GMB – Entain has submitted the application for a license for Sportingbet to operate sports betting and online gaming in Brazil. What is the status of this process and what are your expectations regarding approval by the Betting and Prizes Secretariat?
Martin Lycka – Regarding the application, the entire industry expects the applicants to be successful in obtaining the license around November 20th, and we hope that we will get it. It is one of our main goals in the Brazilian market, to obtain authorization and enter the regulated market as soon as it is launched.
And what are the other goals in the future Brazilian regulated market?
In my opinion – and this is why we are at the 3rd Sports Integrity Summit – is to achieve long-term sustainability in the market. That is why we discuss at the Football Museum all the topics related to sports integrity, gambling addiction and, in general, the protection of our consumers.
This is a policy that has been adopted by Sportingbet for a long time, to guide and work towards responsible gaming. In other words, is it following the same path?
That's right, raising awareness and educating our consumers and customers. So, it's a very important policy and factor for Entain.
Is the platform fully adapted to the realities and needs, and even more so, to the requirements of the Betting and Prizes Secretariat?
We are working on this and we plan to have everything ready before the market launch. It is a company policy – ??and a Group one – ??to comply with all the rules that apply to individual markets. Therefore, we thank the Brazilian government and all the authorities, especially the Ministry of Finance, for the hard work they have done and continue to do in the process of regulating sports betting and online gaming in Brazil.
Is there any expectation of including other bookmakers in addition to Sportingbet in the authorization process applied by Entain?
We are not including other bookmakers because we are following our own path directly through Sportingbet. At the same time, it is clear that collaboration with other brands, with other bookmakers, is also a factor in the success of any regulated market, especially within the consumer protection environment.
Therefore, the topics we discuss here, such as responsible gaming, combating ludopathy, sports integrity, fraud prevention and money laundering, will be our focus and must be free from any type of competition. Of course, we are running a business and, as I said, there must be a high level of collaboration with our competitors.
Source: Exclusive GMB
