Mexico – Ready for the Online iGaming Market
With a population of almost 130 million, little needs to be said regarding the opportunity for huge growth in both online and land-based gaming in Mexico.
Although the Mexican market is still not fully regulated, the natives’ love of American sports such as the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball, combined with their fondness for European football, definitely looks promising that this will be a thriving market in the years to come.
From a technological perspective the country is also attracting a lot of operators, who are ready to do business. Being LatAm’s second largest smartphone market after Brazil, and with the number of smartphone and internet users constantly rising, the country’s iGaming future is looking bright.
Positive outlook with a number of challenges
Despite such a positive outlook, the Mexican scenario does pose a number of challenges that ought to be addressed for the market to maintain a steady growth momentum. Despite the current regulatory framework drawing a lot of criticism, this shouldn’t be posed as the only problem that is hindering the Mexican market. In fact, even though the country boasts a good internet penetration, even when compared to other Latin American countries, less than half of Mexicans with internet access also have access to a bank card.
Another major challenge that Mexican-licensed operators have to face is the relatively huge marketing budget that they have to allocate. In fact, up to half their revenue is spent on marketing just to get local punters’ attention, who often choose to bet with internationally licensed operators. Mexican-licensed operators must also pay 30% IEPS (excise tax) on their gambling revenue, which, when combined with their marketing outlay, means they can’t afford to offer competitive rates when compared to the international sites.
Having the right technological partner is important
Throughout these last years BtoBet has ascertained itself as one of the major technological partners in the whole Latin American region, partnering with a vast number of major operators in the region, particularly in Mexico and Colombia. Having so many different operators on board, as emphasized by BtoBet’s Chairman Alessandro Fried, is a major advantage as this guarantees that its platforms are not only fully compliant with the regulatory environment, but also guarantees operators to be up and running in a very limited timeframe.
Enabling the operator to know his clients’ preferences and acting on the information acquired to present him with future offers will ultimately strengthen the bond between operator and player. And it is with the tools provided through the platforms that this whole process of acquiring, analyzing, and acting on this wealth of information, that the operator is able to provide a tailor-made offer ultimately keeping in mind the player’s experience.
Both BtoBet’s Neuron Gaming and Neuron Sports platforms propose scalable solutions, also from a jurisdiction point of view, thus allowing gaming operators to have full control and management of their operations.
Additionally, both platforms enable the integration of any content related to games and betting, whilst featuring multi-currency options.
Optimistic future of the Mexican market
There is much to be optimistic regarding the full potential of the iGaming industry in Mexico. Even though the process of regulation advances more slowly than it should, it is important to note that a new impending iGaming regulation in Mexico is not a matter of ‘if’ but of ‘when’.
This all adds to the market’s future lucrativeness, also greatly contributing to the country’s investment potential and appeal. It is now up to legislators to eventually implement the much-needed amended regulation.
However, as is most often the case in many markets worldwide, the benefits that operators will be able to reap in such a strongly regulated environment is by making the right choice as regards the choice of the technical partner.
For more details about the current state at the Mexican market, download our latest Industry Report: Mexico: On the verge of true emersion as a major iGaming market in LatAm.