GMB – What are the novelties of Genius Sports at ICE London, the main gaming fair in the world and in a country that is the birthplace of sports betting?
Guilherme Buso – Really, this is our home. Genius Sports is a British company and headquartered here in England. We continue with our work to offer the best possible service to bookmakers around the world and very focused especially in Brazil. We brought our model together. A marketing work platform with bookmakers. We work with four topics. The first is our content, which everyone knows and which we have been offering bookmakers for decades.
At the same time, we added another work that is also quite traditional, which is media and advertising buying and programmatic media, adding two important points that also bring value to bookmakers, which is engagement, exploring free-to-play games, where bookmakers can further explore fan engagement and acquire fan database through engagement games.
And finally, we have the fact that last year we acquired a company that works with advertising through differentiated content and that goes against the communication that the company wants to do. These four points form what we call Sweet marketing, and here we are trying to integrate them so that bookmakers enjoy each of these items in an integrated way.
That is, Genius Sports is not a tool. There are several ones, and that for the operator is fantastic!
The idea is that the operator comes to our company and manages to act on all fronts, all concerned with content and what we offer in the most reliable and fast way so that bookmakers are sure that they will have the best possible content in their hands and, from there, they explore marketing in the best possible way.
You mentioned free-to-play and Genius Sports just signed an agreement with the NFL to offer that option and engage fans…
The NFL is a very important case for Genius, where we can really explore all of this together with such a relevant league. In Brazil, the NFL has grown a lot and we can explore all of this, run tests and understand how the new fan – because we are not just talking about the gambler – can interact with brands, whether betting or having fun. Genius uses the NFL as a great case to later offer in other leagues around the world. That is, it is an extremely relevant case for Genius.
As a case, the NFL has a number of examples in this regard. Has sports betting made the NFL more popular in Brazil?
I think it's a combination of factors. The NFL has that engagement thing. American sport is engaging and I believe that American football, as well as basketball, are competitions in which continuous betting, what we call in-play betting, is very present. The game stops and you can think. It's not just assessing whether there's going to be a goal or a corner. There are a number of other factors that make this betting market revolutionize.
The partnership we also have with Second Spectrum, which works with technology through tracking and augmented reality, will make Genius Sports soon offer new products that will reach the user's screen and he will be induced to bet on something relevant and what is happening at that moment. This is a technology that Genius acquired last year and that with the NFL we are testing some tools so that soon we will have completely innovative betting content that will revolutionize the market, as we have done many times over the 10 to 20 years in the marketplace.
And how is the LatAm market for Genius?
Flying, if we can say so. It is a great moment for the Latin American market, with countries where regulation has just taken place and the market is heating up. Brazil, in this debate whether it will happen or not, is also very hot, and Genius is keeping an eye on all of this, negotiating, talking and understanding the market to come up with a tool that best serves the bookmakers.
So business is good?
We have shown constant growth and our presence, mainly in Brazil, increased a lot last year and for 2023 the expectation is for even greater growth.
And more investments too?
More investment, more presence and more products that will be increasingly accessible to Latin American markets and Brazil in particular. So, the trend is one of exponential growth.
Source: Exclusive GMB
