The Brazilian iGaming Summit is already sold out. I would like you to talk about this resounding success in booking spaces for the second edition of BiS.
Alessandro Valente - We were very happy to see that the reception of the public and businessmen was fantastic, which shows that they certainly did a lot of business in the last edition. The success was great and already resounding in the first edition. We had a great expectation of renovation, but not so fast. We had a growth of 10% to 15% in relation to last year's edition in sponsorships and exhibitors, which brings new people. I value a lot in terms of organizing the event and I always point out that we have a lot of new and renewed content. We have a substantial amount of exhibitors that will be with us for the first time and some that have renewed and will bring new things to the event, from gaming providers and betting platforms.
Do you believe that the presidential decree regulating sports betting will be one of the key points of discussions during BiS 2022?
Undoubtedly this warms up the conversation and should attract new people to this agenda. Even government staff must attend and some businessmen have already shown themselves to be very interested in hearing what they have to say. In addition, we have the bill that was approved in the Chamber of Deputies and I hope that it will pass this year in the Senate. So there is a lot of content from a legal point of view that will be explored in the lectures and panels of this edition of BiS. This content is vital for those who are already in the country and for those who want to enter Brazil and how they should get there and what type of license they should seek, as well as understanding the issue of taxation. This will heat up the stage quite a bit.
And how is the work and conversations going to bring in government technicians to discuss sports betting at BiS, since the presidential decree is close to be released?
This has heated up even more now, with the change of some players within the government. We are already in contact with them so that they can participate and contribute to the discussions, clarifying doubts and explaining the reasons that led them to such conclusions and decisions. We are well advanced with the confirmation invitations from some government officials.
Another topic that has attracted the attention of the market is crypto games, with the Senate approval of the Bitcoin Act. Will this topic be explored during BiS?
Cryptocurrency has advanced more and more. It was well discussed and approved in the Senate. I think we missed covering some things, like NFT and fan-tokens in general, but it's a step forward and opens doors for us to be able to develop some subjects, like NFT games. Or about operators that focus on financial operations in cryptocurrencies. It is very important for our industry and it opens the way in quantity and quality.
Those who invest in crypto assets have a way of understanding the world and digital technology in a more advanced way. Those who already have this kind of knowledge tend to understand better how to operate a betting site or how to place a bet and how this can be more or less profitable. So this has advantages for all of us in the industry as well as the cryptocurrency industry. We see the growth and positioning of Foxbit, the Bitcoin Market has tripled in size and we have new ones coming, with technology for sports, such as Bitci, which brings fans-tokens from football clubs and the Brazilian national team. Bitci bets heavily on this segment, as well as others, with industry tokenization content. They must be present at both the Brazilian iGaming Summit and the LATAM Affiliates.
You created LATAM Affiliates. What prompted you to add a day to the calendar and launch an affiliation-focused event?
A natural process of evolution. It's how I manage to answer the question in a nutshell. Today, the contribution of affiliates to the gaming and betting market is fundamental and very large. Worldwide speaking and in Brazil it has grown a lot. We have many good examples in the country of how this contributes to operators and to winning over new players, which is a little more complicated when the operator does it alone. The affiliate takes all the risk and does for the operator what the operator cannot do, including in terms of personality. There are many advantages and it is natural. Today the industry, globally speaking, depends on affiliates for 30% or 40% of player acquisition and in Brazil it could not be different. So it made a lot of sense for us to create and separate the BiS affiliation event. Thus, we are bringing an important segment of all activity in LATAM Affiliates. It was a natural process, as we see it this way globally, which has the B2B part and what they call B2A – Business to Affiliate. This event features a two-day session very focused on B2B and an exclusive day for all things digital marketing and advertising, with LATAM Affiliates. We will have affiliates, affiliate programs, sites that operate with affiliates and everything related to that, as well as crypto and digital marketing. We will have companies from these areas at the event.
So will we have an exhibition and two technical discussion events?
More or less, because during the event some exhibitors will only participate in BiS and others will only participate in Afliiados LATAM, which gave the opportunity for some exhibitors to participate focusing on that objective they wanted. A particular bookmaker benefits much more if it has access to affiliates. Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility of some bookmakers doing business with new providers. Usually some companies have affiliation teams. So, we decided to create a specific space, to bring the affiliates. We are expecting between 300 and 500 interested affiliates, who already have business with betting companies or are interested in the segment.
There is, therefore, a tremendous amount of sign-up in the affiliate area.
Yes. And a more open audience. There are some that already work with an affiliation, such as Hotmart, for example, producing content or promoting content from a producer. And now you can come to understand and promote a new industry that can be even more profitable.
You mentioned that the affiliation represents between 30% and 40% of the result of the operation of bookmakers globally. Can we expect the same profile in Brazil?
I think so. There are many sites in Brazil that operate as money changers and they will all turn into affiliates at some point. They will migrate to the affiliation system, which is much more interesting and smarter for both parties.
So, is BiS and LATAM Affiliates fully ready to welcome operators, regulators and affiliates?
Clear. That is the goal. Bring everyone into an environment and conversation where everyone can converge ideas and exchange experiences.
And is the schedule of lectures and panels ready?
Not yet. We are working on it, especially in relation to the changes in government and new companies coming in and asking for space to explain what their pains and solutions are. We are working on the agenda, but it is already defined and it is just a matter of reviewing with the group and soon everything will be published on the official websites of BiS and LATAM Affiliates.
Source: Exclusive GMB
