SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Latin America has a deep rooted video gaming culture, Paris Smith explains, with a high density of young people also increasing the demand of the online industry.
As the igaming industry Advisor and former Pinnacle CEO prepares for her appearance at SBC Summit Latinoamérica next week, Smith explains the importance of localisation in the continent, and how Brazil poses the greatest opportunity from her standpoint at an esports-focused betting company.
From your experience of international esports betting, what sets Latin America apart from other regional markets?
This ties directly to the passion of the culture. The difference from other markets is (1) that deep heart on their sleeve passion that is so rooted in the sports culture that lends itself naturally to betting, and (2) especially as compared to North America, the normalisation of gambling as just an everyday thing, whereas we find with younger people in North America they still hold some negative views toward it.30
Building on this, how much emphasis should be placed on localisation when adopting a LatAm-wide strategy for esports betting?
Critical emphasis is on the difference between success and failure. This is the case for the demographic generally, sports or esports. The esports bettor naturally trends younger, and attracting and retaining that demographic in any consumer product, including betting, requires a much more localised and nuanced touch.
It’s a lifestyle and online community generation. If you can’t look and feel and sound like them, they pick up on it instantly. This is the case in LatAm for that demo as it is elsewhere even.
Esports has built up a huge following in South America, from your leadership experience why do you think this is?
The entire region has a deeply rooted video gaming culture. In addition to a high density of young people, they are also hyperactive online. The culture is very passionate for their sports and that is the same for esports.
There is also a gambling culture so it’s more mainstream and not seen as negative. Combine all those things and you get a generation now coming of age to be able to legally bet on sports and therefore esports viewership and betting has seen growing strength.
Does Brazil pose the biggest opportunity yet for esports betting global growth? And if so, how can operators capitalise on this?
Within LatAm, it is likely the biggest market. This is because of the pure numbers of population. Brazil is nearly 50% of the population of the continent and by far the largest country in terms of population size. Globally, it’s too early to say. A number of markets in SEA, Asia, and parts of Europe are emerging as the demographic comes of age in high volume.
They will also be areas of global strength. In terms of South America, it is fair to say though Brazil is a big opportunity. Localisation is the key to winning. And localising per game, ie per esports, not just at a general level across the board. Every esports community is vastly different even within the same country.
Latin America is of course a huge market for traditional sports such as football/soccer. How can customers for these markets be effectively cross-sold esports betting products?
Although many young people have grown up esports fans, and playing video games, these cultures still live and breathe football every day. Their friends watch, family, colleagues, etc.
The affinity is natural in many cases for the popular traditional sport, and cross-selling is no different than you would find with older customers being cross-sold into other products. It’s more so that esports is a great top of funnel to them, but certainly not the only thing they are interested in betting on, nor the only thing they watch.
Are there any unique integrity challenges in Latin American esports betting that need to be addressed?
Not particularly. Generally this is a misnomer about esports. The number of integrity incidences per year at the highest level of esports, which is mostly the only thing that many odds providers and operators will offer, is fairly minor.
A number of traditional sports such as cricket and tennis boast far far higher integrity issue frequency. Just because it is a video game it does not mean it inherently has more issues than any other competitive event.
What integrity approaches can be adopted from the traditional sports space to esports, but vice-versa can the former learn from the emerging sector?
Esports has integrity commissions and oversight in similar ways already (ex. ESIC). Additionally, the major tournament organisers, regulators, and game publishers also provide an additional layer. Best practices are already being applied, and I’m encouraged by what I see.
The sport is maturing constantly and taking integrity seriously in all aspects of the ecosystem.
