Betwinner, one of the main bookmakers in the world, seems to have arrived in Brazil to stay! Having recently arrived in the country, the sports betting company adds several actions to expand its brand and figure among the protagonists in the Brazilian market.
With around 400 thousand players betting with Betwinner, the bookmaker shows a great appetite for the Brazilian market. Some expressive actions are already being noticed, such as the hiring of the ex-side of the Brazilian team Roberto Carlos as ambassador, the agreement with the ESPN channels for the promotion of the brand in the Sportscenter program and more recently, the brand exposure on led around the field, in the Brazilian Championship.
To better understand the company’s plans in Brazil, we spoke with Gustavo Hiroshi, Betwinner’s country manager in the country, who explained the marketing strategies to work here, future plans, the opening of an office in São Paulo and other matters.
Read the full interview below:
iGaming Brazil: What are Betwinner’s plans for the Brazilian market in 2021?
Gustavo Hiroshi: In 2021 Betwinner will open its first office in the Americas. We will hire a complete marketing team to meet the demand of all Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries.
There will initially be 20 vacancies in the marketing sector and in the commercial sector for Brazilians and Spanish-speaking foreigners, to work in the office in São Paulo, the vacancies are available via email: [email protected]
iGaming Brazil: Betwinner is promoting some marketing actions in Brazil. What can you tell us about it?
Gustavo Hiroshi: In 2020 despite the situation of COVID, we closed some significant agreements, such as with the Pentacampeão with the Brazilian team and Ex-Real Madrid Roberto Carlos as ambassador of Betwinner in Latin America and with the links with the ESPN channels.
With a significant budget for 2021, we closed an agreement at the end of 2020 with a Brazilian agency specialized in the field of sports betting. The plans are to expand our partnerships with affiliates and native influencers and we entered Led signs in the Brasileirão and we are also studying to sponsor the first sports betting program on Brazilian TV.
iGaming Brazil: We have witnessed many sports betting companies displaying their brands on football teams. Because we are in Brazil (the country of football), would this be a strategy considered by Betwinner as well? Have you talked with any clubs?
Gustavo Hiroshi: Yes, the plans are there, I would love to see Betwinner on the athletes’ shirts.
Betwinner has evolved a lot in the Brazilian market, it is always difficult to tropicalize our products to serve such a peculiar market. But Betwinner should take this step for the next season of the Brasileirão.
iGaming Brazil: We also see bookmakers investing in other sports categories. What do you think of this strategy?
Gustavo Hiroshi: Yes, some categories are obvious like football, tennis, CS, FIFA but what helps to win the trust of customers and explore new modalities taking some risk, for example, during the pandemic one of the markets that made Betwinner win some points with customers was to offer markets in the brazilian table tennis championship, a relatively small league we had about 200 customers betting live on matches between semi professional brazilians was around 80 games per day and lasted for 3 months.
I believe that not even the athletes knew that there were people watching and cheering live, as the game was broadcast live on the streaming platform.
iGaming Brazil: What could the regulation (or will) change in the company’s strategy?
Gustavo Hiroshi: Without a doubt! On the positive side, if the regulation is favorable to the customer, the payment process will change a lot. The entire acquisition process and the customer journey will be significantly improved. Brazil, which is already being targeted by operators, will gain a new giant industry that only has to add and generate revenue for the country.
I am a positive person, but we have to be realistic at this time. I work with major industry partners to help us create future scenarios and action plans based on each possible regulatory scenario.
iGaming Brazil: Tell us a little about you.
Gustavo Hiroshi: I’m from São Paulo capital, I studied at UNESP in the countryside in 2007, where I spent 5 great years. I went back to São Paulo to work in the corporate world for 4 years and in 2015 I had an offer to move to London for work, I didn’t think twice.
Living in London for a few years, working as an account manager at a British telecommunications company, I met the CEO of Tempobet at a business dinner where we were negotiating IT services for his new office in Mayfair. Dinner was a success! I closed the sale and left with a job offer!
Within two weeks I was opening Tempobet’s London office. It was 3 years working as Country Manager Brasil.
At Betwinner I started as a consultant and after 2 years I became responsible for developing the Latin American market where I am today (2021)
Throughout my journey in the gaming industry, I served several operators through consultancies mainly to create a strategy for entry and product development in the Brazilian market.
