"At Juegos Miami we could understand the specifics of each major country and their unique challenges"

Across 29-31 May at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Juegos Miami 2019 hosted senior industry professionals, government officials and regulators from 35 countries, a total which included 19 Latin American nations. Skilrock was one of the exhibitor companies, and its Executive Director, Sujit Lahiry, looked back on the event with Yogonet.

Can we have your final assessment of Skilrock’s experience at Juegos Miami? Have you met your expectations regarding volume of visits, feedback, new deals, networking?

Skilrock is quite satisfied overall with the outcome as we could showcase our products and services to the focused audience from LatAm market. However, we believe the attendance was lower this time compared to previous years due to the separation of GiGse into ICE North America. We have been committed to Juegos Miami for the past several years and we understand the process of developing business relationships.

What does Juegos Miami mean for you as a company this year in particular? What are the areas you feel you could strengthen and obtain greater competitiveness there?

Our Unified Gaming Platform called INFINITI has limitless possibilities for any operator. During every show we highlight a few solutions relevant for the market and the epoch. At Juegos Miami we showcased Paper Lottery Automation and Digitization solution, which addresses one of the most major current issues of the region. Three different flavors of the solution were showcased, covering every possibility in the Iberoamerican region.

Which were the main topics, concerns or upcoming trends of the industry you think prevailed during the event, and visitors were most interested in talking to Skilrock about? Which new demands could you identify from operators and players, and how do you approach to them?

Compliance and regulatory aspects dominated the event. We were happy to provide a demonstration of our Responsible Gaming, Security Framework and Accelerated Customization tools, which make us unique and different. With the changing regulatory landscape, operators are keen to seek assurance from technology providers like us that they should be able to leverage the upcoming opportunities with ease.

Could you take part in the academic activities or panels? What learnings could you acquire?

Yes, we attended a few sessions and exchanged views offline. The key discussions revolved around regulation, competition, online and illegal operations. Honestly, these topics are very global in nature and more so for emerging markets. We could understand the specifics of each major country and their unique challenges under the current context.

Could you describe your current presence and prospects for this year in the Americas? How could your software products make the difference in the emerging online markets across LatAm and even the US, within a growing competition? What feedback did you receive from each of those verticals?

We have an initial technology footprint in one of the provinces of Brazil and looking forward to quite a few of the prospects in LatAm. In the US we have our solution under implementation at Native Indian gaming jurisdictions. Businesses are driven by strong fundamentals and it goes well beyond the visual appeal of a game. In addition to the attractive contents, our solution in the digital/online space captures the entire lifecycle of a player – Acquisition, Servicing, Retention, etc. – tailor-made for the emerging markets. Our parent organization S&D has 48 years of operating experience with over 20 million ticket sales per day and 7 million registered players. Our solution has been designed with practical considerations and in a holistic manner for all business elements.

What is the company approach and expectations about Brazil’s sports betting opening, and the ongoing debate over gaming legalization? What about US expanding regulations, with limited mobile components in some states?

We would continue to enable operators with our technology and services to leverage the situation, as it emerges. Our platform as well as our organizational approach is to ‘look-ahead’ and keep provisions for future possibilities. Unlike legacy systems, our 4th generation platform uses open technologies and open system architecture that helps us to quickly adapt to the changes. Our platform is modular and configurable with extensive ‘a-la-carte’ possibilities with deep level customization and that helps our customers to ‘switch-on’ or ‘switch-off’ features and functionality in tandem with the regulations.  

Could you give us some insights on your strategies, partnerships and projects for the short term? What’s Skilrock’s upcoming agenda?

Our strategy revolves around ‘local’ partnerships. We have extensive international experience across 24 regulated markets and we can enable any local partner to deliver the most relevant locally acceptable solution. The major differentiator for Skilrock is its ability to understand the local needs with its partners and customize solutions as per the exact local needs using tools and configurability. Our agenda is to enter into partnership with several entities in the region.

Juegos Miami 2019 - Social