GMB - For the first time you are participating in BiS SiGMA Americas. What are your objectives in a fair that has now become global?
Marcos Vinícius - Our objective is to demonstrate the work we have developed over these seven years. We are a very well-known company in the national retail betting scene and everything else. Several customers came to visit us to learn about our online platform solution that we developed exclusively for the Brazilian betting market.
It was a solution completely redesigned from scratch to work with everything that is most modern and what will be required in Brazil for regulation. This was the main objective, in addition to SA Esportes, we also operate the website BETEsporte.com, which is a very strong brand and well known throughout Brazil. We were present at the event, made contact with some clients who are already long-time partners, closed new deals and presented our new platform to Brazil and the whole world.
What is it like to bring this world from the street to regulated online gambling in Brazil? How to carry out this migration and convince small street operators to be part of this process?
The Brazilian betting market is very long-lived. It started with Jogo do Bicho and especially in the Northeast, the cultural issue of betting in physical places, such as bars and restaurants, is a very strong issue. It is rooted in the way the bettor is used to betting. With regulations in Brazil inevitable, now people are starting to question what will happen, what this migration will be like and everything else. I think the biggest turning point in this market was PIX joining sports betting. It is much easier for a person to be at home with their cell phone and place their bet, receive their money and everything else.
Nothing stops him from being at the bar betting with his friends, but now everything is moving towards the online market. We have advised all customers who own street stalls to open their eyes to this change, which is a path of no return. We are doing as much as we can to help them along this path.
How are we helping people? We have a team specialized in consulting on this migration, what are the necessary steps, how to work with partners who received commissions and how to bring them to become affiliates of the site. We welcome all of this.
Are they getting this message and saying “I’m going to go to this regulated market”?
In the beginning, there was a little resistance. But once people look at the situation a little differently, they understand that it is an even better and more scalable way of working. They will not be limited to a specific region of coverage as they had to be present in the region. I believe it will be very good.
Furthermore, you have a strong penetration in other segments, such as ‘vaquejada’ (rodeo) and support four football clubs, two of which are the main ones in Goiás. How has this been and what are the benefits for BETEsporte?
It's been a long-term work, almost six years old. We arrived a little late in this market and when we arrived, there were already big players in Brazil. Therefore, we chose to have different work strategies. Today, we are very strong in vaquejada (rodeo), where we are owners of the X1 Vaquejada Federation, in addition to supporting motocross projects.
We also sponsor the two biggest football teams in Goiás, Vila Nova and Goiás. This brings us a good return and engages members. We not only sponsor the teams, putting the name on the shirt. We are present in community actions with the clubs and a series of actions with them.
Going back to talking a little about vaquejada, it is a very strong niche, which was not much explored by sports betting people. We saw great potential in the modality and we ended up having vaquejada lives with more than 300 or 400 thousand people simultaneously. This has been bringing a very good return. They like the way we have worked with this sponsorship, which involves supporting athletes and treating animals.
What are the future plans for this regulated market? Are you already approaching the laboratories approved by the Betting Secretariat?
I look favorably on regulation, despite some initial fear due to the lack of more information and the fact that we don't know how various topics will be dealt with, although good things are happening. One of them is the issue of payment transactions. Before, we paid high fees and from now on the prices are proving to be much more affordable, not for this service but for other services as well.
Everything has a side that can be a little onerous, but it will be very good and will give us a lot of security to work with. We are very confident in the regulations and are hopeful that everything will turn out for the best.
How will you enter the regulated market?
We have already submitted a request for analysis of our platform in the government system, which is providing guidelines for the integration of our system with that of the government. Regarding the laboratories and all the tests, we had previously adapted the system to GLI-33, which was used as the basis for regulating everything, so we are very calm and confident. We have a very good technical team and very experienced staff.
Source: GMB Exclusive
