The decision of the Brazilian Supreme Court to ban social media platform, X, may well have significant implications for the region’s gambling operators.
This is according to the panel on the latest episode of iGaming Daily, where Fernando Noodt and Isadora Marcante from the SBC Noticias took a deeper dive into the implications of Brazil’s X prohibition.
Marcante emphasised that from her perspective X is the “most interactive platform out there” and its eradication from the ecosystem may well have a substantial impact on how firms communicate with players.
She stated: “Twitter is a huge thing and we know it has a good rate of conversion. You cannot promote anymore, share your bonuses, and tips for players or share exclusive news that the company has.
“When you cannot do that, you cannot reach these customers because, especially in Brazil, we have a lot of sports betting companies on Twitter and on Instagram, but it’s not the same [on Instagram]. You don’t get the same interaction and the same engagement that you see on Twitter.”
Noodt echoed the sentiment that other social media sites do not have the same range of demographics on their platform which means that companies will have to explore alternative strategies when it comes to targeting a wide range of audiences.
He added: “They’re probably going to have to go to traditional advertising and that has become a very big focus in other regulated markets. Maybe betting companies are being a bit too aggressive with their advertising so that may bring a negative impact.
“There’s a fine line between integrity and advertising so this is also going to be a big challenge if this ban on X doesn’t get overturned.”
Another concern for businesses is that the ban on X could be the start, and similar decisions could be made for other platforms, further restricting social media marketing.
“If governments can take this type of action, there will be a nervousness that there could be other platforms in the future if they aren’t taking the exact steps that the government wants,” explained Marcante.
“It’s really dangerous because it gives you a lot of legal insecurity because you don’t know what’s going to happen. And, this could actually stop companies from coming to Brazil because [they are] not going to know what’s going to happen next. So why would they invest all of their money in a country that they don’t know what’s going on.”
During the recent SBC Digital Affiliate Marketing Day, the move was branded as “the worst kind of decision”, by Alessandro Valente, Co-Founder of Super Afiliados.
“Blocking things is outrageous – we shouldn’t be seeing this in Brazil if it is a democracy”, stated Valente as he expressed concern for companies that have spent large amounts on ads and influencers who make their living on social media.
Carlos Sanchez, CEO at TipsterChat, followed up by warning that he believes this type of action will happen more and more: “We will see governments being increasingly restrictive with platforms and platforms being more restrictive with industries such as betting and gambling”.
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