RESPONSIBLE BETTING
Corredor Empresarial controls around 50% of the online betting market in Colombia and plans to extend its dominance on the back of strong alliances and competitive products.
BIOGRAPHY
Germán Alberto Segura Vásquez is the General Manager of Corredor Empresarial. He is an industrial engineer with more than 15 years of experience in the betting and gaming industry. Prior to this, he managed customer relationships for Winner - Cirsa. Later, he went on to work at Codere for eight years, managing the company's operations across Colombia. He also worked for Codere in Italy and Mexico. At Corredor Empresarial, he is responsible for managing the most innovative games in Colombia, such as SUPERastro. He also helped launch the number-one sports betting platform in Colombia.
How have you managed to consolidate the company in Colombia?
Corredor Empresarial was formed by all the permanent betting entrepreneurs in Colombia. The company is responsible for participating in tenders and gaming and betting licenses nationwide. For example, SUPER Astro has been in the market for more than 10 years and is the most representative game in the country. We are fortunate to be leaders in the market with SUPER Astro. Additionally, in 2017, we obtained the license to operate Betplay, an online sports betting brand that recently completed two years of operations. Moreover, we have two networks: suRed and SuperGIROS. Using the two networks, we can have more than 35,000 physical points throughout the country.
You have the AWLA certification for responsible gaming with a level-one framework. How easy has it been to introduce this betting model in Colombia?
We comply with the guidelines of the Coljuegos. When players enter our page, they can set limits on how much they want to play; players can even deposit monthly or daily. If the player wants to change these limits, it requires our approval. We are linked to 25 companies nationwide, each of which has a compliance officer that monitors compliance with all regulations and assets. This allows us to protect ourselves and shows banks that we are a regulated entity. Betplay represents our largest portfolio in sports betting. In 2019, we also introduced casino bets and table games on our platform, such as blackjack, roulette, or baccarat. We plan to integrate many more modalities to keep growing and create a culture that already exists in other countries. An example is Fantasy, a famous game in the US that generates millions of dollars in revenue. Having different games is not always highly profitable for us but we are interested in diversifying so that the client has more options. For us, this means clients get used to our platform and style of play.
Can you summarize the success of Betplay?
We have the best partners worldwide. This has allowed us to offer highly competitive products. Our nationwide network is robust, and we have the trust of our shareholders. We have made strong investments in advertising. In 2019, we expect to invest around USD8 million in advertising. An example of this is what we did with the Colombian Football Federation. We welcome the national team and we are one of its official collaborators.
How do you interpret the transformation of Chance?
All these businesses originated from the Chance, whose target was adults. It lacked an attractive product for young people. We realized that overall, 60-70% of the sector's sales came from people aged between 18 and 35 years. We saw the gap and decided to target the youth. We must relate more to the end customer and create the digital environment necessary to build relationships with all the networks we are working with in Colombia.
One of your goals is to cover 50% of the online gaming market. What progress have you made so far?
In terms of net income, we represent 50% of the online betting market in Colombia. This varies monthly between 46 and 50%. In terms of gross sales, we have around 45% of the market. Our aim is to control 60%, and we expect to reach 50% in the near future.
How are you working to guarantee a responsible game with a specific social impact?
I have been in the industry for 15 years and have learned that the market needs players who aim to have fun and not players who bet until they lose everything. We make one of the biggest contributions to the health sector; we expect to contribute more than COP124 billion in 2019.
RESPONSIBLE BETTING
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