By Roman Frymer, editor at G&M News, and Damian Martinez, journalist at G&M News.
Recently, Donald Trump assumed office as the 47th president of the United States. What impact do you think this will have on the gaming industry in that country?
I think there’s probably three areas where he will have an impact on. The first one is entrepreneurialism. The previous administration wasn’t pro tech or pro innovation. They wanted to control, for example, crypto and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they weren’t willing to work with entrepreneurs to set clear guidance and rules. As an entrepreneur myself, this just made it impossible for one to operate. The new administration seems very clearly interested in promoting entrepreneurialism. They understand that this is how value is created, and that’s good for everyone. The second one is crypto. Donald Trump supports crypto, and a lot of his administration does it too, like J. D. Vance, Elon Musk and David Sacks. They’re all pro crypto. We are going to see an incredible four years in the crypto space. As a Co-Founder of BetHog, a cryptocurrency casino and sportsbook, I can assure crypto is one of the most exciting parts of online gambling and, in the next four years, we’ll be going to experience an increase on its importance. What I would love to see is crypto advancing into the regulated market. The third area is regulation within the United States iGaming market. I think more states will open the online casino betting segment.
What is your vision on how the U.S. gambling market is evolving?
The market in the United States is really interesting. One of the things that became very apparent, from probably around 2020 if not earlier, was that this was a market that was going to be dominated by a very small number of players. There were a couple of reasons for that. One of the biggest ones was that it was a state-by-state rollout. This really strongly favored the top players who had managed to build a strong base, and it favored operators like FanDuel and few others. What I’m noticing about the market is further consolidation of the top two or three players. The top players want to be in every state that opens up. Certainly, in a legislative side, they are lobbying in every state to ensure that they open up in a way in which they can get access to that territory. In terms of sports betting, I have seen incredible progress early on, but the online casino regulation has been a lot slower. There’s a lot of space to grow in that sense.
Because of the new regulations, the industry in general is moving to Latin America and Brazil. How to take advantage of the opportunity that is appearing in the region?
I’m the Chairman of the Board of Rei do Pitaco, which is a fantasy sports, sportsbook and online casino operator in Brazil, and I’m also the Chairman of the Board of Draftea, which is a sports betting platform in Mexico. The commonality I’m seeing in Latin America is that they are like the U.S. prior to the PASPA appeal in 2018. A huge number of people who love sports and that want to bet on sports, they had a very difficult time because they couldn’t have an app in their phones and the products that were available weren’t that good. With legalization, what we’re seeing is really tapping into that demand. These are incredible markets. Latin America has also seen under investment because some of the biggest operators didn’t have a big presence in there and we didn’t really have many startups in those businesses like coming with innovation and new products. In a short time, we’re going to see more big operators investing in these countries and more startups coming in.
You are a leader and a pioneer, with tons of experience in the gaming sector. What novelties motivate you to get involved and talk with other actors related to the industry?
I always talked with entrepreneurs. I spend several hours a week talking to them and trying to be helpful. I really love being close to entrepreneurs to see new ideas coming because that’s useful for me. There are certain areas open for innovation, so I try to spend time in those areas and also with consumers. One of these areas that I’m really interested in is social. The part I think is most interesting is streaming, which is a really social product. I work with streamers, talk to them, explain how we develop our product in order to make it better for them. It’s always interesting to be open to new ideas.
Today, players can bet live in person or online, pay with crypto and many other options that were unthinkable in 2018, when the market opened in the United States. How is technology shaping the gaming industry and what new possibilities can you imagine for the next three years?
I think predicting the future is incredibly difficult. The best thing you can do to understand new technologies is using those products. You should be trying them every day to see. You should be looking at new products. Twitter is an incredible place where you can follow a lot of people who use these products, and they do different things with them. That is an incredible source: having a network of entrepreneurs telling me about what they’re doing and what they’re using for, that gives me sort of insight. I know that crypto is already very important, but it’s going to become more important. How do I know that? Because, as an operator, I compare my experience regards payments where we were dedicating 15 to 20% of our revenue in payments. We lived in fear of losing Visa and Mastercard. With crypto, I don’t have to rely on any third parties because it’s all built in-house. What does that mean? It means I can deliver a better product to the user. I can give better prices. I don’t have to give 20% of my revenue away to somebody who doesn’t really add any value. Another future goal is trying to give players the same social experience online than a land-based casino gives offline. We haven’t been able yet, so I think that’s a reason to keep looking at it, effort more and be more creative.