Aposta Ganha eyes 10% market share as one of Brazil’s first betting licensees

Aposta Ganha announced on Tuesday (26 November) that its betting licence had been approved by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), paving the way for the operator to enter the legal betting market in Brazil in January.

As a local operator, the company takes pride in being one of the first to receive licence approval in its home country.

Aposta Ganha CCO Hugo Baungartner describes it as a “big, big step”, one that reinforces the operators’ belief that the soon-to-be regulated sector in Brazil will support and protect players and stakeholders.

“We are really happy to get this and this whole thing just comes to reconfirm that we are a group in Brazil that really believes in the market, being a Brazilian group and always, always trying to make the best things for Brazil as well and that’s why we were on the one of the first to apply and also to receive the confirmation,” Baungartner tells iGB.

Operators were given a 20 August deadline to submit their licence application, if they wanted the application to be processed ahead of the legal market’s launch. That window shut with 113 operator applications submitted.

Then, Brazil’s government announced in September that from 1 October, the treasury would begin to suspend operators that hadn’t yet applied for a betting licence.

Only operators that had both submitted an application and were already active in the Brazil market could operate during the transition period between 1 October and 31 December.

“He who arrives first drinks pure water”

The licence approval gives Aposta Ganha a first-mover advantage in Brazil and Baungartner believes around 40 operators in total will receive authorisation ahead of the legal market launch.

Speaking to iGB, Baungartner uses a Brazilian phrase translating to “he who arrives first drinks pure water”, noting that Aposta Ganha is well-placed to seize an early advantage over competitors yet to receive licence approval.

“We believe, and from my experience in the gaming world, that whoever gets into the regulated environment or [launches a specific] type of game first, can get an advantage in the market,” Baungartner explains.

In terms of how Aposta Ganha plans to both retain its existing customer base while attracting new bettors, Baungartner feels transparency with its consumers, as well as the SPA, will set the company up for success.

“We’ll make sure that we make the migration smooth for [bettors], The easiest process, of course, is complying with every demand from the SPA.

“I think that the best strategy is to make sure to make the process really clean and informative for them so they can understand fully what’s going on. That is the best tool that we can manage,” he says.

Earlier this week, the publication of Normative Ordinance 1,875 outlined how player data and funds must be transferred to licensed operations ahead of the legal market launch.

Companies that wish to migrate their player data to their licensed operation must formally request to do so by 13 December, with players needing to approve authorisation. This process can only be carried out by operators active during the ongoing transition period.

The next steps for Aposta Ganha

Baungartner did stress however there are still steps for Aposta Ganha to complete to ensure it is ready for the big launch day on 1 January.

For instance, Aposta Ganha still has to pay the BRL30 million (£4 million/€4.8 million/$5 million) licence fee mandated by Normative Ordinance 827, published back in May.

Additionally, companies will have to prove where that money came from when paying their licence fees. Baungartner says that won’t be a problem in Aposta Ganha’s case.

“For some it’s complicated to prove where the money came from,” Baungartner adds. “We are fully compliant and we are going to send them [the required fees] as it’s an important step.”

Although Baungartner is confident in Aposta Ganha’s plans to go live with its licensed platform on launch day, it initially can’t provide a full product offering as a number of partnering game providers have not received full certification.

“The content at the start will be a little different because some providers still didn’t finish the certification of their games,” Baungartner adds.

“So we will start with some games in January and over the [course of a few] months we’re going to add in more and more games.”

Rei do Pitaco and Superbet are among the other companies that received their licence in Brazil this week.