Despite its huge success with clients across Europe, Abelson Odds is keen to expand its reach into Brazil, where the beautiful game and passion for football are popular. This point was emphasized by Chief Operating Officer Jeevan Jeyaratnam at the recent SBC Summit in Rio in a conversation with SBC News.
Based on previous successes and achievements
Jeyaratnam noted in an interview: “We’ve realized that further pushes need to be, or would ideally be, made outside of the European continent. Noting that an apparent lack of appeal of football, or soccer, further north caused the company to cast glances to the Latin American region. This was the logical move for us after assessing the US, and then realizing that soccer is still a long way behind everyone’s priority list. In Brazil we were seeing traction with our European partners who are already active here, Betano and Betfair to name two. We realized that when regulation was announced there were a lot of indigenous Brazilian operators that were already active here that weren’t partnered with European sportsbooks, or use different platforms that we maybe weren’t so aware of”.
With this in mind, Jeyaratnam emphasizes a familiar theme that has been echoed throughout the week, namely the importance of face-to-face meetings with people who can potentially be critical to moving forward in the region, especially for a Western company whose representatives primarily speak English.
“A cold approach without seeing people face to face just won’t work for us,” he said. “That’s why we decided to go to Rio. The Brazilian market is huge, the population is huge and, and the fanaticism for football is unparalleled. This is perfect for what we’re trying to do”.
Customer Service
To make progress in a country with an already well-developed online gambling ecosystem prior to legalization, Abelson is taking a simple approach: the ability to create customized experiences for each region or client.
However, such a strategy may come with its own challenges: Brazil, for example, is different from Ontario, where the market already existed, as opposed to the US, where it was a completely new area. As a result, the company is expanding its coverage to meet regional needs: a goalscorer’s request for a regional soccer tournament in Rio led to similar requests from São Paulo’s Paulista and Minas Gerais’ Mineiro.
“That alone gives us an edge over quite a lot of the competition that won’t be going to that level. We then added Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Peru, on request for clients that we had active there. The unique nature of some of these countries in contrast to European countries where, if you go to Latvia, for example, the Premier League in the UK is still the league to bet on. The local league is not really a huge driver of revenue. But according to some of the figures we’re hearing from Peru, the Peruvian local league is by far the biggest in terms of turnover for the operators based there”, Jeyaratnam expressed.
Offering players enhanced opportunities in their own regional or national league was a significant boost for the company and prompted further discussion on the next inevitable topic.
Appealing to the player
While detailing the company’s localization strategy, Jeyaratnam first highlighted Abelson’s flexibility in addressing such issues outside of the Latin America region. He stressed that this issue is “a key factor for our entire business”, as bombers were previously supplied to some Flutter Entertainment brands in a couple of Eastern European countries.
Jeyaratnam also noted that localization strategies can be applied “anywhere the client is located and feels they want to make an impact, all based on demand”.
“The same thing is applied in South America, for example, If you’d have said to me two years ago, you’ll be doing goalscorers in Ecuadorian league, I would have found that unlikely, but now it’s become quite an important league. Colombia, is another big league that we didn’t think would be handling. But goalscorers are one thing, but being able to then offer deep statistical data within those leagues is another point of localisation where I think that we have an advantage over competitors”.
However, true localized production is only one aspect. This should be preceded by a consistent series of updates throughout the company. Jeyaratnam moves on to develop future expansion of both products and coverage areas. It was emphasized that a key priority would be to integrate individual scorer and player statistics products into the Goalscorer Pricing & Settlement system, providing a single integration across all markets.
Brazil: land of dreams or potential minefield?
As differing views were expressed on the show floor and on stage about the opportunities and potential challenges facing the nation, Jeyaratnam was asked whether he shared their concerns or whether a cautious approach might be needed.
However, to illustrate his point on the matter, Abelson’s chief operating officer decided to go back to a few years ago, when talk of a gold rush was raging in the industry.
“It’s a funny one because everyone shared the excitement about PASPA’s repeal in the US. And if you are one of three operators, then perhaps you could understand the excitement, but for the other operators and platforms that have been there, and not just been burnt but incinerated and then turned around and come out, then the warning signs could be there”.
Despite the belief that South America has “less friction and regulatory loopholes”, Brazilian regulators have been given an additional warning regarding the issue of taxes and the possibility of introducing them on any player winnings.
“That’s a potentially dangerous path for the Brazilian market, because it will just attract black market operators where there’s no tax. There has to be some protection of the regulated market”, Jeyaratnam stated.
Looking ahead, it is expected that other South American countries will follow Brazil’s lead in legislation, with Peru becoming a focus for Abelson as work continues to obtain the company’s license for the country. The discussion concluded with thoughts on Abelson’s goals to make significant progress in the region.
“For a European based supplier, it’s not without its challenges, but we feel that the risks are worth it. Risks such as payments. In a regulated market, it becomes less risky, but you never know. You’re dealing with operators that could go bump in the night”.
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