Betbazar's vision of the Latin American market

Betbazar’s Max Sevostianov: LatAm is the perfect proving ground for the future of the betting industry

With Brazilian online betting regulation around the corner, interest in the Latin American market has never been higher. While the industry will no doubt find success rolling out many of the traditional betting products used around the globe, there is a fantastic opportunity for experimentation - an opportunity that the Betbazar team is well positioned to capitalise on. 

Max Sevostianov, Chief Operating Officer at Betbazar, outlines his reasons why LatAm is the perfect hotbed for future innovations and regulatory development.

In this esports-focused roundtable, we discuss how LATAM has all of the right ingredients for operators to build the kinds of products and audience engagement practices that match the expectations of a new generation of bettors – which will form the bedrock of the industry’s future customer base. 

Potential is a word that gets plenty of use in industry discussions about Latin American markets. It can mean different things to different people: is it potential to ship existing products into new places? Partly yes, but LATAM is also a place with the potential to show the betting industry what the future looks like, especially for online betting.

You cannot fault the industry’s tendency to cater to the customer base on which online betting was founded – it’s what built the sector into what it is today. However, just as the advent of online betting brought about a monumental shift in customer behaviour and preferences, we are now on the cusp of another big change.

Today’s bettors, which are much more tech-savvy, don’t consume products and entertainment in the same way as the 35+ generation that currently forms the basis of the betting industry. There is a new generation of fans and bettors that are yet to be engaged by betting operators - in large part down to habits and preferences that are starkly different.

In legacy jurisdictions, there’s a need to cater to both older and younger generations, but at Betbazar we believe that the constitution of the LATAM market means it is going to be a proving ground for both esports and sports – for all modern betting entertainment.

Latin America: a customer profile

As a region, LatAm has all the right ingredients. It’s a region with high mobile penetration and an increasing level of internet accessibility, with an average age that skews younger than traditional markets in the likes of Europe.

By and large, the younger generations in LatAm are highly tech-savvy and open to adopting new gaming formats, especially those that blend entertainment and social interactions, along with the potential for monetary rewards. The broader culture has a passion for football and a general acceptance of wagering as a form of entertainment. This all provides a solid foundation for an environment that rewards experimentation and new forms of engagement, whether it's verticals like esports, or fresh innovations on existing verticals. As more markets open up across Latin America, we at Betbazar are ready to deliver much needed innovations to our partners across the region.

Particularly with markets like Brazil now regulating online betting, the expectation is that we’re going to see hundreds of licensed operators across the region in the next one to two years. This will not only provide strong data and information on the performance of various products and verticals but it will be highly competitive, encouraging operators to find an edge beyond monetary promotions.

Modern preferences require modern products

There’s always a bit of Nostradamus work involved in figuring out what the customer of the future looks like. But there are some very clear things we know about today’s audiences, of which the LatAm audience very much fits.

They prefer consuming media and products through video streaming platforms like YouTube or Twitch and are much more heavily engaged in social media and with influencers. There are also greater expectations that things are made specifically for them, and there’s a greater engagement with all facets of gaming culture, even if you’re not a gamer.

On the products themselves, they’re looking for something that is not only entertaining but also offers a sense of control, participation or novelty. Considering the popularity of video games amongst this generation – even if they aren’t necessarily into esports – there are important lessons we can learn from what is popular.

The video game Helldivers 2 is a great example. There’s been a fantastic community built around the game that’s actively encouraged by the publisher. The game itself uses AI to rapidly change and adapt different scenarios in the game, so you don’t repeat the same actions or tactics. It changes each time you start playing, there’s new ways to exert control or express yourself, so it’s always new. The next generation is looking for this kind of novelty and complexity.

At Betbazar, we’re seeing the successful use of gamification in new products or sectors that don’t intrinsically lend themselves to it, to drive engagement, boost sales or improve your brand. It’s clearly something that consumers are looking for in different parts of their life.

That’s why in esports betting, there’s a strong need for additional widgets with deep levels of granular data to provide bettors with all the information they would need to make an informed decision. This helps them analyse previous results and predict future results, crucially linking placing a wager to entertainment, but also giving bettors that level of control and expression that’s important to the modern consumer.

Compared to its past, the betting and iGaming sector should consider itself more like a form of entertainment if it wants to cater to the next generation of consumers. That means thinking more critically about why something is entertaining, rather than whether it is delivering the maximum monetary value.

With a demographic profile that neatly aligns with the under-35, Millenial and new generation in large amounts, which is already demanding these novel entertainment experiences and generating large social media activity, LatAm is where operators and suppliers alike should focus on testing their innovations in online gambling – it’s where Betbazar is.