Retention, personalisation and the importance of ensuring that players can revel in what were billed as “micro wow moments” were just three of the key touch points as SBC Media sat down with Xtremepush’s Director of Partnerships, Robbie Sexton, at the recent SBC Summit Latinoamérica.

Despite there having been a lot of discussion regarding the prospects possessed by the continent for quite some time, a belief was stressed that the “very exciting market” is demonstrating key signs of “really maturing”.

As talk turned to that of becoming “a little bit more granular” and understanding the drivers across each country, attention inevitably turned to that of Brazil. 

“It’s not called a sleeping giant for nothing,” he began, pointing to an over 200 million population of sports mad and gameplay fanatics, as well as regulatory developments, in suggesting that “there’s a lot to be excited about”.

Upon being quizzed on the global potential possessed by the country, which will play host to the SBC Summit Rio in March 2024, the keys to success and potential of witnessing an acquisitive trend that has been at play across numerous jurisdictions also came to the fore. 

“What we do see though is that it is looking like it’s going to become a very, very crowded market,” Sexton commented.

“What we’ve seen in other crowded markets as well is a lot of operators have gone in and they’ve had an acquisition first approach to just get market share. 

“I THINK IT’S A REALLY EXCITING OPPORTUNITY. I DEFINITELY DO THINK THAT ALL EYES ARE ON IT. THERE IS GOING TO BE WINNERS AND THERE’S GOING TO BE LOSERS”

“But I think it’s important that player attention and building player loyalty is part of that strategy. We do see [that] a mixture of the local operators and international operators are really putting that player retention strategy at the core, which I think is really important and we do see that does drive exponential differences.”

However, despite voicing much optimism, Sexton was also quick to back this up with a slight warning that could impact the ambitions of some. 

“I think it’s a really exciting opportunity. I definitely do think that all eyes are on it. There is going to be winners and there’s going to be losers,” he continued.

“I think it’s really, really important that you get the product right, you get your player retention strategies right and you get your acquisition right to build a good player base and maintain them in Brazil.”

As retention became a central focus, Sexton touched on a primary goal that “any operator” possesses, which was noted as looking to “deliver one-to-one personalisation at scale”.

However, in addition to hammering home the importance of ensuring that the infrastructure and capabilities are in place to achieve such ambitions, the significance of ensuring that you “build in micro wow moments” was also alluded to as being equally as crucial.

As the conversation drew to a close, time was set aside to look at the remainder of the year and beyond, as Xtremepush eyes a significant push across numerous regions.

Regarding internal goals for the months ahead, Sexton concluded: “I think its expansion, LatAm would definitely be a key territory for us, and that’s why I’m down here. We’re going to build out our presence, [and] continue to grow in the United States and Europe as well. 

“We’ve [got] a lot of product innovation coming on the roadmap. We will be building out things like AI data modelling, our communication channels as well. A lot on the roadmap and we’re pretty excited about what 2024 is going to deliver.”