Exclusive interview.- As the countdown for a new edition of ICE has started, Focus Gaming News caught up with Chuck Robinson, chief revenue officer at BETER, to talk about the company’s plans for this year’s edition and the goals BETER aims to achieve in 2025.
Robinson also gave details about the company’s achievements in Latin America, where it has recently secured certifications in Argentina and Peru, and shared his insights on the growing demand for esports and fast-betting products across the region.
BETER has bolstered its presence in Latin America after being registered as a service provider in Argentina and certified in Peru. Do you think the LatAm market has potential for e-sports verticals?
Latin America is now one of the most important markets for BETER as there is a huge demand for our fast-betting products, for both esports and sports, in jurisdictions across the region. This demand continues to grow year after year. We have secured approvals to offer our content in Argentina (specifically from the gambling regulatory body in the City of Buenos Aires) and Peru among other markets and we are now a must-have provider for operators in these and beyond. These approvals show that we can provide the content that the next generation of bettors wants to engage with while being fully compliant with the rules and requirements in place in each market. This is important if we are to help our operator partners leverage the esports betting opportunity in South America – a market that Statista estimates to generate revenue of $150m this year and with an annual growth rate of 6.8 per cent between now and 2028.
We believe our fast-betting products of esports will help drive this figure even higher, with our proprietary ESportsBattle tournaments surpassing all pre-launch KPIs with the operators that offer them. This is because our content provides round-the-clock fast action and near-instant bet settlement players are seeking. Remember, the addressable market in LatAm often skews younger than in other jurisdictions – Gen Z alone accounts for 25 per cent of the population across the region and while these bettors do engage with traditional sports, they also want to bet on esports athletes, teams, matches and tournaments and they want to do this 24/7/365.
“We can provide the content that the next generation of bettors wants to engage with while being fully compliant with the rules and requirements in place in each market.”
Chuck Robinson, CRO at BETER.
How do you convey the appeal of verticals like e-sports and virtual reality contests to operators?
Operators need to offer esports betting to engage the widest possible audience in the LatAm jurisdictions they target. And they need to be able to offer this content round the clock – this is where our content comes into its own with contests running 24/7. This helps operators grow their player base and monetise during periods when there is little to no real-world action taking place – our ESportsBattle tournaments, particularly eFootball contests, are hugely popular for this reason.
Bettor preferences are changing, especially in markets like Brazil, Argentina and Peru where they don’t want to wait hours on end for their bets to settle. Instead, they want to engage in fast betting experiences with bet settlement taking just a handful of minutes. This applies to both traditional sports and esports which is why we complement our ESportsBattle tournaments along with Setka Cup table tennis tournaments and our BSKT Cup basketball league. If operators don’t offer this type of content, they simply won’t be able to acquire and retain players at the scale needed for a successful business.
“Bettor preferences are changing, especially in markets like Brazil, Argentina and Peru where they don’t want to wait hours on end for their bets to settle.”
Chuck Robinson, CRO at BETER.
Which verticals do you expect to see the biggest changes in the coming years?
Esports betting is a major vertical that is only set to grow in the coming years, incorporating more and more features that will appeal to bettors. I believe that by the end of 2025, we will see the integration of more blockchain-powered solutions, increased usage of cryptocurrency, the development of highly personalised betting experiences, and the addition of immersive experiences through VR/AR technologies, among other advancements.
Operators are starting to realise the size of the opportunity it presents with some of the industry’s power players now launching esports betting to their customers – at BETER, we have struck partnerships with the likes of Codere, Aposta Ganha, Vibra Solutions, and others companies in Eurasia and Africa during 2024. Not only do we offer operators our proprietary tournaments, which offer more than 46,000 events per month, but we have a powerful Esports Odds feed covering 450+ tournaments globally with 40,000 live and pre-match events a year for the likes of CS2, Dota 2, LoL, Valorant and more. Our team also offers a customisable product for dedicated eFootball tournaments, developed specifically to meet the needs of our clients. These tournaments are fully branded to align with operators’ brand identity and built on our high-quality capabilities, tailored to boost bettor acquisition, engagement, and retention.
At BETER, we work hard to ensure we are at the cutting edge of esports betting and have some incredible products in the works that will hit the market throughout 2025 that we believe will continue to change the game for the vertical.
Is there anything you plan to do differently in 2025?
We will significantly increase the number of events and tournaments we run, further elevating BETER’s esports and sports offerings. This begins with the launch of our eCricket and Virtual Cricket products, which will add more than 20,000 additional events per month. We are also adding tennis to our suite of sports products, bringing over 400 matches per month to our offering, alongside padel tennis contests with more than 240 monthly events. Additionally, we are introducing cricket tournaments with over 2,400 monthly matches. We also strongly bet on our dedicated eFootball tournaments and plan to add them to the offerings of the majority of our existing clients, as well as all new ones.
In terms of markets, we will make further headway in Latin America where we are working hard to secure operator partnerships in Argentina, Brazil, and Peru while also seeking certification in additional markets across the continent. With the Setka Cup, we have helped to increase the global fan base for table tennis, and we look forward to doing the same for cricket and tennis, both of which are popular betting events but now offered by BETER and enhanced by our fast betting expertise and advanced solutions.
Will you be teasing any new updates to delegates at ICE?
We are really excited to showcase our full suite of esports and sports betting products to delegates at ICE, especially our five new disciplines: eCricket, Virtual Cricket, tennis, padel tennis, and cricket. Delegates can enjoy a full demo of our entire product suite by stopping by our stand, number 4B18. In addition, they can explore our latest improvements in dedicated eFootball tournaments, upgraded iFrame, Managed Trading Services, and, of course, our advanced Esports Widgets, offered in partnership with GRID. We look forward to meeting with both new and existing partners at ICE and showcasing why our fast-betting products and experiences for both esports and sports are so popular with bettors worldwide, and why they are a must-have for operators.
