Silva began by describing the current situation of the brand in the country and its activities: “We have the product Sportsbet.io in Brazil, which we call it “a stage of excellence.” We joined the Brazilian market in 2014, and we expanded specially based on football, which is 95% of the business in Brazil. After dealing with a Premier League team, which was Watford, we decided to spend in Flamengo, which is the biggest team in Brazil. That was a couple of years ago.”
“A big part of our business is damaged due to the COVID because, first, the source of revenue relies on sports events and also the acquisition also relies a lot on sports event in Brazil. You can imagine that operators running an offshore sports bet are now in a very delicate situation. There are also a lot of opportunities and it is good to continue what you have started. It is always in the agenda of an operator the regulation in Brazil. Not just because you want to join the market but also because you need to forecast what's your budget for the next year, you need to imagine if there will be taxes, if there will be an open market or if you have a license of or not,” explained Sportsbet.io’s head of Operations.
The moderator of the session (developed entirely in English) was Christian Tirabassi (Senior Partner at Ficom Leisure), and also included André Gelfi (CEO of Suaposta) and Neil Montgomery (Founding and Managing Partner Montgomery & Associates).
“My humble opinion is that it can be good midterm because the economy shrink will lead to a big loss in terms of tax revenue collecting in Brazil. So, it can push the project forward. The technical bodies in charge are aware that taxes in Brazil will reduce in a drastic way. But immediately we cannot expect anything happening because the government has other priorities to handle at this point. As an operator, I need to be aware of that and, on top of the text situation, we are trying to do the best with what we have in our hands. I believe our audience is very qualified in the betting industry and at this point everybody is kind of running to the same hill”, also explained Silva.
Regarding how he is seeing the development of the Brazilian market for his Group, Silva said that it has been wonderful two years lately and that the development is going the right direction. “What I used to say is we already have a market due to the possibility of exploring an offshore operation. So, the law is late. It is different from other verticals as, for example, land-based casinos. There is no land-based casino industry in Brazil. But sports betting is already there. The big players are there. They just need to be regulated now”, he added.
Silva showed his company's interest in being part of a regulated Brazilian market. “We are very committed to a regulated market in Brazil. This is a process we follow really closely, as we try to build our brand in Brazil as the one that supports the biggest team, which is Flamengo, and also trying to partner with solid local companies. It is a bet on a regulated market. If something is going to happen in terms of market regulation it will be sports betting in the terms of this law. And if nothing happens, it will be a shame because Brazil is missing. It is missing a lot of tax revenue that could be getting”, he stated.
During the session, took the opportunity to alert on a subject that worries operators willing to obtain a license: the illegal market. “I don't see many people talking about that, but we need to make sure that the operation in Brazil will be safe from the black market. So that that if you do not create a good atmosphere for a regulated market to grow, you will be opening a door for black market and that's really dangerous”, he warns.
For the head of Operations of Sportsbet.io it is important that regulators take into account the issue of illegality although he has not yet observed that this is happening: “In my opinion, the way it is included right now in the decree does not solve the problem. It creates a bigger one. Of course, as we are committed with the regulated market, we would go for that and try to suggest ways to do that. But I can tell that Brazil is not known by a country with a big tradition in enforcing the law”.
Closing his participation, Silva acknowledged that the football industry is suffering from the crisis and that this may lead the clubs to press for the betting law to be approved as soon as possible to generate more resources: “I’m not sure if know that Brazilian football is not solvent. It means most of the clubs are in depth economic crisis and some of them are in danger of shut down if football is not back in the next month. The first sector to get the benefits from sport betting is the football industry, so you can expect some pressure coming from the football clubs -that are quite strong in Brazil- trying to make this law reality”.
“Clubs see in the betting industry the last new investment wave because, as we know, football is 95% of the sports betting business. So, they expect this money coming from abroad; they expect the offshore business to go to Brazil with their euros, pounds and dollars and invest them there. As Andre mentioned, if you want to prioritize a company, I would do it with the one that generates jobs in in the territory. That might be true. But there also is a big expectation on the offshore business to go Brazil”, concluded Arthur.
Source: GMB
