VIE 29 DE MARZO DE 2024 - 03:40hs.
OPINION - Victor Arias - Pragmatic Play

Local expertise, key to a bespoke LatAm service

Pragmatic Play’s VP Latin America, Victor Arias, relays his thoughts on the maturing gambling market in South America, and how the games supplier is well-set to target multiple countries quickly and effectively. “It is an exciting time for the region, and particularly for gaming suppliers like us who are looking to expand our footprint while putting our product suite in front of the largest audience possible,” he says.

Of late, the Colombian gambling industry has been the leading light of progress in Latin America, laying out a strong use case of how to build a sustainable regulatory environment from scratch. Player protection and sensible taxation measures have been prioritised through a collaborative approach of operators, suppliers, and regulatory bodies, and to that end, many close neighbours, including Argentina and Brazil, have been looking closely about how they can action something similar.

It is an exciting time for the region, and particularly for gaming suppliers like us who are looking to expand our footprint while putting our product suite in front of the largest audience possible. Everyone is aware of the potential scope for growth in LatAm, but not everyone agrees on how is best to go to market in those countries where legislation is yet to be finalised.

Having recently opened a LatAm hub, we are fully committed to playing a major part in the development of gambling products in the region, with the help of experts. We could get a foot in the door from afar, but we felt that a more bespoke service was required to service clients and partners as best we could.

Understanding the specific needs of individual markets is key to sustained, long term growth, and so being able to process tangible feedback from partners and adapt to local demands quickly is very important to our wider business strategy.

We have built up years of valuable experience in other jurisdictions that have regulated, re-regulated or even gone the other way. We know the success stories, we know what the red flags are, and we want to share this knowledge with our operator and regulatory partners in the likes of Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil.

Our localised hub will allow us to work alongside partners in a far more effective way than a European-based service might. Keeping a pulse on country-specific customer demands will ensure we keep up our high standards of delivering a bespoke service to our clients, based on their specific requirements.

In this regard, customers will be able to mix and match their solutions with us, taking from our premium Slots content as they choose, with complimentary Bingo and Live Casino offerings available too. Each country in LatAm will undoubtedly see a different split between each vertical, and our local knowledge will mean we can better research this to make operator budgets go as far as they possibly can.

This is an exciting time for the region, and we are backing its development to the hilt with a local, collaborative approach. And to kick this off, Pragmatic Play will be a key sponsor to the imminent SiGMA Americas event, starting on 22nd September where I will also be offering my take on the region during an Argentina-focused panel, looking at how to deal with fragmented federal state regulation – something which is a significantly different approach to that we’ve seen in Colombia.

It may be virtual, but we are still just as excited about the show and what might come from it. As a business, we remain adaptable and ambitious in the face of various challenges for the wider gaming industry and we will continue to demonstrate that with our commitment to Latin America in the coming months and years.

Victor Arias
Pragmatic Play’s VP Latin America

Source: GMB