GMB - With what expectations does 2021 begin, after a year to forget?
Fabíola Jaeger - First of all thanks for the space, always very gratifying to be able to speak here. Despite all the disastrous consequences of the pandemic, we cannot make 2020 a year to forget, after all everything we saw and lived related to health, economics and politics was very serious. If some leaders continue to make the same mistakes in 2021, focused only on the power struggle, we may have an even greater tragedy. So now it's time to learn from what didn't work for us to evolve.
For Caleta specifically, 2020 was a year of challenges, but also a year of many achievements. We produced 39 games in 2020, with a team of less than 10 people. Everything done in house, we do not outsource anything from our production. In my view, this proves the extreme competence of our team, as well as the effectiveness of our development processes.
In addition, super agile and qualified development was only possible thanks to the exclusive internal tool that we have developed over the last few years: the GP5. We also focus on improving our RGS (Remote Game Server) and the main one: we integrate our games with different operators and aggregators around the world. It was a year of recognition and dissemination of our work in the most renowned media in the world; we are very proud to see how productive we were.
Parallel to this, we had to adapt to remote work and through that we realized some points that we needed to improve in our communication, structure and architecture. Much of our technology was already well structured in the cloud so we just migrated and adjusted what was missing so that everyone could get the job done remotely without impediments. In addition, we took the opportunity to establish an efficient communication process that would maintain the engagement of the team.
Globally, I believe that 2020 was a year of many changes and learning. 2021 I believe it will be a year of considerable learning, in addition to reflection, reorganization and evolution. It will be shaped by companies that learned to adapt their processes quickly in 2020, such as remote sales funnel engagement, remote development, and overall cultural well-being of the team.
Is Caleta better prepared than before to deal with outbreaks or the continuation of the pandemic? Will there be a change in strategy?
For sure. The ability to adapt to changes and overcome obstacles imposed on us in 2020 made Caleta an even more solid company, without a doubt. Our strategy now at the beginning of 2021 was to return to the physical office because we realized that the inclusion of new employees and the diffusion of the company's culture was hampered by the lack of social interaction.
What projects / ideas is Caleta working on to launch this year?
We want to increase the distribution of our games. Our plan is to launch around 18 new games, add new features to our platform, improve our back office system to allow even more detailed analysis of various metrics.
We are in an expansion phase. We need to keep our talents and hire new ones so that this growth remains healthy and exponential.
In parallel to this, continuing the good work with current customers, as well as attracting new ones to achieve greater distribution and visibility, remains our greatest motivation.
Do you believe that the penetration of online gambling will increase while the land-based will maintain its limitations on public entry?
The online gaming I believe will continue to grow. And I hope that soon there will be no more limitations to land-based casinos. I already miss traveling and playing in a physical casino myself; it's really cool!
Do you think that this year in Brazil there will be a definite takeoff towards a regulated gambling market? Will Caleta's presence / investment grow in the country throughout 2021?
We are confident that it is. We have been preparing for this for some time. In 2020 we achieved GLI-19 certification and a license from Colombia, which in my view could be applied to Brazil when the market is in fact regulated. Anyway, we look forward to sitting in the front row as soon as this film (which is more like a soap opera) is released.
Source: Exclusive GMB
