In just six years of operation, Play55 has established itself as an important platform provider for the philanthropic sweepstakes and capitalization segment. Now, the company aims to further develop solutions for the emerging state lottery sector. In an exclusive interview with GMB, Renato Saladino, CEO of the company, details the growth of Play55 and plans to expand the offering of tools throughout Brazil.
Games Magazine Brasil - How many years has Play55 been in operation and what are the main solutions of the platform for sweepstakes in Brazil?
Renato Saladino -
We have been in the market for six years, with solutions to enable the distribution of general sweepstakes for: bingo cards, physical and online scratch cards, construction of affiliate networks, and passive draws (raffles).
In 2020 with the advent of the pandemic, we grew exponentially as the philanthropic capitalization segment needed to digitize its operations. That is, entering the online sales segment as well as technology for its sales force to distribute their games once cities began lockdown.
During this time we were pioneers in selling lottery products in partnership with bands and artists delivering online sales with QR codes in live broadcasts on open TV. In 2020 we became the largest distribution platform not linked to economic groups for philanthropic sweepstakes.
We also perform BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) for large capitalization companies.
We have a robust technological infrastructure for processing thousands of transactions per minute.
Besides technology for the philanthropic capitalization market, what other solutions are available for the lottery market?
Over the years we have created new services and distribution methods for: management and distribution of scratch cards (physical and online), legalization of passive draws (raffles), viability of affiliate operations, and distribution of products across multiple channels.
We manage cash and electronic payments and integrate third-party or proprietary technologies.
Is Play55 present throughout Brazil or is it just a local solution for a few operators?
We are present throughout Brazil and we customize regional operations according to the audience.
What does Play55 represent in terms of number of clients and operations?
We have more than 9.5 million users and + 60,000 sellers/points of sale with 20 regional B2B partners.
With the growing increase in state lottery operations, how does Play55 position itself in the face of these changes?
We have already established partnerships with state lotteries, which use our tools for sales management, sales force remuneration, distribution, billing, and logistics of products sold by lotteries, scratch cards, and physical and online bingo games.
The lottery market is increasingly moving into the digital world. How can Play55 explore online games and sweepstakes?
Our DNA has always been digital, we know how to reach users on the web, we were born with the intention of digitizing the physical operations of our B2B partners. We work with major social media providers and paid traffic, building structured operations tailored to each local partner's profile. In addition, we digitize all physical processes, from sales stores for end-users, applications for sales forces, and distribution across multiple channels such as: POS, dynamic links, social networks, and WhatsApp.
We believe that online will grow a lot, but we also have to take advantage of all the potential that is in physical sales. Our main differential is in converting our physical distribution network into sub-affiliates and consequently increasing the revenue of our B2B partners.
How to form a robust team in the face of the growth of the state lottery sector with different processes and forms of operation?
We have a platform that has been built and perfected over the last six years. We have faced regional adversities with some of our clients and therefore we are in a very comfortable moment to adapt new functionalities and processes that the market demands.
We currently have more than 30 employees in our company, with strategic leaders allocated in each area.
These leaders work with business performance indicators, so we have a complete view of how our operation is doing on a daily basis.
What are Play55's plans for the second half of the year in Brazil?
We have a very robust plan for the gaming segment. We will distribute multiple products through our network.
With the regulation of state lotteries and the legalization of some game modalities, we are focused on the strategy of distributing these products. We are physically and online present in various regions of the country through our B2B partners, so our capacity to distribute new modalities is very large.
We have more than 9.5 million users who use our applications, more than 60,000 sellers and PDVs that distribute a single product. Our plans are to bring more products to this audience.
We are talking with national and international game operators. As we have an already connected and operational ecosystem, our work will be to offer and convert new game modalities. Imagine that a player starting in the Brazilian market will have to understand the different cultures and the local operation model, regulation, tax structure among other adversities. With this, they will have to invest a lot of capital to test their model, while we are already ready to offer the best solutions.
Source: Exclusive GMB
