the first to get that [certification] and, like everyone else, we see Brazil as being the world's biggest online gaming market. Sports are what's big over there and gaming is something they're not so accustomed to.
"I think there's going to be huge growth on the casino side. A lot of the providers currently present in the market aren't that good because they've not had to be in the past whereas now, they have all the European competition coming in, they're going to have to up their game and that creates a real opportunity for us."
Because Comtrade is by nature a technical company - out of 390 staff, 360 occupy "technical" roles - Steven finds the process of securing certifications relatively straightforward. "I think we find it easier than most to achieve these certifications. We're already regulated in markets such as Belgium, Poland, Romania, Malta, the UK so we found it easy. What caught everybody out in Brazil is that the regulations were dropped so late in the year it was a very short space of time to get it over the line."
In Europe, iCore is known as a platform for large enterprise level
"Platforms are typically the last thing anyone wants to change. Everyone sees it as this mammoth task, so people put up with bad service because they just scared to change it. However, it's all we've ever done as a business, migrating from most of the platforms out there including the likes of Playtech, SOFTSWISS and Oryx to name a few, as well as proprietary in-house platforms.
"We're efficient at doing it, but even still convincing operators we're a safe pair of hands and the business is going to be okay takes time. It sometimes feels like the dissatisfaction needs to reach a tipping point where it's really affecting the business and there's a compelling event to make the migration happen."
CG GAMES
At ICE 2024, Comtrade announced it was to become a game supplier with the launch of a new division, CG Games. However, whilst the official announcement was in London, it took a further six months to get to market and only "properly" got going in Q4. Now, Steven explains, it's starting to ramp up operations. "It's the same old story of getting
Platforms are typically the last thing anyone wants to change.
Everyone sees it as this mammoth task, so people put up with bad service because they just scared to change it. However, it's all we've ever done as a business, migrating from most of the platforms out there including the likes of Playtech, SOFTSWISS and Oryx to name a few, as well as proprietary in-house platforms.
operators. Although it's a longer lead time, operators eventually become unhappy with one platform or another and that's where Comtrade comes in. Asked whether the business has maxed out its European potential, Steven still sees the business potentially having a lot of growth in Europe.
"We've just done a couple of smaller operators in Romania via a partnership deal with one of our existing operators, taking us up to five brands in the market. Romania's tougher because it's now very expensive to get a licence so the smaller guys are having to go to other operators and ask to shelter under their licence. We haven't touched Holland yet which I'd like us to do. When the market initially regulated, we missed the opportunity, but I think operators on that five-year cycle are starting to look at different platform options. Tax rates are going up there significantly which is making business tougher so operators will be looking to optimise and maximise player value which we see as potential opportunities for us.
STEVEN VALENTINE Chief Commercial Officer Comtrade Gaming
those integrations completed, dealing with aggregators and starting to scale. Tis has always been a lengthy process. Operators and aggregators have such a huge backlog of other providers who are already in the queue, so we've got to fight for that space which takes time."
CG Games is still embryonic, with the website at the time of writing listing 16 titles comprising a mix of slot and crash games. From Q2 this year, the division will be doubling its output with two games a month.
"Of course, some of the other game vendors are releasing one game a week these days. Page position is important, and you only get three or four days at the top of the page before *bang* the new game is in, so you've always got to have something fresh. We've got some big integrations with major operators and aggregators which will go live in the next quarter so hopefully we start to see CG Games really grow this year."
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