Comtrade: "The Brazilian market is crying out for experienced platform operators"

As ICE wrapped up its latest edition in Barcelona, which set a new all-time record for attendance, Comtrade Gaming's Chief Commercial Officer Steven Valentine spoke to Yogonet at the show about the company’s plans, Comtrade's gaming division, changes in Brazil and new trends in iGaming technology.

What are your main takeaways from the latest edition of ICE? Was it up to your expectations?

It was a really good show. I'm pleasantly surprised. I had fears about how the show would work and adapt to the new venue, being the first year in Barcelona, but I think it's worked very well. A common complaint I've heard is that it's a bit too stretched out, with people having to walk a lot. But putting that aside, it's been extremely busy with high-quality attendees, which is what matters at the end of the day.

What were attendees most interested in learning about this time around?

Quite often these events are structured around pre-booked meetings. But for this show, we've had loads of people coming on asking about our offering. We had interested people from all over the world; from Brazil to Europe and Asia, even from India. They mostly inquired about our online gaming platform, which is the main part of our business.

Comtrade unveiled its games line during the last ICE edition in London. What can you tell us about how this segment is developing one year later?

While we didn't do anything special for ICE on the games front, we are always working on new content. We just released a new darts game, targeting the UK market since we are now licensed by the UKGC there. We've also got a couple of new Blitz games out, which are very nice additions to our portfolio. But being still a fairly new division, we're still in that slow curve of getting our integrations done and going live with operators.

Has the company established a fixed release schedule, such as a "one game a month" publication plan?

I think we still have plenty of work to do to achieve the goals we've set for the gaming division, and in some areas, the process might be slightly slower than we'd hoped. But that's how this goes, and you have to adapt with time.

When we started last year, we were planning to do one game a month. We've now realized that's not going to be enough. You need something to speak to operators about more frequently. For that reason, we are going to start releasing two games a month from Q2 this year, and maybe even accelerate the pace further in the future.

What are some of the major demands from the platform side? Which trends are gaining momentum within iGaming?

Gamification is quite big at the moment. Operators now want gamification with the platform, while they previously relied on third-party integrations. For that reason, we're now building those elements ourselves on the platform. They also want to control the player journey as much as possible through features and functionality, customizing the offering to suit their needs.

In terms of markets, what I'm hearing is some people are let down by Brazil's online gaming regulation. Many expected to get certified but didn't, leaving them in a difficult position. In our case, since we are certified, that works in our favor because it creates new opportunities for us.

You bring up Brazil, which was previously described as a major focus for the company. Can you tell us a bit more about what the roadmap for the region looks like?

Hopefully, we'll get lots of clients there. That's always the dream, of course. We're going to exhibit at SBC Summit Rio and SiGMA Sao Paulo to that end. We've also made a local hire in Brazil for Head of Sales, and we've now got Portuguese-speaking staff, project managers, and business analysts. We really are making major moves in Brazil. 

Based on my conversations with stakeholders in the region, the market is crying out for really experienced platform operators. The market's changed; regulation has had a major impact there. Player volumes suffered an impact from the introduction of KYC, as every single player now has to validate themself every time they log in. A major focus now is how to get those players back, and an experienced platform provider can make a difference.

What are your expectations for the year in general? What should we expect from Comtrade in 2025?

We grew by 20% in 2024, so it was a great year for us. We're looking for something similar in 2025. Being privately owned means we do not answer to the stock market, so we can grow at the pace we want to. We'd like to onboard about 2 or 3 new clients this year. Ideally, two of those would be in Brazil, and probably one extra European client.