Salsa Technology, one of the most renowned companies in the iGaming sector with Brazilian DNA, is increasingly expanding its area of operation to other regulated markets, not only in Latin America but also in Europe.
In a conversation for the GMB One-On-One interview cycle, Eliane Nunes, firm's head of marketing and communication, says that Salsa is growing rapidly and seeking to further strengthen the recognition already achieved not only in Brazil, but also in other regulated jurisdictions.
GMB - Salsa is going through an incredible moment, as it received its license from the Malta Gaming Authority just over two months ago, is expanding its team and restructuring the area of game development. In other words, it is in full motion...
Eliane Nunes - The Malta Gaming Authority seal is important for any player in this sector. We received B2B certification in May of this year and it has been a game-changer. We have a very strong presence in Latin America and this certification opens new paths for us to further expand our presence in other markets, mainly in Europe.
The Brazilian market is growing, and a lot of it involves certifications. In other words, it is an excellent business card for operators working with Salsa Technology.
Certainly. And as you said, we were already in a process of rapid growth and expansion of teams, both in technology and management, commercial service and customer service. But this certification gives even more energy to the company. We're going back to the origins of Salsa, which started as a game provider, a video bingo development studio, and we're returning to our original DNA, alongside our two main products, which are the Salsa Omni gaming platform, Player Account Management, and game aggregator Salsa Gator, which has more than 70 partner providers and around 5,000 games. So those are really impressive numbers.
In the area of game development, Salsa consolidated itself by developing video bingo. Are you currently also developing other games?
Yes. We are on the countdown to launch a new slot game and the market is not going to miss out, as it will be a very beautiful game, with both video and sound assets, something very disruptive. It will be the locomotive that will bring a series of launches that we are preparing.
You mentioned that Salsa has an important focus on the human resources area and that the sector increasingly demands highly qualified professionals. Are you already in that moment?
Yes, we are at that moment. A very cool thing is that there is a very favorable environment in Salsa for us to do that. I believe that all players in the sector have a role in training their employees to be defenders of the activity. People who can clarify, even at those Sunday family lunches, the social and economic importance of this industry and how much is lost to make progress because of slow regulation. We do this from the on boarding process of new employees, in addition to the very constant work of communication with those who have been with us for years. We always try to keep the team well informed about everything that is happening so that they are advocates and opinion makers in the industry. We usually say that in Brazil, due to the roller coaster we experience in general in every way – political, economic and social – that we train professionals who are very different from other countries. We see on a daily basis that our team is versatile, dedicated and eager to learn and do. So, we seek to multiply, in terms of numbers, this team profile that we already have and that has been working very well.
Brazilians are very creative!
Certainly. Often, at events in which we participate, we see a programmer or developer showing himself to be a natural salesman, as he lives it on a daily basis. So, we give opportunity and visibility to those people who would only be in front of a computer, so that they have a broader view of the activity and how fascinating it is. People feel a part. We even have an interesting case. About a year ago, when we made the change to the Salsa logo and the new color palette, we worked together with the team. All voted, for example, on the names of our platform, Salsa Omni, as well as the aggregator, Salsa Gator, as well as the choice of the ideal color to give the face to the product. That's what we've been doing to have people increasingly knowledgeable about the sector and feeling part of it.
Salsa also has a characteristic that also consecrates it in the market, which is the concern with the User Experience. The company is not only concerned with the customer/partner, but also with the end user, the bettor, so that he has a good experience...
Exactly. Of course, many people might think that a company like ours, focused on B2B business, don't necessarily have to worry about the other end, the player. But we always have that attention. We understand that the care for who will use the platform - both the front end, which is a B2C solution, which will reach the player through the operator, as well as the back office and all that programming and system behind the operation, focused on the operator professional who is involved with the means of payment and the operation itself – must be satisfied. Thus, our goal is to make the operator's life easier and, of course, to have a good experience for our partner's customer. We try to imagine how the player will act on the site and how the operator's professional will work with the system. We have an extremely thorough quality control team. Any integration - be it a betting module or a new game provider and even a payment method - is done very carefully. We have exhausted all testing possibilities so that our partner does not lose a player because of an experience that was not very good. We are co-responsible and, so that this does not happen, we have a very careful and demanding quality control work.
And is all this vocation of Salsa enabling the company to conquer more markets outside Brazil? How is Salsa's internationalization process going?
One thing we always say is that we want to be one of the first certified platforms for when regulation happens in Brazil. And obviously you don't get prepared overnight, that's why we already have teams in Ukraine, Malta, Uruguay and Brazil focused on global operations. All these teams have a mission to understand how regulation works in various markets, as we know that there is no ready-made formula that will work for any market undergoing regulation. There are specific audiences and they need to be served. Even in Brazil we have many nuances in different regions of the country. The same happens abroad. The public in Uruguay is not the same as in Paraguay, which is not the same as in Argentina and which is not the same in Chile and, obviously, in Brazil. So, in order to be ready for Brazil and for any market, we need to analyze what works in each market. We study all solutions and work in a localized way and knowledge to meet each regulation and certification to enter other markets.
And are you entering these markets?
We enter through other operators from our B2B license. We have an example of this. When one of our customers, Betmotion, started planning to enter the Peruvian market, they already had the platform and the aggregator running, but they wanted to enter the market with a localized product that was well identified with the Peruvian public. We were asked for a game with this feature. So, we researched and checked Melcochita, a video bingo inspired by a Peruvian character in the style of Zé Bonitinho or Sérgio Malandro, from Brazil. This is a business card to show our focus on location and dedication to each of the audiences we interact with. Our platform is open to that and to all the features that each market requires. I give another example. It was Salsa, in partnership with Big Bola, from Mexico, that put a www, shall we say, in the already successful operation that Big Bola has with physical casinos in Mexico. That is, they migrated an operation to the online environment with great success. So we've already done that and there's a lot of other stuff going on that we'll be announcing soon.
That is a lot of focus on the customer, be it an operator or the end user. Now is it waiting for regulation in Brazil?
Yes. We understand that there is an electoral process underway in Brazil. But what we hope is that regulation will be sustainable. There is always a lot of talk about the tax burden or which model to adopt. Several models have already been sketched, but it is not yet possible to know exactly what it will be like. Certainty about everything will only come when the regulations come out. And we hope it doesn't make the activity unfeasible, either because of too many demands or a high tax burden, failing to bring to the country all the benefits that we always repeat as a mantra, both from the economic-social point of view and in terms of revenue for the government.
Salsa is already more than prepared for this moment, including resuming face-to-face operations in the Florianópolis/SC office, as well as in other Brazilian state capitals, which demonstrates the company's vote on the market.
That’s right. We are resuming all of this. We had an office in Florianópolis and with the pandemic we had to switch to the home office model, but keeping the team engaged and productive in remote work. We got a good result and these lessons we learned during the pandemic are for life. We are returning to the Florianópolis office in a hybrid form, in a region known as the Brazilian Silicon Valley, where we have an important development and management team, as well as a studio, but we also have the idea of expanding to other regions of Brazil and São Paulo will be our next destination. But I can say that Salsa has a team “pin” in each region of the country.
Source: Exclusive GMB
