GMB - This is the first time you have presented at SAGSE as exhibitors. Why did you decide to come this year not as visitors but to showcase your products?
Beñardo Elorz - We always look at the Latin American market with great attention. In previous years we had come as visitors and, seeing the moment of the regulation of the online gaming, we thought it was time to show our products. We develop software and market various betting options such as casino games, races and lotteries. The action that we come to Buenos Aires is to propose to the operators that if they want a white label they can use our software, and if they want to market it under the Kirol brand they must adhere to a series of company standards to be able to offer them.
How do you evaluate the fair? Was it up your expectations? Did the products displayed generated interest among visitors?
We were surprised at the beginning of the fair, since normally the first hours of the first day are usually somewhat slow, but here we have had very good quality visits in terms of the level of the companies that approached showing interest in our products.
Kirol comes from a market like the Spanish one that is much more mature and consolidated. What is your vision of the Latin American market?
We see it with much interest, with much love and we have a very high expectation. For us, it is a market that has many possibilities since Latin America and Spain are like first cousins, with similarities in terms of customs, ways of living, which generates that we can replicate here the business model we have in Spain. Obviously applying the small differences that are necessary, but that is something that software developers are accustomed to as there are no two countries, two markets or two equal regulations and you always have to adapt to the local context. Being software manufacturers allows us to do that.
This is a special moment for Latin America with its political ups and downs. There is the example of Argentina, which had begun a process of regulation in Buenos Aires and after the presidential elections there is no news yet. How do you see these situations and how do you manage them for future planning?
Of course we are aware of everything. For us, a red line is regulation, and what the local regulation says is a holy word. We only operate in regulated markets and want to work hand in hand with legality, doing things well in the right framework.
And what vision do you have of the Brazilian market? What expectations does it generate? Do you have any plans to enter there now that it has been approved and only the regulation is pending?
It is a market that interests us, and we have more than one plan to enter. In fact, there are different possible local partners that have shown interest in us, with whom we have been working for years and we believe that in a not very long period we will be working in Brazil.
What do these possible local partners tell you about what is happening in Brazil? What information do you have about the current situation regarding regulation?
At the regulatory level they tell us that there is some instability, that we have to wait for things to accommodate. Once the market is settled and the regulation is completely ready, it will be time to formally enter the Brazilian market.
Have you sized the market? How do they see it?
We are aware of what it is to work, work and work and that you can die of success. There are companies that suffer success. We have grown a lot in a very short time, and it has forced us to have to be continuously organizing. Our first objective is the organization, because when companies start to cover a lot, they press little. Then the Brazilian market must be looked at carefully because it is a very large country, with many people and many possibilities. We will have to go in search of the alternative that is closest to our business model, which does not mean that it is the most profitable in the country, but the one that best fits what we are.
The issue of such a large population and certain political problems are issues that concern you in some way?
Yes of course. I would be a liar if say otherwise. But it is something that also happens to us in Spain. When there is a change of government, changes in regulations are usually generated and the gaming sector is a very sensitive market to undergo changes. But always with criteria and following the law, those are things that one adapts to and we will not have problems.
You just mentioned possible Brazilian partners. Are companies that are already working in the market or are only preparing the ground for the future?
Both cases. There are entrepreneurs who have shown interest in the Kirol Group, either in our software or with our own brand Kirol Bet that already has a strong presence both nationally in Spain and internationally with the different basketball teams we have sponsored, including one at that we have given the name as is KIROLBET Baskonia that plays Euroleague and gives us an important visibility all over Europe.
Kirol is a recognized brand, strong, with our founding partners who have taken care to do things well and go to different international markets as ambassadors of the great brand we are.
It would be very crazy to think that, in the future, Kirol could sponsor a jersey of a Brazilian football team or perhaps another sport as you do in other markets?
As a marketing director and dreamer that I am, I would say yes. If my boss were here, he would say "it will be seen", but I say yes, why not. I love to dream.
Is Kirol's offer also physical or online only?
In Spain we handle more than 5,000 physical terminals between the different brands that make up the Group, in addition to the online platforms.
The Ministry of Economy Brazil also contemplates both physical and online games. Would it be a possibility to think on offering physical games in terminals in Brazil? Although the issue of the country's dimension may make it more complicated.
You have to see the different business models that can be given. In Spain, one of the most profitable channels is the hospitality one, bars. They are areas where there are great TV screens with people watching games and betting machines. It is a very social game with very small bets. As if you and I watched a game of Real Madrid in a bar and we played the change of beers. It is something of very high turnover, but little money at stake.
Source: Exclusive Games Magazine Brasil
