Eman Pulis | SiGMA South Asia, iGaming Regulations & Why SiGMA Always Moves First

Barcelona, Dubai, São Paulo, Madrid, and now we're here in Manila. And we spoke to leaders, experts, as well as industry pioneers talking about what's happening in Asia, what's also happening with the Filipino gaming market, and the wider Asian region. This series is brought to you by Kensho Media. They have been helping iGaming companies rank higher with SEO since 2008. This series is also brought to you by Quantum Gaming.

They help companies with white label and turnkey solutions in emerging markets. This year we're doing with real roadshow initiative as part of iGaming real talk, where we go to iGaming events all around the world and cover the insights from the ground. Stay tuned and subscribe to iGaming real talk. Hello and welcome back to another episode of iGaming real talk. I'm here with Eman at SiGMA Asia in Manila.

This is my third time here, and Eman, which time are you in Manila here now for the show?

This is our fourth show.

Fourth show, okay.

Philippines, yeah.

Yeah, that's great. I mean, a lot of things have changed in the Filipino market at the moment. I've had conversations with Joe, with Paul, and other people as well, which is quite interesting to cover the what's going on in the latest era.

But also, what I was curious to understand from your side is I saw the announcement recently that Sigma South Asia has moved or rather confirmed at Sri Lanka instead of Bangkok because it was being planned in Bangkok for a while and then now it moved to Sri Lanka. So, what's the main reason behind it and is it easy because nothing's going on in terms of regulation in Thailand and we want to be in the regulated areas or what's...

Thank you for the opportunity. Let's rewind a little bit. Asia is an amazing market. I don't know if you remember. I think we were still in the same office.

You were planning to move to Manila.

2018, I moved to Manila.

Oh, you already... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I had spent there a year and a half setting up the office in Manila and then COVID told me you need to go to leave. And I only left the Philippines because of COVID. Asia is a very turbulent market. It fluctuates a lot. There's less stability than what we're used to in Europe. And if you speak to all the gaming companies who are based here, they will tell you one thing. It can be stressful.

Yeah.

It's not for everyone, but if you can withstand that level of fluctuation, the in the long run it's worth the squeeze.

Yeah.

And we love this market. So, yes, as you said PAGCOR in the Philippines was going through some changes as well and we saw that also in Thailand. So, a while back we have our B2G department...

Mhm.

Was speaking with the government. It was indicating to us that regulation is fast approaching.

Yeah.

And you know us, right? We like to be first where the industry needs us to be. We were first in Dubai, we were at the right time in São Paulo, at the right time in the Philippines, in Africa. We like to lead the pact and be in the driver's seat. So, we wanted to be in Thailand before before hits.

Yeah.

But last February, the elections saw a more conservative government come to government, whom I think pulled the brake on embracing regulation the way we were anticipating.

Okay.

So, Thailand will have to wait.

Yeah.

Although I would love to be in Thailand.

Yeah, I was really hoping to be there.

For it. We're involved in another show...

Yeah.

That has been going in Thailand for 11 years now, Affiliate World.

Asia, yeah.

So, it was my dream to also be in Thailand. So, we're back in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a very exciting...

Mhm.

Market. We've done the show last year. The feedback was amazing. And let's not forget one thing. South Asia, where we are holding the show now in November, 6 months away from our Asia show. South Asia's home to a quarter of world's humanity.

Yeah.

Asiri, you come from...

India, yeah.

Yeah.

If you count India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh, 2 billion people, a quarter of world's humanity. And I feel that that region deserves to have a show... Yeah.

That puts the spotlight on the needs of the South Asian market. So...

How many attendees are we expecting for the show?

It's not our biggest show. It's one of our smaller shows, so we expect anywhere between 3,000-4,000 people. Last year, we had 2,000-3,000.

Yeah.

We're expecting more this year. And so, it's not our first rodeo. We're confirming the same venue, the city of dreams. So, extremely comfortable to be in the hotel and the expo, and meet the industry from the local community.

Okay. That's great. I'm looking forward to it. It's easier for South Asian countries also to go to Sri Lanka because the visa regulations are a bit more flexible, I would...

Very much the case. And let's not forget there's a lot of gaming companies that we know very well who have a global mandate...

Yeah.

Who are doing extremely well in South Asia. I mentioned Spribe...

Yes.

As an example that comes to mind. I believe David will correct me when he sees this clip online. The South Asian market is their strongest market, I believe.

Yeah.

But David will correct me online.

I heard him saying in some of the clips, yeah.

You go.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of these international companies with a global mandate who have a heavy interest, not only in all the emerging markets, but especially in South Asia.

And Sri Lanka is also heading towards regulating the market, I heard from the news. Is that correct?

As the rest of Asia.

Yeah.

Always interesting times. Today it's banned, as the case in India, but you never know...

Yeah.

What's happening tomorrow, and that's why we're there. We're there to drive to drive the narrative that regulated gaming is the only way to go. So we will keep driving that mantra forward.

Sounds good. We talked about Sigma Rome before, as well, but is there anything to you would like to add...

Oh my god, with Rome. [laughter] Extremely exciting times with Rome. Last year we had six pavilions.

Yes.

This year we have nine pavilions, so the show is growing tremendously, and it's not just about gaming. We want to be that conference that brings and marries together the gaming crowds, the frontier tech crowds, as well as the affiliate crowd from far outside gaming.

Yeah.

When I say frontier tech crowd, expect companies like Binance, OKX...

Yeah.

Politicians of world-class status.

I like that you're calling it frontier tech, not blockchain anymore, because there's more to it.

I think.

It's more than embracing of the other verticals. It's not just AI and blockchain. It's not just about crypto, it's also about big data, quantum computing, DeFi, GameFi, fintech. So, we want to try and embrace all the technology, internet of things, that can help shape tomorrow's gaming industry. So expect three shows. Also AGS expect three shows. One pass will give you access to three shows that will see a lot of cross-pollination.

AIBC for frontier tech, Sigma for the gaming crowd and affiliate grand slam.com for over 300 exhibitors coming from far outside gaming. That's great. So we bring the fresh blood to the gaming itself because this is happening in the streamers specifically. Some of them do it because you know streamers who are promoting brands right now a lot of streamers who are promoting brands from other industries are coming into gaming.

That's what we're doing, right? We're going to have at AGS streamers, PPC affiliates, media buyers, SEO from other verticals, whether it's peptides, neutra, adult, dating, e-commerce. All of them are coming closer to gaming through AGS.

Cool. Thank you Eman for joining me and also sharing the plans for Sri Lanka as well as what we can expect for Rome. I look forward to seeing you in Rome.

Always a pleasure having you with us, Suzie. Look forward.

Thank you so much for watching. Do share your thoughts in the comments below. Like, subscribe, follow Eman if you don't already and see you on the next one.

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