GMB - How long has Play55 been in operation, and what are the platform's main solutions for lotteries in Brazil?
Renato Saladino - We have been in the market for six years, providing solutions to facilitate the distribution of various types of lotteries, such as bingo cards, physical and online scratch cards, building affiliate networks, and passive lottery (raffles). In 2020, with the advent of the pandemic, we grew exponentially as the philanthropic capitalization segment needed to digitize its operations. This included entering the online sales segment and providing technology for their sales force to distribute their games as cities began lockdowns.
During this time, we pioneered the sale of lottery products in partnership with bands and artists, delivering online sales with QR codes during live TV broadcasts. In 2020, we became the largest distribution platform not linked to economic groups for philanthropic lotteries. We also provide BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) for large capitalization companies and have a robust technological infrastructure to process thousands of transactions per minute.
Besides technology for the philanthropic capitalization market, what other solutions are available for the lottery market?
Over the years, we have created new services and distribution methods for managing and distributing scratch cards (both physical and online), legalizing passive lotteries (raffles), enabling affiliate operations, and distributing products through multiple channels. We manage payments in cash and electronic means and integrate third-party or proprietary technologies.
Is Play55 available throughout Brazil, or is it just a local solution for a few operators?
We are present throughout Brazil and tailor regional operations to meet the audience's needs.
What does Play55 represent in terms of clients and operations?
We have over 9.5 million users and more than 60,000 sellers/points of sale with 20 regional B2B partners.
With the increasing growth of state lottery operations, how does Play55 position itself in response to these changes?
We have already established partnerships with state lotteries that use our tools for sales management, sales force remuneration, distribution, billing, and logistics of the products sold by the lotteries, scratch cards, and physical and online bingo cards.
The lottery market is increasingly going digital. How can Play55 leverage online games and lotteries?
Our DNA has always been digital. We know how to attract users on the web and were created with the intention of digitizing the physical operations of our B2B partners. We work with the main social media providers and paid traffic, building structured operations according to each local partner's profile. Additionally, we digitize all physical processes, from sales stores for end-users to sales force applications and distribution through multiple channels such as POS, dynamic links, social networks, and WhatsApp.
We believe that online will grow significantly, but we must also capitalize on the full potential of physical sales. Our main differentiator is converting our physical distribution network into sub-affiliates, consequently increasing our B2B partners' revenue.
How do you build a robust team in the face of the growing state lottery sector with different processes and operations?
We have a platform that has been built and refined over the past six years. We have faced regional adversities with some of our clients, and therefore we are in a very comfortable position to adapt to the new functionalities and processes that the market demands. Currently, we have more than 30 employees in our company, with strategic leaders allocated in each area. These leaders work with business performance indicators, so we have a complete vision of how our operation is performing daily.
What are Play55's plans for the second half of the year in Brazil?
We have a very robust plan for the gaming segment. We will distribute multiple products through our network. With the regulation of state lotteries and the legalization of some gaming modalities, we are focused on the strategy of distributing these products. We are physically and online present in various regions of the country through our B2B partners, so our capacity to distribute new modalities is substantial.
We have more than 9.5 million users using our applications, over 60,000 sellers and POS that distribute a single product. Our plans are to bring more products to this audience. We are in discussions with national and international gaming operators. Since we have an already connected and operational ecosystem, our work will be to offer and convert new gaming modalities. Imagine that a new player entering the Brazilian market would need to understand the different cultures, local operation models, regulations, tax structures, among other adversities. Consequently, they would need to invest a lot of capital to test their model, whereas we are already ready to offer the best solutions.
Source: Exclusive GMB
