Paulo Gerber, CEO of GamersBank and who also directs the sister units GamersCard and GamersWallet, spoke with GMB about the new moment of the company, which has become a joint-stock company to grow even more in the gaming and sports betting segment.
Initially acting as a payment method more geared towards the poker world, the company has grown and is now seeking new horizons, especially with the imminent regulation of sports betting.
GMB- The financial market in the gaming area is extremely important to give consistency and tools to this very important activity in the Brazilian economy. What novelties does GamersBank bring to this segment?
Paulo Gerber – We have a product launched in September of last year, GamersWallet, which is very successful. We achieved great growth in our area of operation. We are expanding to several other sites. And the most recent news is that we have a payment solution via PIX. GamersWallet is already loaded via PIX in a very practical way. So, the operation itself for the client, for the player, is very similar to charging via PIX with important advantages in using GamersWallet, such as access to tournaments, flexibility to play on different sites and a scoring program. But all this does not invalidate that we also work with those people who want to make direct payment by PIX, so during ICE London we closed several important negotiations to process both Wallet and the card [GamersCard], which we have had since 2019.
In addition to all this, we closed a contract for processing via PIX and expanding our operations to more functionalities. Our purpose is to make the payment process easier for our customers and our partners, betting and poker sites, our initial operation, and beyond. We are open to other types of games and we hope that this will happen soon.
And this new surname is very important: Bank S.A. I would like you to talk about this growth.
Certainly. We were born as an IP – Payment Institution structure and started operating before the advent of banker aservs providers, which are essentially technology companies, many of them linked to commercial banks with broader operations. Since this advent, which is a worldwide phenomenon, of digital banks, we were structuring ourselves to act in this way. So our next step is to actually turn all of that into digital bank accounts and give our customers much more flexibility in using their products. In other words, our company is increasingly adding features and expanding our market to provide other financial products when and if applicable to our audience.
And moving forward, of course, within the sports betting industry...
Undoubtedly. I usually tell the people I live with that just seeing both on open TV and on closed channels linked to sports, the volume of marketing and advertising from sports betting companies is an obvious sign that this is growing a lot. Brazilians like gambling and betting, as we know, and they enjoy it. So, it is only fair that we are enabling and facilitating the process for all of them. And as our focus is iGaming, sports betting is essential to be in our portfolio. We already have some closed partners and in the development and deployment phase soon. We are moving forward in this market to provide more options and better serve our partners and, of course, our end consumers.
And in an unregulated market. Imagine when it's regulated!
There will be a wonder. Not regulated, but the way we operate, as everyone knows, we do KYP (know your partner), we look for structured, correct partners that have the same concerns that we have since the beginning, doing things properly and that we are increasingly ready for a regulated and open market and, of course, with many more opportunities.
Even because compliance is the backbone of the financial business...
And I have a lot of time in the financial market. My whole life has been in the ways of payment segment in the financial market, not exactly in iGaming, but compliance is an old word in my vocabulary and in my daily life. I have always worked in companies that had this as an imperative need. And I was very grateful and surprised to see that the gaming world is already very compliance oriented. I feel inside a bank when we talk about money laundering prevention and get to know your customer. This for me was already everyday in the financial market.
In other words, you are within an environment that is yours, an ecosystem of your own.
I feel at home.
Source: Exclusive GMB
