The 2024 edition of SBC Summit culminated a few days ago with the presence of more than 25,000 attendees at the Feira Internacional de Lisboa. Professionals from the sports betting and iGaming sectors gathered to showcase their products and services and analyze the latest industry trends.
Belatra Games, a developer specializing in online slots, was among the exhibiting companies and Yogonet took the opportunity to talk to Andrés Troelsen, Commercial Director for the Latin American market.
The executive talked about the company’s participation in the event, as well as its most outstanding launches, the key role of customizing its products for each market, and the importance of having a presence in a region such as Latam.
What is your assessment of this edition of the SBC Summit?
I have 30 years of experience in markets, business, and operations in all parts of the world. Today, I am in charge of Belatra’s Latin American office and basically, we are looking to make contact with people from Latin America. The big surprise is that, although there were mainly Brazilians at the show because of the language, people from all Latin American countries were represented at this exhibition and the turnout was good.
Lisbon is a very nice and interesting city, so I think this trade show is here to stay, and we are very pleased and satisfied with SBC Lisbon.
What are some of the main queries made by those who came to the booth?
Most of our current clients, who are casinos, platforms, and aggregators, already know how we work, they are looking to understand what our next releases are and what new games are coming.
Regarding those who are not clients, but know us by name and come to ask, it depends on the market. It can be regulatory or certification issues, since several countries in Latin America are in a moment where there is a lot of news on the subject, and people generally want to know how we are doing on that matter, when it comes to supplying content for Brazil or Peru, for example.
Belatra today is certified for Peru and in the process of certification for Brazil. Today, we have clients in all Latin American countries.
The SBC Summit in Lisbon has just finished, and we left the city already impatient for next exhibition. It was a fantastic experience for Belatra, and we are truly grateful for the opportunity to participate in such a prestigious event.https://t.co/PkClRO5VrT pic.twitter.com/MCVjOHkbAy
— BELATRA GAMES (@BelatraGames) October 1, 2024
What are some of the most prominent releases that Belatra currently has?
The SBC stand was characterized by a game that is not so new, but it is still very popular and it is the most played game worldwide. Mommy Treasure, the mummy game, was a very important success for us in the online business.
The interesting thing about our games is that for the first time, Belatra is working to customize the games for Latin America, which is no small thing because we have a content portfolio of 102 games, and we launch between one and two games per month. We have some very interesting novelties coming.
For SBC Miami, we will be presenting some novelties that will generate surprises because they are specially designed for markets such as Brazil, which require special customization. Players in different countries have different tastes and we give a lot of importance to the player, the gameplay, the graphics, and the music. We are known for having our own games, Belatra always develops its own games and is always at the forefront of the player’s experience.
Could you tell us more about how you adapt the products to local preferences?
First, what we do is understand the volume of play that each country has, that’s what tells us what each country likes. The rankings per country are totally different. Then, from our back office, we try, together with our partners who are the casinos, to give visibility to the games that players logically like the most, and that is where we ask the company -from Latin America- to have more games with the profile of each market.
Nowadays, the novelty has to do with everything that is happening in Brazil. So we are putting a lot of focus on it, but we have games that we operate differently in Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Mexico.
We believe that the differentiator will have to do with being able to understand each market and customize, either because we have a casino to which we customize the game with their logo, or because, for example, in Brazil today we are working a lot with animals, which is something that is very popular in the market, or crash games, which we are on the way to present with many novelties. These are specifications for the Brazilian market.
In the case of Argentina, we have been in the market for many years and what we do is to continue providing more content of what works today.
Considering that the SBC Summit is an event where many new products and technologies are presented, what are some of the trends that you observed?
Crash games are an interesting category. As I just mentioned, this is the case in Brazil, but not all markets are asking for these games. Crash games have a long history and we are working on this vertical. Today we are giving importance to adding crash games.
We also understand that the trend comes from being able to take advantage of artificial intelligence to specialize more and more in the player’s taste. And that gives each game provider and each technical team of each game provider information that until today we have been handling by statistics, ranking, and number of games.
Artificial intelligence goes a step further and is giving us very valuable information in terms of preferences. And if we can apply this artificial intelligence to know our customers, we believe that this is the strongest trend that the market will have in the near future.
In the case of Latin America, the panorama is changing quite a lot, especially with Brazil and its regulation process, but other markets are very interesting and also moving towards regularization. What is your general vision of how Latin America will move forward in the short term?
For some time now, Latin America has been the most watched place in the market for a logical reason. Europe has a different history and is already a more consolidated market; it is more difficult to raise the roof. Latin America, on the other hand, is more virgin. There are countries with more and with less history. When we talk about Brazil, it is because it has less history in the online business and nobody can predict the numbers for the next few years.
Although nowadays Latin America has a huge present potential, it is seen as an emerging market, and we think that growth is going to be exponential. There are thousands and thousands of new casinos that are arriving.
As for Belatra, the company made a very important decision. We are one of the few gaming suppliers in the market with our own structure and offices in Latin America, speaking Spanish and Portuguese, and we have seven people in the region, and that is a statement in itself.
When one looks at a market such as Latin America, which is very different because each country has its particularities, being able to approach it locally makes a difference. Working remotely is not the same as working in the territory. That is where, understanding that Latin America is a reality, but with an unlimited future, Belatra wants to accompany it by being present in the region.
