Atlas-IAC
Exclusive Interview Atlas-IAC – Industry B2B Insight for LatAm/Brazil with Maxim Slobodyanyuk, CEO of Atlas-IAC
So, are Atlas-IAC all set for SiGMA Americas?
We’re thrilled to confirm our exhibitor participation at the upcoming SiGMA Americas summit in association with the Brazilian iGaming Summit (BiS). This much-anticipated event is now underway in São Paulo at the Transamerica Expo Center. Atlas-IAC has pitched its flagship stand and our senior staff on-site at Stand E20, alongside some of the biggest names in the iGaming world, and we’re thrilled be the warm welcome and engaged reception from summit delegates. The Atlas team will be walking the floors to greet old friends and meet new clients all week.
Ahead of a dazzling summer of sport, SiGMA Americas provides a timely think tank for the road ahead and how the industry can best provide operators and bettors with engaging, innovative betting experiences across some tent-pole, revenue-driving events this year. SiGMA Americas provides some excellent networking opportunities with C-suite peers to debate many of the most topical and pressing issues. Whatever’s on your mind: looming recession, inflation, a cost-of-living crisis, affordability checks, player profiling, the unfolding scene across the Americas, regulation, player engagement, retention strategy, acquisition and bonusing alternatives – it’s always helpful and often illuminating to trade thoughts on broad plans and specific innovations with other industry leaders, in order that we can collectively converge on the best path forward and overcome the headwinds.
Why does this venue hold such an attraction with operators, suppliers and affiliates?
SiGMA Americas brings together thousands of attendees from across the iGaming sector, including sportsbooks, casino operators, developers, bettors, and affiliates. Nearly half of the attending businesses will be represented by C-level executives, making it the perfect place to build on existing collaborations and forge new ones.
SiGMA Americas is already moving the Brazilian sports betting, lottery and online gaming sector forward at a step-change event, particularly on the sportsbook side with active and pretty favourable regulation, of course. Considered the most important event in the segment in Latin America, SiGMA Americas changed its location this year in order to offer more public convenience and business possibilities to some 5,000 visitors. The Transamerica Expo Center is a perfect venue, accommodating more than 100 lectures by legitimate thought leaders in the sector, over 70 hours of high-level content and representatives from more than 50 countries. Grupo SiGMA’s acquisition of the Brazil iGaming Summit was a notable move, and this merger will help solidify its expanding business portfolio, as well as establishing a strong presence in this developing market.
Which breakthrough technology do you feel will be the big talking point here?
I believe this is finally the moment when artificial intelligence (from trading to marketing tools) and data collection finally align for progressively effective modes of personalisation. If your system truly knows and understands your customer from the log-in, a frictionless personalised experience is now within operators’ grasp. In fact, I think high-volume AI systems frame a consequential battleground of the future as marketing departments struggle to create cut-through campaigns that can scale. After all, if intelligence is just a matter of data-processing, the gap between the grounded reasoning of mortal man and the take-off functionality of AI is just increasing by orders of magnitude.
At Atlas-IAC, we’ve fostered our reputation around harnessing such automation, building the most advanced, responsive platform around understanding the workflow before trying to make it more efficient. Employing technology in the most scalable way is one of the reasons why, for instance, a handful of our traders can manage multiple brands across various platform implementations, each trading well over 100,000 live events annually. In fact, we’ve staked our business model on processing these economies of scale with the industry’s most scalable, flexible, and efficient sports betting and gaming platform. Allied to the latest and fastest feeds – as the likes of Sportradar, Stats Perform and Genius continue to jostle for market position – our operator partners will always win the day.
Is “owning your tech” something that operator shareholders want in on, or do they want a more nuanced side of the story?
I guess it remains a common “hot potato” in the industry, where shareholder appeal or validity must ultimately be premised on the specifics of any given operator strategy. Which territory are you targeting? How many brands do you have to accommodate? How do you plan to market any particular product? All these questions need answers too. Of course, owning your own tech ostensibly allows you to become master of your own destiny. However, that can prove a double-edged sword for death or glory.
Naturally, shareholders want to find the quickest path to sustained and diversified revenue streams. That said, it invariably comes at huge expense. Just take a mega-merger company like Entain (previously GVC) whose product strategy has been to get everything under one roof. Their continued consolidation of a web of companies has ultimately been a success, but it came at significant expense and proved a protracted process. The current rumour mill and lofty price tag around odds provider Angstrom adds even more weight to Entain’s tech preferences. Then again, Angstrom are doubtless worth it – to my eye, those guys are forecasting geniuses, well ahead of their competition (e.g. Sports IQ, Huddle, Simplebet) when it comes to pricing precision on the major US sports. Plus, such an acquisition would put Entain back in the driver’s seat in their strategic partnership with BetMGM. So, there are often other multiple factors at play for shareholders.
Against that, concerns over outsourcing have mostly gone from the industry. You just need the right company holding the tech reins, without handing over too much control in order to remain a commercially-dexterous business. Betway, who have long offered an eloquent case in point, do things their own way but thanks to their Microgaming partnership, they know how to scale. Atlas IAC’s incredibly modular platform, coupled to a flair for understanding the salient credentials of any outsourced team of techies, ensures similar scalability.
Tell us how Atlas-IAC has expended in recent history?
The Atlas platform has over 50 operators on-boarded with partners either taking the full solution (PAM/Sportsbook/Casino) or just our sportsbook, either through a simple iFrame or via our sportsbook API – which has everything you need to power the sportsbook, but also offers another level of flexibility to the operator. The modular framework of the Atlas system ensures that sportsbook integrations can be rolled out quickly, with the heavy-lifting undertaken at our end. That can even include underwriting our “no risk sportsbook solution” which has proven very popular of late, particularly amongst casino brands who previously reared at the apparent volatility of adding a sportsbook to their offerings.
Is there a particular geographic focus of the company?
Emerging markets in LatAm are definitely front of mind. Of the 53 operators we currently have on our books, 28 are in Brazil. So, that succinctly speak not only in the largest South American nation, but also its wider continent. Importantly, we also have some instructive case studies of brands who get up to $5m+ GGR in less than four months from their start date – and that delivery / integration time takes only two days with Atlas. We even have an example of delivering three websites in just two days in parallel for Brazil! There are even credible noises that Brazil is now Bet365’s major territory, surpassing the incredibly mature UK market and even China. So, I reckon that’s all you need to know in terms of potential! A majority of our operator partnerships are here as a result. We’re also very interested in Peru, which is still “dotting the Is” of its regulation, alongside some of the existing success stories, like Colombia.
Brazil, now regulating, previously saw its 400+ operators hosted abroad. With regulation, that will quickly change. As with any evolving marketplace, but especially in LatAm, there are three things to keep in mind when approaching any given new territory: the viability of regulatory regime, the commerciality of the tax regime, and potential to take on the local competition. At Atlas, we feel we have profiled the wider market both deeply and effectively.
Looking at Brazil, above all, can you share some of that insight and speak more to the specifics there?
The size of the market is even larger than most commentators believe. As I alluded to earlier, Bet365, Entain and even Betano (only launched in 2021) are already each processing $100s of millions in GGR. You need to deliver exceptional, hyper-personalized experiences to your customers and always pay them quickly to engender confidence in your brand. The landscape currently winds around very visible sports sponsorships and mainstream TV-ad packages which are widely available and represent a competitive battlefield. Brazil’s Ministry of Finance has confirmed that the sports-betting tax rate will be set at 16% of GGR, with 2.5% of the taxes tagged to combat match-fixing and AML.
While the country finalizes its OSB regulatory framework, the income tax on players’ winnings will be 30%, with all fees and taxes allocated to public safety, education, clubs and social activities. As for payments, the most popular method is Pix, an instant, frictionless, low-cost mobile payments system developed by the Central Bank of Brazil and launched in late 2020. More generally, this has led to a boost in all forms of e-commerce, not limited to gambling. However, more specifically, it’s wise to remember that payment costs can be high as gambling-related cash cannot be held in Brazilian bank accounts. The FX spreads on conversion of deposits and withdrawals are high at 30-40% of GGR for many operators. However, this will likely drop to less than 10% post-regulation and will provide some offset to the potential loss of casino.
Operators will also be asked to carry out campaigns of awareness and prevention around gambling harms. Specific rules for advertising and marketing rules will be drawn up with the National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (CONAR).
Which other markets are currently taking your eye in LatAm / South America?
Peru also appeals to us as things stand. Its benign regulatory regime certainly recommends that it should form part of any concerted South American / LatAm regional advance. The market is fragmented which is also beneficial for a highly agile provider like Atlas. Only those with a license (which must be renewed annually) will be permitted to advertise or sponsor sports teams in Peru, and there’s a 12% tax on of all net winnings. Still, it makes Peru one of the more operator-friendly regulations in recent times.
More broadly, this continent certainly a rapidly evolving ecosystem where no market positions can be taken for granted, especially if you’re running on outmoded legacy platforms. Emerging markets are very fragmented. Time was when six or seven markets would be an attractive proposition for international presence for a global betting brand. However, what we’ve seen in the modern era is the emergence of lots of national champions (take Caliente with a staggering 75% market share in Mexico) who are not globally-centralised operators. Remember, every global nation has their own form of regulation (bar perhaps Norway, Finland and Austria) with differences ranging from return to player, tax rates, marketing restrictions and market-access restrictions to name just a few. The trend for operators’ management teams partnering with local brands is unsurprising. It’s sometimes easier to retain the expertise and support local heroes. What matters is knowing the customer, meeting them in their respective communication game (i.e. familiarity) with a host of localisation techniques. Atlas’s modular platform is a step ahead which it comes to delivering the requisite versatility and tech. Wherever you set your scene map, these varied needs across continent, country or region constitute ideal proving grounds for our versatile platform to demonstrate how we keep our international partners ahead of their rivals. Atlas’ efficiencies of cost and scalability will win out over time, no matter where you’re based.
What are the obstacles to success in South America?
Well, it’s a football-obsessed territory, and so football must pave the way across in product. So, almost without exception, you’re selling the the same football-powered product. But it can be complemented and supported by local preferences which can range from mainstream to more localised appetites. Player habits are also very different. Small-stakes-big-win scenarios will prove popular in all emerging markets, of course, but these types of bet are great for the operator on margin, and there’s plenty more juice in the lemon so to speak.
More broadly, as we’ve discussed, rapid access to funds (from deposit to withdrawals) is also paramount to making your brand the preferred wallet of any customer. Customer trust in any operator really hinges on their capacity to payout in timely fashion. Especially because customers heavily favour the BetBuilder or parlay model. You have to customise your payment methods in many cases country-by-country in a patchwork assembly of needs. You have to localise on Customer Support, too. For example, Portuguese fluency alone wouldn’t be a plus-point, you need the regional varieties and dialects. That’s one area where automation can’t currently help you too much. And the User Experience of your site has to be familiar, so you can’t reinvent the wheel for UX if you want to take on the leaders in any given territory