Businessman Paulo Morais, one of the founders and former CEO of Espaçolaser, is joining Big Brazil, a Brazilian company licensed by the Caesars Entertainment group from Las Vegas. Paulo will be part of the board and will be responsible for outlining marketing strategies – which may include sponsoring a major football team.
The regulation of online betting will create, virtually overnight, one of the largest economic activities in the country – with an annual turnover that may soon exceed R$ 300 billion. This prospect is leading the world's largest gaming and entertainment companies to line up at the door of the Ministry of Finance to obtain registration and legally explore this business.
“We will not position ourselves as a bet, but as an entertainment company for the higher income audience,” said Morais, who has a background in health and wellness companies and sees no contradiction in placing his bets on the addictive business of betting.
The president of Big Brazil is businessman André Feldman, representative for almost a decade of the Caesars group in the country – and who has already brought the World Series of Poker brand to Brazil, the world's largest poker tournament.
Alongside the Brazilians, the American group will debut in the country's betting market with the Caesars Sportsbook brand. In addition to sports betting, the platform will offer various online gambling games, including some of the 700 proprietary games from Caesars.
“It will be a Las Vegas experience without leaving Brazil,” said Feldman. The technological platform will be the same used in the USA and other countries where Caesars rolls its slot machines and poker tables.
A publicly traded company, Caesars Entertainment had a revenue of US$ 11.5 billion last year and a net profit of US$ 786 million. Its market cap is US$ 8 billion.
The group has the second largest number of rooms in Las Vegas – only behind MGM Resorts – but is present in a larger number of American states, with 59 hotels under its brands.
Initially, under the law already approved in Brazil, the games will be exclusively online. Physical casinos depend on another law that has been pending in Congress for years and may now be close to approval – the final vote in the Senate is expected in September.
According to Feldman, the association of companies in the sector estimates that online betting already moves between R$ 100 billion and R$ 120 billion per year.
“But after its regulation, the market has the potential to be three times that, or even four times more,” said the businessman.
Currently, still without the green light from the Treasury, the frenetic Brazilian online betting market is driven by international companies based in tax havens that took advantage of a gray area of the law approved at the end of 2018.
From 2025, however, only companies with authorization from the Treasury and headquartered in the country will be able to explore virtual gambling. Those that do not comply with the rules will have their websites and apps taken down by Anatel.
In addition to the partnership with Caesars, last week Grupo Globo announced a JV with MGM Resorts to launch BetMGM in Brazil.
Source: Brazil Journal
