Sebastian Fernandez and Luana Monje join the global digital infrastructure provider to drive further strategic efforts in the region

Continent 8 Technologies continues to grow its global commercial team following the appointment of Sebastian Fernandez and Luana Monje as Sales Executives.

Sebastian will be based out of Buenos Aires in Argentina and joins Continent 8 from IT giant Dell Technologies, where he spent more than 12 years across several roles including a Senior Systems Engineer and most recently Account Executive.

Luana comes to Continent 8 from AWS (Amazon Web Services) where she held the role of Demand Generation Representative. Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, she has a deep understanding of the region which has just passed legislation to legalise online sports betting and casino.

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Both Sebastian and Luana will be responsible for nurturing relationships with Continent 8’s existing Latin American customers, helping them to maximise the potential of its solutions and services from cloud hosting and connectivity to layered cybersecurity.

They will also support new customers looking to make a move in the region, particularly Brazil which is expected to generate approximately $2.6bn per year (gross gaming revenue) by 2026 according to KPMG. Continent 8 will be live in Brazil to support customers with its full suite of solutions in the coming months.

Brian Koh, Chief Commercial Officer at Continent 8 Technologies, said: “I would like to extend a very warm welcome to Sebastian and Luana who join Continent 8 at a pivotal time for the LATAM gambling market.

“Latin America is a thriving market with a lot of latent potential, something that the opening of Brazil will help to unlock. We are well positioned to help customers looking to launch into this market, and Luana will undoubtedly play a significant role in ensuring they go live with the best infrastructure and security in place.”

Sebastian Fernandez, Sales Executive at Continent 8 Technologies, added: “I’m excited to be joining the Continent 8 team and to bring over a decade of IT experience to this role. This is an incredibly exciting region with huge potential on the table, but organisations must have the right infrastructure in place if they are to maximise the opportunity. This is something that Continent 8 is renowned for, and we look forward to working with businesses across the region.”

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Luana Monje, Sales Executive at Continent 8 Technologies, added: “I couldn’t ask for a better start to the year. I look forward to sharing my AWS expertise and knowledge of the LatAm market with the team and of course our customers.”

ACR Poker’s flagship Online Super Series returns for two weeks from February 12th – 26th with more than $16 million up for grabs for online poker players in the U.S. and beyond. Included is $1.5 million combined for the two Main Events on February 25th and a $630 multi-flight tournament starting February 11th that guarantees $1 million.

The series has attractive tournaments at a range of buy-in levels that cater to all bankrolls, including a special $109 Mystery Bounty event guaranteeing $750,000 in addition to the regular monthly $2.50 and $16.50 Mystery Bounty events, guaranteeing  $75,000 and $200,000 respectively.

“It’s always exciting to play in the OSS and this series is offering seriously high guarantees on a range of buy-in levels, so there really is something for everyone,” said ACR Pro Chris Moneymaker.

Players will also be able to compete against each other for more than $30,000 of additional cash prizes and Venom tournament tickets on three series leaderboards. Tournaments with buy-ins starting at $104.50 will be eligible for the high leaderboard, tournaments with buy-ins from $16.50 to $88 will count towards the medium leaderboard and events with buy-ins at $11 and under will contribute to points on the low leaderboard.

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Moneymaker went on to note that the Venom PKO tournament offered players even more opportunities for big poker action, having exceeded its $5 million guarantee by more than $2 million, resulting in a final prize pool of $7 million.

Light & Wonder’s Commercial Director LatAm, Tatiana García Barrenechea, explains why Mexico is the jewel in the crown of the region when it comes to games that provide recognisable fun to casino enthusiasts.

It’s been over 10 months since Light & Wonder made its debut in Mexico by launching with Rush Street Interactive. How has your content performed in the region?

As it stands, we are currently live with three operators in Mexico – RushBet, Novibet and Caliente – while in the process of onboarding a lot more. Mexico is a market with a huge land-based history, so there is no surprise that our most popular games are omnichannel titles such as 88 Fortunes and Jin Ji Bao Xi Endless Treasure. In fact, we have seen strong performance levels across all of our Asian-themed games.

It is also the top-performing land-based games that are performing the best online. These titles feature mechanics that resonate with players and ultimately, they have proven to be popular inside the casino and with online players. Mexico, in particular, has a strong casino culture, so it is no surprise that our content has performed especially well there.

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Overall, how would you characterise the online casino market in Mexico?

While we’ve only been live for 10 months in Mexico, we have found that there are similarities to the US, given its rich land-based history. Our top-performing online games are recognisable land-based titles and we expect other Latin American markets that have a strong retail culture will follow suit in this regard. This is why our strategy is to align Latin America with our roadmap in the US and Canada, rather than UK and Europe.

Taking a wider view of LatAm as a whole right now, our biggest growth opportunities lie in Mexico, where regulation is currently less restrictive and therefore more straightforward for operators to enter the market. Many of our international tier-one partners have confirmed their plans for the market and we are in the process of onboarding these operators, while also looking to local land-based providers that want to offer their content online.

The expectation is for Mexico to grow exponentially over the coming years – to a greater extent than any of the other market in the region – and it is a country of huge interest to Light & Wonder.

Are we seeing any changing trends in the region from a content perspective?

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Live dealer is a vertical of great importance in the region and as content continues to evolve along with the technology that enables players to have an ever-more realistic and engaging experience, we expect it to continue growing. There are some great products on the market right now and given Mexico’s land-based heritage and culture, the delivery of advanced live dealer experiences to players presents exciting opportunities.

With the entry into the market from huge tier-one international operators we are also seeing a lot more gamification tools implemented from within their platforms. Bringing knowledge and expertise from other markets can help to influence local operators to incorporate those value-adding tools to their offerings, which is an essential part of a successful player retention strategy.

Another element that is emerging is crash games, which we have seen performing well across all Latin American markets and especially in Brazil. They provide quick-fire, unpredictable entertainment that is engaging while also simple to understand.

What’s your growth focus over the coming months, both in Mexico and further afield in the region?

We will continue to work with our land-based content experts to ensure the content we’re offering is relevant. We’ll also be working with and closely advising our third-party studios that are entering the market. It is great to support these studios to help them bring content that delivers fantastic results. To take one example, Hypernova Megaways from Reel Play is performing very well in Mexico in particular through our OpenGaming platform.

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We are also closely monitoring Peru, Chile and Brazil, to ensure once there is regulation published, we can make our analysis, enter the market and support our operator partners. Key to us is the long-standing partnerships we have cultivated. We need to support them when they want to enter a new market, whether that be through the provision of proven, successful content, back-end information or updated roadmaps. Given our extensive land-based history and strong data at a platform level, Light & Wonder has a strong competitive advantage in enabling operators to stay informed about the types of content that will prove successful.