Esports arena: Reaching the Brazilian esports bettor

Despite the absolutely enormous esports fan following in the region, Brazil is yet to fully tap into its esports betting market.

With regulation around the corner this December, many operators are gearing up to take their share of the market beyond the traditional dotcom focus of the past. Some brands have already begun building their esports betting presence in the space over the past few years, and there are some important lessons to be learned as the competition heats up.

Intimate partnerships and engagement

Much like in Europe, football is the most popular item in Brazilian sportsbooks – so it’s worth taking note of how operators have found success. When football betting was growing, several operators found success in building smaller, more community-based partnerships with precise targeting. Local sponsorships often do better than international ones or top-down and affiliate channels. The big brands that have done well have been singular in focus and locally based – you need local expertise in Brazil.

A big part of this is because intimate connections better resonated with bettors and became a part of the culture and community of a region or club – KTObet being a major success story with this approach.

Fans and bettors will follow a team or player to the death, and this is the case in esports too. Social listening and analysis from Twitter’s global head of creator and gaming content partnerships, Rishi Chadha, found that Brazilian CS:GO veteran Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo is the most tweeted about professional esports player in the world, and four Brazilian organisations made it into the top 10 most tweeted about organisations in the last 12 months.

Marcelo “coldzera” David is another popular personality coming out of the so-called ‘golden era’ of Brazilian Counter-Strike in the latter half of the 2010s. Ranked the best player in the world by HLTV in 2016 and 2017, he now has over 700k and 600k followers on Twitter and Instagram respectively.

Influencer marketing and community building are incredibly important in Brazil, operators will need to forge close connections with bettors that blend with the passion and fandom of Brazilian esports.

Profiling the Brazilian esports bettor

With more precise targeting comes the need to understand who you’re targeting better. At this stage Brazil suffers from the same problem as the rest of the industry – there isn’t enough solid data on engagement and retention for esports betting yet.

Building out knowledge on how Brazilian bettors engage, with whom, what products they like to use, as well as how often and when they use them will allow operators to make more informed choices on how to spend in a market that rewards close connections.

As discussed in the past, socio-economic factors mean that there are vastly different betting experiences to account for when catering to the Brazilian market. There’s an intersection between regional specificities and economic position that is critical for operators to understand from marketing and product perspectives. Typically this looks like low-stake, shorter action in poorer areas and higher-stake, more complex products in wealthier areas.

The intricacies of the Brazilian market actually position it to be a great space of learning for operators. The kind of influencer marketing and community building that resonates in Brazil neatly dovetails with the kinds of engagements found in the esports sector more broadly.

Strong socials that feel a part of the action and get in on the memes. Rich, catered content with the personalities fans care about. Aligning your brand with a team through more than a logo. These are all successful avenues in Brazil and in esports.

Headway being made

Plenty of operators have already been building their Brazilian esports betting presence. Esports-focused operator Rivalry has been working in the region since 2020 via a partnership with Counter-Strike powerhouse FURIA and began building a dedicated RivalryBR Twitter account.

Similarly, Betway has built a network of esports influencers through the ‘Betway Squad’ as a means of harnessing large social channels and fan followings. In turn, these personalities are producing content interwoven with the Betway brand and delivering bonuses, gifts and activations directly to fans and bettors.

Challenger brands like esports-first sportsbook Midnite has been operating in Brazil since 2021 and found success by leveraging social and influencer marketing channels.

Midnite, in particular, has built a partnership with one of the most popular Portuguese-language streamers, Gaules, whose co-streams of pro matches have hit six-figures more than once – an incredible feat for a single personality. Success has also been found in high-production value content with the right personnel through the Midnite Show.

The operator has doubled down on building strong social and influencer positions, recently partnering with the biggest esports organisation in the country: LOUD. Interestingly, as part of the deal, LOUD’s parent company Spacecaps invested an undisclosed amount in the betting operator and took on an advisory role.

With sports betting regulation coming into effect in December, it’s going to be increasingly more important for operators to create rich, close connections with specific targeting if they want to succeed.

Oliver Niner is the head of sales at PandaScore, the betting industry’s leading esports data and odds supplier. Having studied history, Niner started his career at Betgenius when it was still an odds comparison and white-label business and moved through senior positions in customer service and account management. He then held roles at Marathonbet, Oulala Games, PIMS SCA and most recently at startup platform provider Atlas IAC where he was commercial director.  Having worked for both B2B and B2C organisations across all product verticals in the gambling sector, he aims to use his end-to-end knowledge of product and service to deliver sustainable, high-yield returns for PandaScore’s clients.