Betsson to continue focus on Spanish-speaking LatAm markets, Brazil investment to come later
Betsson’s short-term focus in LatAm is to continue its growth in Spanish-speaking markets, rather than investing big in Brazil during the market’s infancy, Betsson CEO Jesper Svensson told iGB in a recent interview.
The operator saw regional growth efforts in 2024 pay off in its full-year earnings report yesterday (6 February). Group revenue surpassed €1 billion (£833.2 million/$1.04 billion) in the 12-month period, indicating an uptick of 16.8% in 2023.
LatAm was the highest-growth region during the period. In Q4, LatAm revenue climbed 46.8% to €78.2 million, another all-time high, thanks to continued growth across Argentina, Colombia and Peru.
Betsson AB CEO Pontus Lindwall hailed the region a “key driver” of the group’s overall growth in 2024. And Svensson has assured that investment into its established LatAm markets would continue.
But Svensson said Brazil would not see the same level of investment in the short-term. The company does however have a long-term ambition to build a strong position in Brazil.
Betsson was one of 56 operators granted a provisional licence to operate in the market from 1 January. This means it will be granted a full licence once all its technical certifications and compliance requirements are completed.
“It’s really a country-by-country approach in many ways for us and Brazil is a market we think, over time, can be important for us,” Svensson said.
“Although we have been growing really well in Latin America, we have not yet started to invest in Brazil.
“We will try the market, but our focus has more been the Spanish-speaking countries. [However] our ambition is clearly to be part of the regulation and over time build a strong business in Brazil as well.”
Brazil to be more successful than US for new entrants
When asked whether he expected the proliferation of legal online betting to mirror the US over the last seven years, Svensson said he anticipates operators to have more success in Brazil as he believes the barriers to entry are lower in Brazil.
“I think there will be more players in Brazil that will have a better business than in the US today, because the US barrier to entry is very high and costly and Brazil is not the same from that point of view,” he noted.
On M&A the Betsson CEO said the company was “always looking for opportunities” as local M&A is key to its growth strategy.
“Looking at the last 10 to 15 years we have on average bought a company per year. If we see any particular opportunities, M&A is a good way to enter into new markets,” he told iGB.
Looking at 2025, Svensson said Betsson is aiming to keep its current growth momentum going.
“We are growing well and what for us it’s really about is keeping that momentum going, so continuing to have growth in our core markets and Latin America is really part of that,” he concluded.