Insight: Greentube and Capecod reveal their LatAm plans

Greentube global sales director Markus Antl and Capecod business development manager Davide Comoretto discuss their plans for the Latin American market

It’s been nearly three years since Greentube acquired Capecod Solutions. What has this acquisition brought to Greentube?

Markus Antl: The acquisition turned out great. We did not only acquire a well-established game supplier and distributor in Italy, but a dedicated, well organised and hard-working team. With Capecod as part of the Greentube family, we managed to increase our reach to Italian operators and provide our customers and their players with more dedicated content and additional features to our game offering. The established growth speaks for itself.

Furthermore, Capecod helped to reshape our product delivery strategy for Italy and we are now in a state where we can offer top game content at a lower price.

Over the past three years, Capecod also made the step outside of Italy and is now offering its products, as well as Greentube and third-party content, on a global scale. Being granted supplier licences in Spain and Peru further adds to our success in providing a one-stop solution for our customers outside of Italy.

Tell us about Greentube and Capecod’s plans for the LatAm region?

When looking at the LatAm region it is crucial to offer a variety of game content to operators and this is exactly what Capecod can do. Through Capecod, we are able to provide our customers with well-known Greentube/NOVOMATIC titles, fresh game content from Capecod and Greentube’s new technology stack ‘Mynt’, as well as third-party games simultaneously.

Through just a single integration, operators can offer crash games, table games and top performing slot games to their players.

How much development work has gone into the new Mynt technology stack? What new features can operators and players expect from it?

We spent a lot of time and effort on developing Mynt to provide our customers with a state-of- the-art RGS. It was a bit like changing the engine of a car while it is still driving, but we had skilled mechanics doing the job, so now we are looking forward to using the additional horse power.

Customers integrating Mynt will benefit from meta retention features such as free spins, several variants of jackpots (mystery, timed and threshold), tournaments and prize drops, while we are continuously developing further features and are exploring new ways to retain players.

In addition, Mynt is adding more stability to our RGS and gives us the possibility to heavily increase the amount and variety of game content that we can offer to our business partners.

With a lot of focus on Brazil at the moment, what is your approach to this market and how are you best positioning yourselves to maximise opportunities?

We are constantly monitoring the LatAm region and are looking very closely at the recent developments in Brazil. It is key for us to be prepared once the Brazilian market is regulated and therefore our teams are working hard for us to be ready to provide operators with the right game content for their players on day one.

I am convinced that our mix of proven slot games, video bingo and recently developed crash games will be entertaining for Brazilian players, and therefore well-performing on our customers’ websites, helping propel their success in the market.

Since we have been working together with some of the biggest operators in Brazil for several years already, we have established a very good basis to extend our market reach further. Going forward, our plan is to partner up with additional local operators, learn from their experience in the market, and offer a service which helps our customers to further grow their business.

Capecod is playing a crucial role in these plans and adds additional power to our product offerings.

Which other LatAm markets are you targeting? What are your plans for Peru/Colombia/Mexico etc?

As part of the NOVOMATIC Group, who has substantial business in LatAm countries such as Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Chile, we are targeting all markets where we can legally offer online game content to operators.

Over the years, we have managed to establish a strong position in Peru, Colombia and Mexico and are intending to further grow our supplier market share. Renowned NOVOMATIC content together with globally successful Greentube titles such as our Diamond Link, Diamond Mystery, and Piggy Prizes series, video bingo content and table games are a great help to reach this goal.

What makes the LatAm region so exciting for suppliers?

Primarily, online gaming in LatAm is growing. The growth of online gaming and transition from land-based we could previously see in other markets around the world is now very visible in LatAm, which makes it an attractive target for online gaming operators and suppliers.

In addition, entrance barriers are significantly lower than in other regions which helps to keep the speed to market quite low.

Finally, speaking from the point of a supplier and having game development teams around me, the variety of content which has the potential to be successful is quite big. While in other markets it is all about slot games, a substantial amount of LatAm players are interested in a variety of games. This fact makes it exciting for suppliers to experiment, be creative and find new ways to attract and entertain casino players.

Are there any big differences between European and LatAm online casino players? Will you be developing country-specific content across LatAm or introducing any new mechanics in particular?

In general, we have experienced a few differences between European and LatAm online casino players. While in Europe the classic slot games known from land-based are still attracting a majority of players, we see that things are a bit different in LatAm. Table games and bingo take a fair share of the market and new game concepts and mechanics are highly competitive with classic content originating from land-based casinos.

As always, it is very important for us to adapt to specific market needs and therefore we made sure to have a proper mix of slot classics, table games, bingo and new feature rich games and mechanics in our portfolio.

You’ve been with Greentube for more than 13 years now. What has been the secret to the company’s success? How do you plan to continue this?

I truly believe that the secret to Greentube’s success is its culture and dedicated work force. Greentube is not just a company to work for, but a family that sticks together in tough times or when facing challenges and celebrates success together equally.

This in combination with having a very skilled work force enables us to work close with our business partners and extend the spirit outside of our organisation. At Greentube, we truly believe that as long as we are ambitious in supporting our clients in growing their business, we will grow as well.

For the future we plan to continue this path, monitoring the industry, timely identifying new business targets and trends and provide our customers with the best service and product. The next step is the rollout of our new technology stack Mynt which is an exciting development.

Where do you see the company’s biggest growth in the next 12-18 months?

In my opinion, growth will come from both market penetration and market expansion. We have a very strong games roadmap to provide existing customers with titles for all their markets and player types. Recent statistics have proven that we have made the right choices when introducing new game mechanics and concepts.

Furthermore, new markets and additional customers in territories recently added to our portfolio will fuel our overall growth. The US and LatAm will definitely play a crucial role.

Can you tell us how being a part of the Greentube family has helped Capecod?

Davide Comoretto: Joining the Greentube group was a strategic turning point for Capecod. It has allowed us to grow very quickly, moving from being a local to an international player. We have gained a new perspective and broadened our horizons. It was a very quick transition but it was very exciting for us.

How has your expertise in the Italian market prepared for Capecod’s expansion into LatAm?

Our extensive experience as a longstanding leader in the Italian market has helped a lot. Having forged strong partnerships with Italian operators, we can apply this expertise to building similar relationships in LatAm.

In many ways, the LatAm market shares similarities with the Italian and mediterranean culture, making it a natural progression for us to also enter the region being confident that we will succeed. However, there are also distinct differences and peculiarities to consider as is the case with every localised market, such as players behavior, product trends, and more.

What excites you about the LatAm market? Where do you see the biggest opportunities?

We are very enthusiastic about these emerging markets. They are dynamic, evolving, and offer immense potential.

We aim to bring our expertise and innovative capabilities and are ready to adapt our offering as the markets mature. The biggest opportunities are still out there, waiting to be found and that's what gets us excited!

What will Capecod bring to the LatAm market to help operators stand out from the crowd?

In today's highly competitive market, standing out is more crucial than ever. This applies to both operators and providers. Our mission is to fully empower operators to achieve this differentiation. For example, in addition to our games, we distribute the Cupid Marketing Platform, an innovative and dynamic gamification platform.

Cupid enables operators to fully customise their promotions and engage players by delivering a next-level user experience. This will help operators retain players and keep them coming back for more. 

What will be the biggest challenges in developing games for the LatAm market, as compared to Italy or Europe?

Surely the biggest challenge is staying ahead of the curve and understanding what the market wants. We want to be at the forefront of this new market and offer a recipe for success. We have experience from many regulated regions and are aware how quickly trends can come and go.

Our agile team will be staying close to how player preferences evolve and will ensure our content makes them tick.

Tell us about your product roadmap for the rest of 2024? Any exciting developments we can look forward to?

We are launching new verticals to complement our portfolio. Crash games are a particular focus, which we plan to develop in conjunction with our most iconic and successful slots.

As previously mentioned, we are continuously developing innovative gamification tools to acquire and retain players. Stay tuned, it’s an exciting time at Capecod!

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