The betting and gaming landscape has undergone considerable changes in the last few years, but according to Javier Cicciomessere, Director of Sales for Spain and Latin America at Golden Race, the industry is continuing to evolve as younger, tech-savvy bettors bet more on verticals such as virtual sports.
What are you looking forward to at the SBC Summit Barcelona?
Primarily being able to attend industry events in person again and seeing how they’re adapted for the new normality. After several hard months with digital events, it will be interesting to be back in the field and see how things are going for gambling companies. It’ll be a great opportunity to share our own experience and be united as a sector that suffered a lot from the closure of casinos and betting shops.
What are you promoting at SBC Summit Barcelona?
At GoldenRace we are always innovating, listening to our customers and working together with them to develop products that fit their needs.
At SBC Summit Barcelona we will be showing our virtual sports portfolio, a vertical that we’ve seen to be very successful, not only during the COVID-19 lockdown and the void of real sports events, but also before.
Virtual sports are well known in the industry as a permanent, complementary and profitable option for betting operators and bookmakers to engage their players and add traffic to their sportsbooks. They are especially valued during complicated months, when real sports betting is down because of high payouts or other issues. In fact, in many countries around the world, Virtual Sports provide the same amount of traffic (or even more) than sports betting itself.
We will be in Barcelona showing our latest games and solutions, such as our virtual football with new 3D technology, amazing motion-capture techniques and new tournaments such as Euro Cup and other updated ones like La Libertadores.
We will also be showing our incredible and highly innovative Basket 3×3, an instant virtual sport, available on GoldenRace’s online platform for mobile and desktop. It is the first virtual game with a cash-out function, allowing bettors to get their money back on their bets before the event is over, and it also offers an in-play betting option.
In terms of solutions, we also have a new version for retail V2. It is available for all types of land-based businesses through the Golden Box, the solution for Windows, and also via satellite in Africa and Latin America. It includes several improvements and a multi-game viewer that allows players to watch the events and follow the results of three different betting games on the same screen while operators sell more tickets and also increase their profit.
What industry innovation will capture the most attention in 2021?
Virtual Sports. The market is changing a lot thanks to younger players and Virtual Sports are having a great boost. Even in this pandemic period, we are growing constantly every month. Young people bet more on these kinds of events as they find it more similar to the reality they grew up in. They were born in the era of computers, internet, videogames so they bet more on Virtual Sports than on sports betting or casino games.
What partnership has stood out in the past 12 months?
I’d say the one between HollywoodTV and TVBET. It is revolutionary as they focus on lottery-style games, a market which still is very open and where there is a lot to do. It brings the opportunity of having a wider offer including live games.
Which parts of the conference agenda have caught your eye?
It is a wide agenda with lots of interesting topics. For us, it will be very interesting to hear about new markets, especially the US where we are preparing our entrance. We’ll be looking at how to reach US players and the regulation in this area.
We’ll also be keeping an eye on the prospects for our most successful markets such as Colombia and Peru, CIS and Balkan countries, and Africa. The multi-channel experience, innovations in mobile and the analysis of the post-COVID-19 situation and the opportunities it brings for the industry are also noted in our papers!
