Games Magazine Brasil - What assessment do you make of your company's performance and growth in 2023 overall? Did it meet expectations or exceed them?
Bobby Longhurst - The last 12 months have been transformative for the business, with record year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth and profitability, record numbers GGR for our customers and the launch and delivery of the largest and most complex projects we have ever undertaken, involving every one of EveryMatrix’s business units.
Plus, in September 2023 EveryMatrix became the first iGaming supplier to receive WLA Safer Gambling Certification with a commitment to put Safer Gambling at the heart of everything we do. And all while we spent 2023 celebrating 15 years since the company was founded. Ideal talking points ahead of and during ICE I think you’ll agree!
What assessment do you make of your company's performance and growth within the Brazilian market in 2023?
Brazil is a hugely exciting market and the industry has been on tenterhooks for several years waiting for this moment.
We’ve been working with partners there and in the wider LatAm region either via casino direct integration via CasinoEngine or aggregation via SlotMatrix for some time and have a seen a steep rise in activity and customer Gross Gaming Revenues (GGR) as online casino regulation has approached.
One example of rapid LatAm growth is our work with Betwarrior. In 2018 we partnered with the brand in LatAm and Canada. Within a year it experienced positive initial results reaching more than €50k monthly Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR).
Fast forward to early 2020 it secured a temporary online gambling licence for Argentina for two associated casino groups. This proved to be a turning point as it marked the first licences granted for these types of operations in Argentina.
The launch of two further brands in Spring 2020 was an immediate hit, rapidly achieving half a million monthly GGR and, throughout the remainder of the year, brand earnings doubled due to our partnership and technology.
The success story continued with Betwarrior expanding its presence in the following year, adding two more brands after obtaining licenses in Buenos Aires City and Buenos Aires Province. By 2022, monthly GGR reached approximately €3 million. Today, with the addition of a fifth brand in the province of Mendoza, total GGR has climbed to €5-6m per month.
We have already replicated this success elsewhere in the region and have ambitious plans to do so across Brazil in the months ahead. We see opportunities across all our product areas including wider turnkey deals that involve multiple products and services coming together to launch or relaunch operator offerings, online casino and sportsbook platform, sports data feeds, esports data and odds, affiliate management and affiliate optimization software and services, gamification, bonus and loyalty features and functionality, localized content, and aggregation.
Could you list the main achievements or goals accomplished?
Continuing to drive existing and sign, launch and deliver new large-scale, complex turnkey projects will be a key strategy for the business in 2024. Our ICE 2024 stand this year will shine the spotlight on the many technologies we have available that come together to drive outstanding results for our partners.
Our two largest turnkey deals and our biggest launch success stories of 2023 were bet-at-home in Germany and globally, and the Hungarian Lottery (SZRT). Many of our tech stack, product roll out and integration processes were custom-built for both clients with almost every EveryMatrix team joining forces to ensure the successful launch of our OddsMatrix sportsbook, at the core of both projects, and wide-ranging turnkey solution. This also included our casino platform, player management, payments module, and affiliate software – all designed to further enhance the bet-at-home.de operation driving both revenues and efficiencies.
Our work with SZRT was one of our most complex integrations to date involving multiple teams including GamMatrix, EveryMatrix’s platform unit. GamMatrix purpose-built a range of project-critical operational and safer gambling features including rapid, multi-step registration and a comprehensive array of self-exclusion functionality in line with specific SZRT and regulatory requirements.
In your sector within the industry, what trends or technological advances do you believe will dominate the market in 2024?
Personalisation, automation and more discussions around the power, possibilities and opportunities surrounding AI will to be on everyone’s lips. We’ve already enabled these technologies in many guises across casino, sportsbook and platform, enabling our customers to work faster and, importantly, smarter, driving record player numbers and revenues, in a safe, compliant and responsible way.
Development is speeding up across all these areas so expect much more from EveryMatrix and others this year. LatAm will also continue to be the talk of the town, up to the point when the first regulated online bet and spin is placed in Brazil.
What is your general opinion on the regulation of the sports betting and online gaming market approval in Brazil?
It was a breakthrough moment that everyone has been speaking about since we got back to the office from their holidays.
While we have been in the region for several years we will be doubling our focus in 2024 and beyond on Brazil, Chile, Peru and Mexico across all our core products, casino, sportsbook and platform but with a clear focus to win and integrate our turnkey platform services dependent on whatever needs each local operator has.
Casino platform integration, gamification and productivity/bonusing features as well as our leading casino aggregation offering will continue to grow in LatAm and we’re primed to work with both new and existing brands in Brazil and the wider region to continually boost their acquisition and retention numbers, however there is equally much more we can do.
What are the main goals/objectives of your company for 2024 within the Brazilian market? And on a global scale?
This year will see a sharp increase in our LatAm presence. We will attend, exhibit and sponsor many more local events, boosting our brand and product awareness and showcasing our complete turnkey software solutions and services that have made a huge impact for tier-1 customers elsewhere such as in Germany and Hungary.
Integrating our bespoke turnkey services in these markets is one of our major strategic objectives for the next 12 months and beyond. We have analysed the Brazilian market extensively, are in daily conversations with partners and prospective customers there and one theme continues to appear: the lack of a high performing, robust platform that can effectively and efficiently manage the complete iGaming and/or sports betting player ecosystem, with maximum uptime, complete with extensive productivity features, localised content and safer gambling tools, all of which we have in abundance at EveryMatrix.
We have time and again proven we can deliver these projects and are very much looking forward to expanding in the region!
Source: Exclusive GMB
