The Brazilian market has a national audience drawn by soccer fans and could be one of the largest markets in the world. Playtech Chief Policy Officer Francesco Rodano outlines how important it is for operators to ensure a safe and sustainable launch in the market, how they tackle the teething pains of complex rulings He told iGB about it.
The Brazilian market has a national audience drawn by soccer fans and could be one of the largest markets in the world. Playtech Chief Policy Officer Francesco Rodano outlines how important it is for operators to ensure a safe and sustainable launch in the market, how they tackle the teething pains of complex rulings He told iGB about it.
It took four years to get to this point, but the implementation and opening up of the Brazilian sports betting market will finally happen later this year.
When Playtech’s Chief Policy Officer Francesco Rodano sees great potential in this market. “The sheer scale of unregulated gambling and the Brazilian’s strong passion for sports suggest that he could become one of the world’s largest regulated markets,” he says.
“At Playtech, we are committed to establishing strategic partnerships or joint ventures with local market leaders, as we have done with Caliente in Mexico and Wplay in Colombia, as well as promoting our products and services locally at all sizes. and international licensees.”
conscious bet
But new opportunities bring new risks. Rodano believes it is essential to build sustainability into Brazilian sports betting from the start.
He argues that the opening up of the market will make carriers much more focused on how to protect their customers, in line with industry-wide trends. Conscious betting focuses on maintaining a balance between money and play, and avoids playing more games after losing.
Operators must not only identify potential risks, but also address them by setting limits to avoid compromising the mental and financial health of players.
“Even if a small number of players may be harmed by gambling, it is important and an ethical imperative to detect them as early as possible,” he explains.
“There are many ways to interact with at-risk players, from general email messages to personal interviews conducted by safer gambling experts and psychologists. We need to be able to execute the most appropriate interventions depending on the risk level of the.At Playtech, we have developed a first level interaction tool that has proven to be of great value.
“In our trial, AI-driven customized interventions were the most effective in triggering responsible gaming actions, such as setting deposit limits, compared to previous comprehensive email responsible gambling campaigns. Proven to be 21 times more effective.
AI technology
Traditionally, gambling operators have used simple scorecards based on basic thresholds such as deposits or wagers and time spent playing. This one-size-fits-all approach has a fundamental drawback. That’s because while we tend to view all players the same, at Playtech we recognize that “human behavior is much more complex and diverse.”
“Online gambling gives us access to a myriad of personal data that has never been available before,” says Rodano. “And it’s not just gambling data that is already very detailed. There are many other sources of information given how ‘connected’ we are.” A VIP manager, for example, knows to check the player’s activity on her social network if she suspects something is going on. ”
“Machine learning offers a unique opportunity to try to ‘read’ people’s behavior. For example, in 2019, an AI poker bot developed by Facebook and Carnegie Mellon defeated some of the best professional players in the world. Using AI, software could understand human behavior and outwit players. ”
Playtech employs this technology through its safer gambling analytics platform BetBuddy. Its software is designed to “read” player behavior and identify at-risk players early on. It relies on a machine learning model that processes all players, providing up to 70 behavioral markers to identify players known to have experienced harm (e.g., ultimately deciding to self-exclude or Pattern matching against a normal player declaring victim).
“The model is complemented with ‘rules of expertise’ to further improve the data-driven approach and, most importantly, is fully explainable. can perform personalized interventions that are far more effective than traditional generic interactions, as discussed above. ‘ explains Rodano.
“And we were surprised to find that our survey showed that 76% of Brazilians favor betting firms that use AI to detect possible risky players.
danger in play
Playtech has conducted bespoke consumer research in four Latin American countries, including Brazil, to explore key issues related to responsible gambling in each region. In Brazil, 56% of his respondents declared they were already betting, despite the lack of regulation. And most of them advocated better local regulations and more information about responsible gaming tools.
The survey revealed the main fears Brazilians face when they lose all their money to gambling addiction. Add to this the risk of fraud, cheating games, failure to pay winnings, invasion of privacy, and funding of criminal activity, all at play.
Rodano points out that many of the gambling companies that local players interacted with operate from offshore, tax-exempt locations where no consumer protection measures are in place, as the legal market is not yet alive. increase.
A Brazilian ruling regulates sports betting, but not Igaming. Rodano stresses the importance that other forms of gambling must follow suit.
It therefore stresses that the regulatory framework should include casino games and popular forms of sports betting that consumers seek.
“This could be a risk factor in Brazil. Law 846/2018 only regulates sports betting, so casino games, which generate almost half of global gambling revenue, will remain illegal for the foreseeable future. Yes, Brazilian players will be left behind.There is no legal alternative for the offshore version.”
Collaborate rather than oppose
“We believe that a gambling regulatory framework can only work if the three parties involved – the country, the players and the gambling industry – achieve their respective objectives,” says Rodano.
He went on to say that suppliers have a neutral role. “We work with hundreds of his B2C operators and they are in fierce competition with each other, but this competition is a testament to our ability to invest time and energy in research and development of safer gambling. It does not affect.”
“Our responsibility is inherently dual. We want to develop evidence-backed, extensively tested, and safer gambling solutions.
“On the one hand, we need to educate both policy makers and industry peers about the possibilities of this approach.”
He says more collaboration across the industry is essential for this to work. Rodano acknowledges that for the market to be successful, operators need to focus not only on competition, but on the cooperation of the entire gambling industry.
“Many machine learning initiatives and trials are being conducted by different operators, but often the findings are not shared with others,” he explains. “Protecting the health and improving well-being of all should be an industry-wide collective effort, not a way to gain competitive advantage.
“By sharing our successes, especially our failures, we can collectively learn and make the gambling industry sustainable for the long term.”
Playtech’s vision for the Brazilian market is clear. Safer gambling should be equally prominent in the market as it is in more mature European jurisdictions..
“Over the years, we have been in dialogue with many regulators around the world, some of which have introduced regulatory requirements on behavioral analysis and personalized interventions. There are now examples in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Germany and Sweden.”
“Of course, we are happy to do the same with Brazilian policymakers to promote safe, sustainable and long-term growth of the Brazilian legal gambling industry.”
