The Aviator girls in leather hot pants danced to hard rock, the cocktails–shaken not stirred–flowed and 30,000 iGaming executives and fans rushed around the halls networking in a veritable Babel of languages in pursuit of business and deal-making.
Welcome to SBC Lisbon 2.0, which in short order has become one of the best places on planet iGaming to promote your products and close deals in a lucrative gambling and gaming market that expands at lightning speed.
And this year the buzzword was Brazil.
The hot market in the newly-regulated South American giant, incredibly, has already overtaken Italy and is now in third place in GGR after the United States and the UK.
Excited
“We are always excited and optimistic in the gambling industry,” enthused Marga Fernandez, Head of iGaming Business at Gamediaworks GMW.
“The focus today is all on Brazil, but maybe it will be South Africa next as Brazil has been regulated now,” she told iGamingFuture today.
Bigger than last year, when it was first held in the Portuguese capital, the SBC fair remains an exclusively online-focussed event.
Salvatore Marino, Business Development Manager at SBTech, says the market is more mature and has become tighter due to regulation.
“This makes it more stable and predictable for companies to invest, but only serious companies can stay in the game,” he stressed.
Red Market
Given the plethora of stands and pitches, it’s only apposite to ask: Has the iGaming business become overcrowded?
BF Games Chief Commercial Officer Rok Hribar, for one, thinks so.
“It’s a red market now,” he says. “There are too many fishes and the sharks are eating other sharks. The big ones are taking positions and the rest fight for the leftovers.”
In the games business, many executives tabled by iGamingFuture concurred, one has to find a niche – because everyone is cloning the opposition and many of the games are too similar.
Rok revealed that his company is focusing on the tools, like adding jackpots, to add spice and difference.
Clarity
Exploring the Brazil effect further, Henrique de Simoni, LatAm Country Manager for 3 Oaks Gaming, a slot games distributor that sells its top game 3 Hot Chilies like hot cakes in the Brazilian market, believes we have to wait until the first year of regulation concludes before passing final judgement on the behemoth.
“Until next year we won’t have the Full Year 2025 data,” he says. “And it is only then that we will have clarity, and operator investment will flow into Brazilian operating partnerships and the market will really take off,” predicts Simoni, who formerly worked at Betano.
As it is, many observers believe that the Brazilian market–with some 300 betting brands, and counting–is already too crowded.
Surely there has to be a process of “consolidation” and it’s likely that Brazil will end up with a maximum of 30-40 big operators.
At a well-attended panel on Latin America, Brazil was the main topic of discussion, along with Argentina and Chile.
Fellipe Fraga, Chief Business Officer at EstrelaBet, railed at the Brazilian government for raising the tax on GGR from 12 percent to 18 percent, when the industry “has only just begun to learn to walk”.
“It’s too much tax on a young industry just six-months after regulation,” fumed Fraga. “Some smaller operators will not be able to survive and will go under or have to merge with foreign operators that will enter the market,” he warned.
Legends
But with 100 million potential bettors over the age of 18-years-old, and who have money to spare to bet, the potential of Brazil is enormous, he said.
The best moments of SBC Lisbon for many soccer-crazy Latin Americans was undoubtedly the charity soccer game that brought famed veterans of the sport to play and meet industry executives and other attendees.
“Suddenly there, a few meters from me, were Petr Cech, John Terry, Henrik Larsson, Javier Saviola, Mendieta, Marco Materazzi and Roberto Carlos,” enthused Fraga, a Brazilian.
“I used to choose these guys for my starting 11 in videogames! I spent hours watching them playing the best football.
“I love how this industry can make these things happen.”
John Terry? Perhaps that’s an over-statement.
But Roberto Carlos, the legendary Brazil and Real Madrid attacking full-back. He certainly makes my team.
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