During the LatAm Market Day at SBC’s Digital Summit Juan B Pérez Hidalgo, president of the Colombian regulator Coljuegos, revealed that the country has approved a live casino vertical for online operators who hold an existing license.
In the “What’s next for Colombia? Lessons from the pioneer country in online gaming in Latin America” panel, Pérez Hidalgo revealed that the Agreement 04 of 2016 had been modified in order to expand operators’ options.
“Today we approved live casino,” he said. “We have technical requirements for the platform and the integration, and we use international quality standards.”
Coljuegos will begin verifying operators’ funds and financial capacities before they can add this offering. They will also try to accelerate the process to activate the vertical, which is expected to generate great interest among Colombian players, especially during the current COVID-19 outbreak.
Evert Montero Cárdenas, president of Fecoljuegos, added:“This is part of what we need to reactivate the economy. This is great news and we hope it keeps expanding.
“Now, the challenge is to integrate the land-based operators in the live casino vertical, so they can offer their terminals and services, since they’re in a very difficult situation due to the health crisis.”
According to Pérez Hidalgo, the mandatory confinement will help online operators attract an audience that was previously unaware of this vertical. In addition, considering that 78% of bets were made on football which is now suspended due to the COVID health crisis, the absence of sports events can be seen to have forced authorities to seek new solutions.
Julio César Tamayo, CEO of Wplay, concluded: “The situation we’re currently in has brought to the front some of the things we had proposed for the industry. I think Coljuegos understood this very well. We’re now focusing on other modalities that we didn’t see as a priority before. We welcome this approval and we think it can save our business.”
The SBC Digital Summit runs from 27 April to 1 May 2020 and features seven conference tracks, a virtual exhibition and virtual networking lounges, attracting an estimated 10,000 delegates logging in from around the world.
There is still time to register for the event, with company discounts available: https://sbcevents.com/sbc-digital-summit/tickets/
