Q&A: SBC Summit Rio – All eyes on Brazil
Cristian Robalino, SBC’s VP Marketing, Americas, speaks to Tim Poole to preview the SBC Summit in Rio de Janeiro later this month. The event will place huge emphasis on Brazil’s newly regulated market.
What licensees will be attending the SBC Summit in Rio this year and what goes into securing those commitments for the event?
Overall, we wanted to make sure we have the proper representation. This event, SBC Summit Rio, is all about Brazil. The market has been very strong and there has been a lot of interest over the last few years, as you know very well by now. I think they were referring to it as the sleeping giant back in the day, but now that it’s regulated, there’s obviously a lot of interest, mergers and acquisitions. For us, it’s all about quality, bringing in the right audience and the right attendance, which in this case is operators being at the center point of everything we do.
Having this Brazilian event, it was very important to make sure we have the proper representation for what’s going on specifically in Brazil, which means bringing in all the licensed operators. It takes a lot of work as you can imagine; bringing just one person on board is a task in itself! However, we wanted to make sure that representatives from marketing, sales and the decision makers were involved. There’s a combination of a lot of things that went into it, whether it’s bringing the right awareness to the events or making sure we are targeting the right people and audiences.
We have a relationship team whose sole job is to make sure they are very well connected with everyone in the industry, specifically operators and affiliates which is our core audience. Besides that, we are also hiring the right people, which in this case is specifically hiring the right talent in Brazil who are connected to the industry, very knowledgeable and can make those connections happen very easily. Three weeks ago, we actually ended up confirming everyone, including at least one representative from every licensed operator.
Brilliant. How will this show be represented in Rio compared to SBC Lisbon or ICE Barcelona for example? Can we expect a similar type of floor plan and layout?
There’s going to be a similar kind of blueprint to Lisbon. We learned a lot from that event and we implemented a lot of new innovations and strategies, some of it being how the show floor is laid out.
So for SBC Rio, we are mimicking a lot of what happened in Lisbon in terms of the halls, the different areas of the show floor; but for Rio specifically, we’re going to have sports betting and casino zones. We’re going to have an Affiliate Leaders Summit and Payment Expert Summit all intertwined within the main hall.
There’s a lot of similarities in Lisbon and also learning from last year. Last year, our SBC Summit in Rio took place at the Windsor Bar Hotel, which is a lovely place, but it was smaller in size and space. So due to the overwhelming amount of demand and inquiries about the event, we ended up moving the event to Riocentro, which allowed for this mimicking of Lisbon to take place.
So the focus of this year’s Summit seems to be primarily set on Brazil and the potential of its newly regulated market?
Well I suppose it’s a special event for this year because Brazil is brand new, so obviously the rest of LatAm maybe takes a bit of a backseat. Brazil is the main focus; however, there is going to be a lot of representatives throughout all of LatAm because we have established the brand and there are obviously a lot of connections and people want to do business.
They know each other very well and there are a lot of familiar faces that are going to be there. It’s a different culture as well, of course. I think culturally LatAm residents are very vibrant, caring individuals who just support one another very well. Those connections are still going to happen at the SBC Summit Rio.
We’re going to see a lot of folks, but it is also going to be mainly Brazilian-focused and we want to ensure licensed operators within the country are present.
What are the main themes and focuses you’ll be attempting to get across to the audience at the panels set to take place?
Regulation is going to be a big topic, the do’s and don’ts. However, there’s going to be a lot of everything. It’s going to cover payments, affiliate programmes, what’s next for Brazil now that regulations are in place. We’ve also launched an Influencer Academy.
In Brazil specifically, the influencer audience is huge; it’s tremendous. The operators use influencers to spread the word about their platforms, but along with the regulation came new laws about what these influencers can and cannot do. So we’re going to invite a lot of influencers to the event, and they can learn, to ensure they’re doing things the right way throughout the future. You can’t make it seem like it’s very easy to win and that it’s an avenue for extra income or a job in itself.
And how will language be handled for those discussions?
What we have done at some of our events, specifically our LatAm events in the past, is provide live translations that allow you to put on headphones and distinguish between English and Portuguese. Those will be the main languages used. Of course, there are a lot of Spanish-speaking people who are going to be at the event, but usually they are bilingual and the main conference program will be translated live between English and Portuguese.
That certainly makes a lot of sense. After hopefully coming off a successful year in Brazil, what are your goals for next year in terms of expanding the space and creating an even larger SBC event in 2026?
For next year, there are extra halls we can take advantage of, but we also wanted to make sure the show floor makes sense and that it’s big enough to cover the right areas and the right zones in addition to the main floor.
What we’re also doing, very similar to SBC Lisbon, is a food festival where around 30 food trucks will be provided throughout the outdoor areas, so attendees can taste different foods from around the world and local areas.
Of course, there is room for growth for next year and we want to take things slowly. I think once people see this event and what we’re putting together, there’s going to be even more excitement for 2026 and that’s what we’re looking for. We take it one event at a time, but now we’re actually thinking about 2026 already.
What would be your ideal takeaway point for guests and attendees to leave SBC Rio with?
I would say this is the place to do business. We’ve got the right audience, the right decision makers, the right people that are going to be attending the event. This is all about business; it’s not like other events that are open to the public and anyone can walk in.
We are vetting the registrations and making sure it’s the right people. That’s what we put a lot of love and energy towards, just making sure the quality is there and that’s what we pride ourselves on at SBC.
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