The next giant?

Despite some technological obstacles, Maximiliano De Muro is convinced South America has potential to be the next big territory for egaming. Here the founder of Mediterranean Gaming explains why.

Although neither Latin nor South America has fully legal jurisdictions for online gaming ventures, opportunities are beginning to abound.

Panama is making great progress and is the jurisdiction model to watch, followed by México, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and PerÃº.

However, while many policy makers in Latin & South America recognise the global trend is to legalise and regulate egaming, the lack of technological advancements is delaying the implementation of the proper regulatory framework.

Low internet access is the biggest obstacle. Last year, Latin America had 118 million internet users among a population of more than 400 million, a 22% penetration rate.

Payment processing capabilities also pose challenges. In some countries, only customers with international credit cards are able to perform online operations. But players want to play where they can deposit money, and in many cases, those payment solutions do not yet exist.

Each country also has its own culture, and therefore, its own set of unique player demographics. Distinctively understanding customer behaviours and having the ability to effectively profile customers are key elements of success.

But despite the unregulated marketplace, there are still large companies who continue to do just that and are aggressively advertising their message and brand.

Big players like Bwin, 888, Betsson, Pokerstars, Sportingbet (Miapuesta), among others, already have a presence in some Latin America countries like Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. They are making long-term investments, obtaining huge databases of free players and getting them ready to make them profitable in the near future.

In 2009, Gaming VC acquired the business and assets of Betboo.com, owned by Intera NV. Betboo has been very successful in Brazil and is one of the first “local” players to achieve big success.

So why bet on Latin & South America? After all, until countries decide to regulate remote gaming, the only opportunities for operators are under internal, local regulations.

My answer would be that e-commerce will experience spectacular growth during the next five years. Couple that with a virtually untapped audience of players, and South America has the potential to be the next big thing.

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The next giant?

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