Brazil
Where does the Sport of Kings fit into the Brazilian market?
With a regulated Brazil now in sight, Richard Duncan, Head of Business Development at racing odds and data provider PA Betting Services, assesses the potential for the sport to become a key product in this emerging market
With the last few months having seen Brazil’s sports betting bill clear all the hurdles needed to finally be signed into law, many in the sports betting world have understandably taken a keen interest in the possibilities offered by South America’s largest country.
The home of footballing greats Pelé and Ronaldo and boasting more World Cup titles than any other country, Brazil’s passion for and the resulting potential of football betting is clear. There are a number of parallels to be drawn between a market such as the UK and Brazil when it comes to football. For one thing, the similar level of devotion among the fan base looks set to ensure that football will easily remain the biggest betting turnover generator in Brazil, as it is in the UK.
What’s less clear is how likely racing is to come anywhere near the second place it holds in the UK market, where it accounted for 36% of remote betting turnover in the last set of official Gambling Commission statistics. However, there are a number of comparisons that can be made between the UK and Brazil when it comes to racing. For example, there’s a hardcore fraternity of racing fans and many more casual racegoers, those who are likely to view a day at the races as much in terms of the experience as the opportunity to have a flutter. Not to mention that Brazil boasts the third-largest horse population globally. The thoroughbred industry has been growing steadily since the 1990s, with notable group one winners such as Siphon, Sandpit and, more recently, Bal a Bali elevating the breed’s prominence.
But there’s a huge difference in the local availability of racing. While Brazil’s enormous size makes it the fifth largest country in the world and its population of more than 215 million makes it the seventh most populated, it has just four racetracks, albeit these are well-attended on race days. The UK, ranked 80th by land area and 21st by population, meanwhile, is home to 59 racecourses.
This disparity goes some way to explaining why football is taking the lion’s share of sports betting turnover in Brazil despite currently being unregulated, while racing takes a fraction of this even though it’s been legal for many years.
Online operators could be doing more to cash in on local racing than they currently are. The key to making the most of the Brazilian opportunity is educating the local population on the benefits of betting opportunities that the sheer volume of international races affords and cross-selling this to keen sports bettors.
Filling the gaps
Because while football is unlikely to lose its crown as the most popular sport among Brazilian bettors, the problem with football, NFL, basketball, MMA, golf, tennis and everything else, is that there are so many gaps in the schedule. And once the significant licence fees outlined in the new law have been paid, both local and foreign operators are likely going to need to optimise their product with as little downtime as possible in order to justify their investment.
Racing has the edge over all other sports because on a global basis there exists a full calendar where there is always something to bet on.
In the UK and Ireland we’ve already seen this approach used to great effect with the relatively recent introductions of North American, French, South African, Australian and Asian racing for domestic audiences. This secondary content does well as it lands in either prime leisure hours or is filler at weekends or for poor weather conditions. The increasing globalisation of racing was, in fact, one of the key reasons for our acquisition of Asian racing data provider iRace Media in the second half of last year.
In this respect, foreign operators, some of which have established a foothold in Brazil prior to a regulatory regime and are savvy with this approach used in established markets, may have an edge over others, simply because they’re experienced with the product.
Brazil is likely to be the same as any other fledgling market in the sense that if a company has just started offering a legal gambling product, they are likely going to have greater comfort in offering products to bet on that they are familiar with.
Mitigating the risk
In conversations our team has had with operators in emerging markets such as Brazil, Latam and Africa, the racing knowledge gap is an issue that’s come up repeatedly. They could easily integrate with a data provider such as ourselves from a technical perspective, but they may not fully understand the data they are looking at and some worry this leaves them overexposed.
There are a number of things that make racing more challenging than other sports to trade. For a start, the vernacular used in racing is not something that everyone understands if they’ve not been exposed to it before. In addition, a lot of operators fear racing because while they believe it can make them good money, they know there are people out there, professional punters and big racing syndicates, that know more about racing than their own traders.
This view is not unique to Brazil or even new markets, it’s something we also hear in our core markets and it possibly goes some way to explaining why new operators sometimes take every sport on offer before they get to racing. But inevitably, most take racing at some point because the volume on offer is too great to ignore. However, one recent shift worth mentioning is that more operators new to racing are opting for a platform partner or pricing partner to avoid being exposed to risks they aren’t comfortable with.
This is something that may be even more attractive to operators in emerging markets like Brazil given their lack of experience with global fixed odds racing to date. One thing that may work in their favour is that the country’s bettors would also appear to lack the maturity shown in established markets when it comes to the type of bets they are placing.
For instance, virtually all of the bets taken on football in Brazil are multis, which are bad for punters but which operators love as they are high margin and low risk. A diverse racing portfolio similarly has the potential to deliver high margins for operators and keep players engaged year-round, meaning the product could be just as successful in Brazil as it is in many more established markets.
Richard Duncan is Head of Business Development at PA Betting Services. He has been with parent company PA Media Group since 2002, with the bulk of his career having been spent working in its racing team.
Delasport has just become one of the first suppliers to obtain a GLI certification for its sportsbook in Brazil, two weeks before the historical regulation comes into effect.
Continuing its global growth, Delasport is bringing several operators on board in Brazil. In order to complete the process, operators that are applying for a new Brazilian license have 30 days to provide all relevant platform certificates from the moment that they are notified by the regulator that their initial submission has been accepted. This is also the moment that they can pay the license fee. Still, failure to provide platform certificates will result in the application being placed on hold.
Delasport turned to Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) for the certification of its sportsbook against Brazilian technical standards. The historical partnership with GLI was further strengthened by the news, a few months back, that GLI had become the first laboratory to achieve the local accreditation to certify for betting systems, live game studios, and online games by the Secretaria De Prêmios e Apostas (SPA) in Brazil.
Delasport has successfully met all technical requirements for providing its sports betting solution to the largest country in South America. The certificate is evidence of the team’s experience, expertise, and determination to lead the way in key jurisdictions.
Obtaining a GLI certification for Brazil is a step towards cementing the trust players and operators have for Delasport’s products. This serves to show that the award-winning supplier is capable of meeting even the strictest industry standards for integrity and fairness.
“When we learnt that providing platform certificates to the regulator was on our partner operators’ critical path for obtaining the license, we immediately prioritized submitting the system to GLI for testing”, Delasport’s Chief Compliance Officer Filippo Ferri said. “Needless to say, GLI did a tremendous job of working with us to conduct the tests in record time, to match the submission deadline of some of our clients. I am also very proud of how our internal departments worked together to obtain this certificate, and of how they continue to push forward with the delivery of a datavault system that complies with SIGAP requirements.”
Operators that plan on entering the newly regulated Brazilian market will now have numerous advantages if they partner with Delasport. They will be able to provide their players with personalization features like My Sportsbook, My Event Builder, and My Combo that skyrocket revenues and retention.
Furthermore, Delasport’s KYC and AML provider is a market leader that guarantees the highest level of compliance for all operators that choose to go on this route.
Also, Delasport has already partnered with numerous local payment system providers and offers a real-time AI-powered Responsible Gambling system which can easily adapt to local regulations.
Last, but not least, operators will feel Delasport’s support from the get-go all the way to establishing themselves as a market leader. Delasport is knowledgeable of cultural and regional differences and can address all localization needs from the early stages of engagement.
EGT Digital will take part in the iGaming and Gaming Expo (IGI Expo), which will be held on December 13-15 in the Brazilian city of Florianópolis. This will be the first edition of the exhibition, which will offer a platform for business and networking for professionals, investors and regulators from the region. The Bulgarian developer and provider of iGaming solutions will showcase its rich product portfolio at booth D20.
Visitors will have the opportunity to become familiar with the wide range of casino developments of EGT Digital. The jackpot bestsellers Bell Link, Clover Chance, High Cash, and Single Progressive Jackpot, currently including more than 120 in-house developed titles, will reveal their captivating features and will show why they are favorites of players in so many markets around the world. Among the top-performing slots on display will be Amazons’ Battle, Shining Crown, and the award-winning Sugar Duke. Together with them the upcoming cocktail-themed 5×6 Fruity Shots will stand out with multipliers ranging from x2 to the impressive x500, as well as the Toppling Reels, which will add more thrill to the game, promising even bigger prizes.
The gaming diversity at the stand will be complemented by the company’s instant games, which are a preferred choice for fans of quick wins due to their original design and mechanics, ensuring highly engaging gameplay.
X-Nave, EGT Digital’s “all-in-one” betting platform, will also be on display to present the technology and tools operators need to build and grow their online business. Standing out with great flexibility, the platform contains 4 main modules: Gaming Aggregator, CRM Engine, Sport Product, and Payment Gateway. Each of them can function as a part of the turnkey solution or to be integrated with developments of third-party providers.
The Gaming Aggregator will show its wide variety of over 12,000 games from more than 140 popular providers. The guests will also be able to learn more about new functionalities like the Buy Bonus, Hot and Cold games category, giving live visualization of the games’ RTP, as well as tools like Recommendation Engine and Casino as Widget, which allow operators to create more personalized content for their customers.
The CRM Engine will demonstrate numerous games and tournaments, as well as options for advanced player segmentation and AI/ML-driven tools.
The attendees will also have the opportunity to get acquainted with the rich sports and esports coverage offered by the X-Nave’s Sport Product. The module will present its Customizable Tournament Page, providing easy navigation and a personalized betting experience.
EGT Digital’s Payment Gateway will showcase its wide range of payment methods, including Open Banking. The module will demonstrate its user-focused design, featuring options like deposit repeat and bonus selection, combined with enhanced security measures.
“I am very glad that a market with huge potential as Brazil is now open to offer high-quality online gaming content to its players,” commented Celina Guedes, Regional Director Brazil at EGT. “I am confident that our products will quickly gain popularity here, given their excellent results in a number of countries around the world, including Latin America, which is among the regions with strongest performance for us. IGI Expo will give us a valuable opportunity to present ourselves to Brazilian operators, players and industry experts. EGT Digital will showcase its developments at the largest booth at the exhibition, where we will be awaiting our guests during the three days of the event.”
Salsa Technology will be present at the perfectly timed IGI event being held in conjunction with CGS in Florianópolis. Based at stand A70/A80 in the CentroSul Convention Center, Salsa Technology is primed to showcase its Salsa Omni and Salsa Gator solutions ahead of the opening of Brazil’s regulated market.
The final event of a busy year runs from 12th December to 15th December, with the iGaming focus happening over the opening two days. Salsa Technology is ready to present its solutions, which are already active and delivering results in the regulated Brazilian market.
Before the event doors open, Salsa’s star team is contributing to the event’s insightful content. CGO, Eliane Nunes, will moderate a panel titled ‘Future Perspectives of the Betting Market in Brazil’. On the second day, Salsa Head of Development Jefferson Torquato will join a stage discussion titled ‘Marketing and Technology in the World of Betting’.
Salsa’s LatAm-focused Salsa Omni (PAM) platform has a robust and comprehensive back office, providing an unrivalled level of autonomy for operators. Customisable, flexible, and scalable, Salsa’s PAM has been designed from years of experience in Brazil and Latin America to establish it as the leading iGaming platform for regulated markets in Latam, particularly in Brazil.
The team heading to Florianópolis also includes CTO Diego Mourglia, Head of Development Jefferson Torquato, Product Manager Georgiana Lopes, Operation, Retention & CS Manager Cathiussa Canez, CRM & Marketing Manager, Lilian Carmona, Motion Designer Vitor Gonzalez, and Graphic Designer Allan Vasconcelos
Salsa Technology’s CGO, Eliane Nunes, said: “CGS / IGI Florianópolis is a very important event on the calendar, especially with the launch of Brazil’s regulated market in January. Along with the team, we’re looking forward to discussing our solutions and the impact our technology and localised expertise will bring to companies aiming to succeed in the regulated Brazilian market.”
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