First.Bet executives Tom Light and Victor Arias have opened up about their ambitions to challenge the dominant forces in Latin America’s B2B sportsbook market.
The company is positioning itself as a serious competitor in the region, with a disciplined focus on a single product rather than spreading resources across multiple verticals.
Victor Arias, who brings three decades of industry experience to the role, says he was carefully evaluating his options before joining First.Bet after following the company for a couple of years.
“I had been following it for a couple of years while they were preparing to enter the market,” Arias said, describing his decision to join the project.
He explained that he was drawn in by the quality of the team and the ambition of the project, having built a significant personal reputation across his long career in the industry.
When asked who First.Bet measures itself against competitively, Arias pointed directly to the biggest names operating in the region without hesitation.
“One thing I learned this week with Tom is that you have to compare yourself with whoever is leading the market and the sportsbook strategy in Latin America today, which is Betano and bet365,” Arias said.
Arias also made clear that his approach to business development is grounded in building genuine long-term connections rather than conventional sales tactics.
“I don’t do sales. I do relationships, which is completely different,” he said, adding that everyone who worked alongside him throughout his career followed the same philosophy and grew as a result.
On the technical side, Tom Light outlined the mathematical foundation that underpins First.Bet’s odds pricing and trading infrastructure across its platform.
“We have what we call the quantitative simulation engine. We use mathematics. To price odds, you look at historical data and use different mathematical models. One of them is called Poisson,” Light explained.
Light’s stated ambition for the product is straightforward and reflects the company’s broader focus on getting the fundamentals right before expanding its offering.
“I’m building the best quantitative engine,” Light said, summarising his near-term development priorities in direct terms.
Latin American operators are described as being hungry to learn and engage with new technology partners, which First.Bet sees as a significant opportunity for growth in the region.
The company’s strategy of concentrating on one product rather than diversifying prematurely is central to how it plans to compete against much larger and more established rivals across the market.
