Lisbon was the setting for the SBC Summit 2024 event in the Portuguese capital, which took place between September 24 and 26. The main players of the gaming industry were present at one of the biggest events of the sector in Europe, among them Soft2Bet.
During the event, Yogonet spoke with Nicolás Campano, the company’s Sales Director for Latin America. From his position, Campano told us about the current situation of the Latin American market, Soft2bet’s strategy in the region, and the main issues and challenges of the sector.
We are on the last day of the trade show, what is your assessment? Did it exceed the expectations you had before arriving in Lisbon?
We reached the last day very satisfied with the event and with our presence here. We noticed a lot of interest in the different gamification engines that, at the end of the day, help to retain the player. They reduce the bonus budget and enhance the experience and user engagement.
Besides that, we have also seen a lot of interest in markets that are beginning to regulate, such as Brazil or Peru, in the case of Latin America, and then also in other parts of the world such as Europe or even North America.
What are the main things that potential customers are most interested in learning about?
We did a gamification workshop on the second day of the show, and what operators ask is what are the benefits when they integrate our MEGA gamification solution.
And at the end of the day, the metrics that we have seen are incredible. They’re mind-blowing because the time in front of the screen increases by four times. It also increases deposits, deposit frequency, and deposit quantity, as well as GGR, NGR, and many other metrics. In the end, what they ask us is how you can integrate it and also in what kind of markets you can do it.
Nowadays the world is a place with many regulations, with many different types of laws and you always have to keep in mind that each regulation and each country is a different world when it comes to adapting and localizing your content.
So the main questions are how do you comply with the regulation, and how can you localize your content for different countries.
What are some of the major topics that you see the industry discussing at the moment?
In my particular case, since I run the Latin American market, there is a lot of talk about Brazil. Brazil is the talk of the world. But not only that, we are also hearing a lot about Mexico and Peru. Peru is a market that has recently been regulated, which is very interesting for us in software, but people don’t give so much importance to Mexico, which is a market that is mature and regulated. But for us, it is also very important.
But back to your question: Gamification, artificial intelligence, augmented reality. These are things that you hear a lot, but above all, I would say that gamification is the immediate future of iGaming.
We see a lot of artificial intelligence in many industries, and while very interesting things are being done with AI, we believe that what we are doing in terms of gamification is the future. It is a mix between casual games and gambling, creating a space that is not only betting but also entertainment, along with retention and loyalty that goes far beyond what we have seen before through bonuses.
How would you describe Soft2Bet’s current presence and strategy for the LatAm region?
The truth is that Latin America is a continent full of very heterogeneous countries. Many people sometimes get it wrong, who think they can go to Latin America as a general set and each country in Latin America is completely different. So what we have done is, instead of focusing on Latin America in general, we are investing a lot in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, because we see that there are many opportunities.
Of course, Soft2bet is a company that only operates and provides its technologies in regulated markets. We are also monitoring a little bit Chile, which is also going to be regulated soon, but above all what we are seeing is that for us Peru, Mexico and Brazil are the three most interesting regulations and therefore, we will travel to these three countries as soon as there are events we will exhibit all our technology. We will be in Rio de Janeiro, and then we will also be in SiGMA and several other events as well.
With gamification being such an important topic right now for the company, do you think this product has a disruptive potential for these markets we are talking about in Latin America?
Yes, without a doubt. To give you a more specific example, in Brazil, there is quite a struggle against fraud and bonus abusers. In the end, what our gamification solution does is create natural entertainment without having to use the bonus. So, in the case of Brazil, what our MEGA gamification solution does is to combat this type of fraud and create that retention that the operator needs and that has historically been done through bonuses.