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A daily podcast delving into the biggest stories of the day throughout the sports betting and igaming sector.
Hello and welcome to iGaming Daily, supported
by OptiMove. I'm your host, James Ross. And
in today's episode, we're diving into Portugal's
booming online gambling market, specifically
looking through the lens of the suppliers. With
the latest numbers showing record-breaking
revenues, particularly in the online casino
and sports betting segments, Portugal is on
the rise. And what a fitting time for it to
be on the rise with SBC Summit Lisbon just
next week. Today, we'll explore the key questions,
how can suppliers maintain the growth momentum,
what are the biggest challenges they face and
how they can shape the future of Portugal's
gambling market. And I'm joined by GreenTube's
regional manager within the sales and key account
management team, Lisa Sadner, to go through
all the above. Lisa, welcome to the podcast.
How are you doing today? Hi, James. All good.
Thank you. Very excited to answer all of your
questions. I am very excited to speak to you
today. It's going to be an interesting conversation
and Portugal. Again, I know SBC Summer Lisbon
is just next week and it's a perfect time to
talk about this, but it's also a perfect time
because the latest figures from Portugal are
outstanding, to be honest, and it's something
I didn't foresee happening. Mainly because
we just don't touch upon the market that much.
But before we do jump into that, this is your
first podcast, Lisa, correct? It is, yes. Okay,
so with that, one, we're honored for you to
be on our gaming daily to be your first podcast,
but I think the audience needs to know. a lot
about you. So not to be too cliche, but we're
going to do a little icebreaker thing. What's
the one thing that you think's interesting about
yourself? I would say I'm a very introverted
person when it comes to my private life and
privately I'm also very, very much introverted,
but I have no fear talking to customers being
completely me. I'm always super honest, super
natural also when it comes to. everything I
say actually so people can trust me a lot and
yeah. Do you know what I'm gonna bounce off
you on that one because even though I'm the
host of a podcast I do a lot of multimedia stuff
for the company because I'm the multimedia
editor and even in my in my spare time I stream
video games. I am quite an introverted person
off the screen so it's like when I'm on the
screen I put on this different persona. And
then when I'm off, I'm a recluse. Yeah, you
put on a mask basically. It's not that you
were fake in any way, but you're just a different
person then. And then you go home and then
you're like, now I'm me again. When I'm off
camera, I'm not smiling. I'm just like my normal
face, but everyone's like, why do you look so
moody? I'm like, I'm not moody, it's just my
normal face. Perfect, thank you for that. I
know it's not always like a... It's not always
something that people are open to, but it's
nice for the audience to kind of gauge who
you are a little bit. So we're going to jump
into Portugal, but before we do, now's, I always
say is appropriate time to mention our sponsor
or a supporter of the iGaming daily podcast,
someone who is not an introvert and that is
OptiMove, the number one CIRM marketing solution
for the iGaming market. For listeners out there,
you can still claim your first month of OptiMove
by visiting optimover.com forward slash SBC.
As per usual, the links will be left in the
description below. Now. Portugal and I think
before I ask you a question Lisa, I think it's
good to start unpacking the latest numbers from
Portugal's gambling market and to kind of take
a closer look at some of the crucial role suppliers
play. And in Q2 of this year, in the second
quarter, Portugal's online gambling market saw
a new revenue record of 261.8 million euros
with online casino leading the way. Slot machines
alone accounted for over 80% of casino spending.
So. I'm going to ask you, Lisa, for GreenTube,
those numbers alone are very appealing, but
for GreenTube, what appeals to you most about
the Portuguese market? For us, the Portuguese
market is rather small or a niche market, I
would even call it, but it has shown, as you
said, impressive growth with our operators.
When we consider the number of licensed operators
that we have live. Um, alongside the revenue
we generate in Portugal, I would say it's,
it's a highly, uh, attractive market. And why,
why do you think we're seeing such good growth
within the market? I've just reeled those numbers
off and 80% in slots alone is very, very impressive.
Why are we seeing such good growth in that market?
We are working closely with our operators to
ensure optimal game positioning. And of course
we launch. as much exclusive titles as possible
to capture the player's attention on to GreenTube
games. But as well, the strategic positioning
that our operators give us on our games and
combined with the quality content that we offer
in Portugal ensures us a stable and consistent
performance. Mason Vies How can suppliers like
GreenTube of online gambling technology and
content differentiate their offerings? to help
licensed operators within the Portuguese regulated
market compete more effectively against the
illegal platforms? Because every market has
that kind of battle, you know, the legal from
the illegal, you know, the black, white, the
white. Yeah, it's a very interesting question
and it's tricky to answer, but in my opinion,
it's always quite challenging to compete with
illegal platforms in every regulated market
because you have it in every regulated market.
But however, we as GreenTube, we maintain a
strong commitment by being one of the few suppliers
that exclusively provides content to licensed
operators in Portugal. So it's crucial to raise
players' awareness that GreenTube games are
only available on platforms such as Betano,
Solverde or Estoril within this market. So I'm
of course not only talking about Portugal here,
but globally. That's our focus that we only
provide content to the regulated markets and
licensed operators. I'm going to keep coming
back to those 80% numbers for slots because
again, that is one of the most impressive numbers
I've seen from a market's financial records.
For me though, I'm going to ask you this. What
innovations in game design, and again, I'm
going to focus specifically on slot machines,
GreenTube, Excel with them, could suppliers
kind of develop to maintain the dominance of
online casinos within Portugal and attract
a broader player base. So we have observed a
growing trend in particularly crash games,
but also buy bonus games within the Portuguese
market. And actually we're actively also working
on delivering our very first crash game onto
our operators at the earliest opportunity.
So as well, this is not just for Portugal, but
globally speaking, we're working on our very
first Crash Games, so that's very exciting.
Yeah. I remember when I first experienced the
Crash Games. So a little bit of information
for you, Lisa. Um, when I first joined the
company, I was a writer for SlotBeats and then
became a senior journalist for CasinoBeats.
And I experienced my first Crash Game and I
believe it was Funfair technology or Funfair
Games' Astro Boomers to the Moon. I'd never
experienced these before. And I just thought
to myself. Wow, like these are very socially
engaging. If you have the commentary, you can
communicate with the other players besides you.
But I'm just like, this is intense and this
is insanely fun. The way you can play and it's
completely different to a slot game. I mean,
so games, you have some control. Crash games
is literally the edge of your fingertips of
are you going to win? Are you not? Because you
have a choice to back out. And I, I never thought.
Well, I had an inkling that crash games could
do well. I never thought now there'll be kind
of a staple up there with the likes of online
slots with roulette, you know, baccarat, you
know, stuff like that. I never thought it would
have, it would hold that mantelpiece of being
stood next to them for such longevity and they're
doing so well. I think also because the audience
is getting younger and younger and they're trying
to find something new and fresh and something
more engaging as you said, but the classics
obviously will always perform because they
are known for such a long time, they're established
in the land-based casinos as well. Um, but
yeah, the audience, I think is looking for something
modern. I would say I would call it. Yeah,
you're right. And one of the key things I've
noticed, and this is what I think crash games
do offer is kind of like instant gratification
where the younger audience, and I think it
does stem from some kind of social media usage
when you look at like the likes of TikTok and
you know, Insta reels, it's kind of that not
short attention span, but kind of you can only,
the only one to concentrate on some bunch of
30 seconds long, a little bit more now. but
it's that instant gratification of having it.
And that's what, that's what crash games do.
They offer that with some suspense and intrigue.
One of the things I did notice when I was playing
it though is just how hooked I was. And that
kind of raised some alarm bells around kind
of like RG when it comes to crash games. And
I'm going to kind of twist this conversation
a little bit into that direction. And within
Portugal, we saw a rise of self exclusions.
For GreenTube and suppliers, how can you integrate
kind of responsible gambling tools and features
into your products to help operators address
this issue while still maintaining that player
engagement? So from a supplier perspective,
of course, we ensure that our games are developed
in a way so that the operators can supply their
self-exclusion tools for the protection of
their players. Simple.
That's how simple it can be. But how might suppliers,
we'll look at it this way then. So it's always
good for suppliers to communicate and work with
the regulators to ensure that products, they
meet stringent tax and regulatory requirements.
How might GreenTube collaborate with these
regulators while still being competitive and
appealing for the market? Because again, you
are competing against the black market, which
don't have those restrictions against them.
I mean, we are agreeing to ensure compliance
in Portugal by partnering with the regulators
from the beginning. We use experts in compliance.
We're keeping the communication clear with
them as well. And by adapting the products to
meet local rules and using feedback, we balance
the following regulations with making our products
as attractive as possible within the markets.
And we're already differentiating each other
from other. suppliers probably by not supplying
into the illegal market. And we've already touched
on regulations. We've, you've mentioned yourself
about targeting, you know, the more younger
demographics with the audience. So let's kind
of merge this into kind of one penultimate question,
shall we say. How can the Portuguese regulator,
the SRIJ, adapt its regulatory framework to
better combat the rise of these unlicensed
gambling operators, particularly like we've
just mentioned amongst the younger demographics.
Again, very interesting and tricky question
to answer, but in my view, a strong initial
step would be to approve games only from suppliers
who do not provide the same content to illegal
platforms. While obviously this is certainly
easier said than done, it's essential to make
regulated sites more appealing to the players.
And for instance, the regulator could be working
towards the legal platforms by allowing only
the best performing content to be live on regulated
websites or simply to block the sites, but also
to penalize the suppliers as well who provide
their content onto those platforms. Otherwise,
it's like a never ending story of blocking
sites and then there's another one popping up
the next day. So I would say it's also important
to I like that the regulator is also looking
at the suppliers who provide their content
onto those platforms. Perfect. And final question
for me. It might be fine. I might throw one
more in there. It's not just Portugal that Green
Sheep operate in. You've got other regulated
markets across Europe. Can you just explain
what Green Sheep's plans are across these other
regulated markets throughout Europe? Yeah, of
course, we're constantly... exploring our opportunities
to expand and distribute our content across
as many legal compliant platforms as possible
and giving the strong recognition in Europe
that we already have. We are providing content
to the largest and most important regulated
markets already, but whenever there is a new
market that undergoes regulation, the company
is obviously committed to
earliest possible stage. Perfect. I did tease
one more question. Um, don't worry. It's not,
it's nothing too intense. Um, like I said, Lisbon,
SPC Summit Lisbon is next week. And I've never
been to mainland Portugal. I've been to Madeira
and I'm absolutely in love, in love with the
island. Um, to the point, to the point that
me and my, my wife were thinking about moving
there in, in the distant future. Yeah. We're,
we're obsessed with it. But. I do want to kind
of see what mainland Portugal is like, certainly
Lisbon, to see if it kind of replicates that
feel that we love about Madeira. So I'm going
to ask you, because I've never been there.
I don't know if you've been to Lisbon yourself.
Actually, it's also my first time in Lisbon.
I have been twice to the Algarve in the south,
but I've never been in the city. So I'm also
quite interested in what it brings. Because
I also, as you are... I love the country. It's
so nice. You can go surfing. You can do so much.
The people are really open and yeah, it's such
a nice, nice place to be. So I'm just looking
forward to go to the city and explore a little
bit more. Well, that was going to be my question
of what you're looking forward to most on Lisbon.
But you've just done a spanner in the works.
Like you can surf in Lisbon? I might hire a
surfboard now. I mean... Not in Lisbon because
it's not on the coast, but I think everything
closer to the seasides, they just all have a
surfboard and surf. I would say that's the
cliche of Portugal, I guess. Well, for all the
listeners out there, if you expect to see me
now at the conference hall throughout the SBC
Summit Lisbon, you won't see me, but come to
the seaside. You might see me on a surfboard
there instead. Lisa, thank you for joining
us today on the latest episode of Our Gaming
Daily, supported by Optimiv. It's been an absolute
pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for... Thank
you for giving me your debut for iGaming Daily.
You've been fantastic. Nothing to be nervous
about. Thank you so much for having me, James.
It was a delight to speak to. I will see you
next week in Lisbon for the listeners out there.
Make sure you tune in tomorrow for more iGaming
Daily and also tune in during the conference
week because I will be on the floor in the conference
hall, not on the surfboard reporting for iGaming
Daily there. But until then, thank you and goodbye.