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s reported by SBC’s news site, to analyze this post-pandemic scenario, the following were present in Miami: Mónica Umaña, Head of Latin American Operations at Evolution; Antonio Salord Domíngez, Director of Sales in Latin America for Playtech; Lourdes Britto, Director of Omnichannel Strategy at Apuesta Total; Pablo Viana, Country Manager in Peru at Retabet, and Carlos Fonseca Sarmiento, a lawyer specializing in the gaming sector and part of the Peruvian firm Gaming Law S.A.C.
One of the key points highlighted by the SBC Summit was the closure of the in-person sector and the growth of online gambling. The five executives agreed with the moderator when he separately analyzed these two verticals and explained that there are different types of players in each one, so one is not cannibalized with the growth of the other.
SBC News highlighted that “the possible fear that online gambling will end up taking players away was ruled out and Lourdes Britto used Peru’s situation as an example, which saw a growth in banking, but the informal economy remained stable and even increased.”
Salord Domínguez agreed by assuring that “informality generates money in the street which is used to bet on physical locations, which is why we must give importance to retail”.
It was, however, asked what will happen to those users from the localized sector who turned to digital, a concern that Pablo Viana responded to, ensuring that they found that many players have returned to the physical game and emphasized that it is maintained because “a lot of money is handled in cash in Latin America”.
For Lourdes Britto, “the pandemic was a catalyst” to accelerate the growth processes of online gambling and, in that sense, Salord Domínguez explained that “you can work on a strategy for both verticals to coexist and operators must work on that. If we want to have a market like Europe’s, we must regulate”.
Retabet’s headline resumed the discussion “online vs. retail” and said that “the market is big enough for everyone”, supporting that to “move quickly towards a regulation is beneficial for all”.
On this matter, Carlos Fonseca said regrettably that in most countries there is a lack of regulation and warned that in many of them “the regulation is very old”, which is why it favors the operation of companies from abroad. Nevertheless, analyzing the information highlighted by SBC, he highlighted the prejudices about the industry and suggested that there is a need for better communication of the social contribution of the game, recalling, for example, the contribution that the Peruvian casino customers made after the brutal earthquake in Pisco in 2007.
According to Salord Domínguez, operators must work on a strategy in which the retail and online verticals may coexist, adding that it is necessary to regulate in order to reach a solid market.
Mónica Umaña stated that the market “looks at digitization with suspicion”, but that the pandemic generated progress in this matter. “The impact of the pandemic was very strong, but it did cause a positive aspect regarding this change of mentality towards the implementation of omnichannel,” added Britto.
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international//noticias/2021/11/01/60002-sbc-summit-puts-forward-a-post-pandemic-outlook-of-latin-america
