GMB – What objectives brought you to SBC Lisbon?
Leonardo Chaves – Attending an event like this is where everyone is, and where we meet friends and partners of OKTO. It’s a very globalized and widely distributed market, but although there are many people operating locally in different countries, in Latin America there are still many decision-makers, participants, or influencers based at operators’ headquarters.
Here we can meet people face-to-face and hold meetings that end up being much more productive. It’s where we strengthen ties and position ourselves better in the pursuit of new clients, new partners, while also keeping an eye on what’s happening in the industry in terms of innovations and what operators are looking for. In fact, our main concern is to understand the movements of our clients. Their concerns are what motivate us—to understand what they’re seeking and what challenges they face, so we can work internally to serve them better, improve our product, and try to anticipate possible market shifts, always with the goal of generating value.
You’ve spent the previous week in Europe and this one at SBC Lisbon. In other words, you return to Brazil with a suitcase full of projects to be developed in the short term?
Absolutely. Our headquarters is here in Europe, so from time to time I come over to align with the local team, and I also take the opportunity to visit clients on the continent. As a European company, OKTO has a strong presence with European clients who operate in Latin America, and that close relationship—going to their offices, discussing matters, presenting our figures, suggesting improvements, and proposing value creation—is always very important.
So, I make the most of a trip like this to attend a trade show and also to create new connections and hold meetings that generate value and keep us close to our clients. I think this makes all the difference. Nowadays, technology has made online communication so much easier, but nothing replaces being together, face to face, sketching out, designing, and defining what could become a new solution or process improvement.
How do you assess these eight months of regulation in Brazil, and how did OKTO prepare to reach this moment of consolidation?
First, the preparation was intense. Back in 2023 we began the process of having a company licensed by the Central Bank with a direct participant status, studying the regulations in depth to understand how we, as a payments company, could offer solutions that would reduce our clients’ pain points—the operators. We anticipated many of the possible challenges related to onboarding, customer registration, user identification, since all of this also touches the payment process. If it does, we need to understand how to improve it. I can say we were very successful—the feedback we received was excellent, and we managed to help our clients during the most critical months for them, January and February.
This brought us visibility in the market, allowing us to increase our client base. We practically doubled the number of clients this first year under regulation, largely thanks to word of mouth from clients who knew OKTO was providing great service. In our market, the operator’s pain point is conversion. They invest a lot of money and effort into attracting players. So, when a potential player arrives on their platform, they must convert. We constantly measure how we can improve conversion rates so that turns into customers. That’s what drives us to enhance our products, services, and support.
It’s easy to talk about the “happy path”: the customer signs up, pays, plays, and withdraws. But the happy path doesn’t always work out. That’s why we like to work proactively. If a customer has a problem, we want to address it, understand it, and resolve it. We aim to understand the full user journey and improve it in a way that adds value to our solution.
I also see it as very positive that Brazil is taking action against the still-strong illegal market. We raise this flag to support those who are serious and licensed, ensuring the investments made in licenses are worthwhile.
And speaking of Latin America, I’m taking everything we’ve learned in Brazil and applying it across the region. We’re already very active in Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Argentina, bringing a localized approach. Together with our team, we examine the available routes, the most appropriate payment solutions, and the possible “ifs” within the flow, so that we can always optimize our partners’ solutions, keeping an eye on conversion. What can I do to help my client convert more? Because if they convert more, it means I’m also selling more alongside them.
Is success happening for OKTO and its partners?
Definitely. Our partners are truly working alongside us, sharing experiences in a very transparent way, because we have this win-win mindset. We’re growing significantly. In Latin America it’s easier to measure because we’re just starting out in some countries, so growth is exponential. And in Brazil we now have official numbers, which is great, because we finally know the exact size of the iGaming market there and can clearly see our strong position.
What are OKTO’s most immediate plans?
2025 is going by way too fast. We’re working hard on our pillar of staying close to the client. Internally we say that we need to work tirelessly, with love and dedication for our clients. It’s about understanding their pain points and paying attention to the details, because details make the difference. Given the huge investments in the market, I would like to highlight conversion again, because that’s exactly what our clients focus on. Sometimes a small detail can increase conversion by 1%, and 1% in millions of transactions is extremely significant.
So, we’re always improving the technology, ensuring product security, and innovating. What can we do to remove friction for our clients? Some products I’ve already mentioned in other interviews have delivered great results, like Pay&Play, which significantly reduces onboarding friction through simple payment. We adapted our previous version to comply with regulations, adding facial recognition. And Pix Biometrics, through Open Finance, is another product that’s been very well received and widely adopted. Since we hold an Open Finance license, we can offer Pix Biometrics, which makes the user journey much easier by avoiding redirection to the bank’s app during the transaction.
And what about cryptocurrencies? Is OKTO ready to offer this solution once the Brazilian market regulates it?
We’re monitoring closely, as we should, to stay alert to potential market movements and anticipate them for when crypto really becomes usable and beneficial for users and our clients. Today, crypto is not yet recognized as a financial transaction payment method, and there are regulatory limitations. But stable coins, which are asset-backed, are widely used for international payments. We have a business unit called S8, which supports OKTO and our partners with all international payments. We already work extensively with crypto and know it well, and when the right time comes, we’ll be ready to offer it to our clients too.
Source: Exclusive GMB
