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Interview with Igor Savun – CMO at BetBoom
In an interview with AffPapa, Igor Savun, CMO at BetBoom, shared insights on the company’s LatAm strategy, brand identity, performance-first marketing approach and the UFC partnership.
Yeva: Igor, let’s start by discussing BetBoom’s core brand identity. How do you position BetBoom within the sports betting landscape, especially when differentiating from large global competitors?
At BetBoom, our brand identity in the LATAM market is centered around innovation, digital performance, and a strong focus on esports. While many global betting brands are heavily invested in traditional sports like football—partnering with leagues, teams, and focusing on traditional media —our approach is different.
We prioritize younger audiences by aligning with esports teams, streamers, and digital-native channels. For us, performance marketing is key — we focus on measurable impact rather than just building image through traditional branding efforts. This performance-first mindset allows us to scale efficiently in a competitive market, ensuring we don’t just follow trends — we shape them for the next generation of digital-native bettors.
Yeva: Just last December, BetBoom became the official betting partner of UFC in Latin America (excluding Brazil). What were the motivations behind that move, and how does it align with your broader LatAm strategy?
We’ve been a long-term partner of UFC in the Eurasian region, so expanding that partnership into Latin America was a strategic and natural progression. Our broader LatAm strategy is centered around performance marketing, digital innovation, and tapping into culturally relevant sports — and UFC fits that model perfectly.
Mexico, in particular, is a key market for both UFC and BetBoom. UFC President Dana White has highlighted it as one of the organization’s most important growth regions, thanks to its strong fanbase and world-class fighters. For BetBoom, Mexico is also a priority: we’ve secured our local license, signed high-profile ambassadors like Lazy Boy and Daniel ZellHuber, and activated our partnership with branded presence at a major UFC event earlier this year.
This activation allowed us to step into the offline space, build brand recognition, and strengthen local trust. It also gave us a unique opportunity to connect with an MMA audience that closely aligns with the iGaming demographic — tech-savvy, competitive, and passionate. Importantly, the MMA betting vertical in Latin America remains underdeveloped, which gives us a clear first-mover advantage.
In short, the UFC partnership is a high-impact lever in our LatAm growth strategy — helping us build relevance, drive engagement, and scale faster in a market full of potential.
Yeva: Your recent UFC partnership highlights bold marketing ambition. What role do major sponsorships and content activations play in your overall strategy?
Major sponsorships and content activations are an important part of our strategy — but only when they align with our performance-first mindset. We’re very selective in this space: we avoid oversaturated sponsorship markets where costs are inflated and dominated by global players.
Instead, we look for high-potential opportunities in less crowded segments — areas where we can create meaningful impact, drive performance, and see measurable ROI. When evaluating sponsorships or ambassadors, our key criteria are efficiency, audience relevance, and the potential to generate real business results.
For us, sponsorship isn’t about prestige — it’s about performance. Whether it’s a media partnership, an ambassador campaign, or branded content, we always ask: how does this convert, how does it scale, and does the return justify the investment?
Yeva: Why is Latin America so strategically important for BetBoom, and what region-specific consumer or regulatory factors influence your approach?
Latin America is a highly strategic region for BetBoom for several reasons. First, it’s a large, fast-growing market with increasing regulatory clarity and strong fundamentals — including high mobile internet penetration and widespread use of digital payments.
Many LatAm countries are only now implementing or evolving their betting regulations, which opens the door for agile, digital-first operators like us to gain early traction. From a consumer perspective, the region is young, mobile-first, and highly engaged online — ideal for performance-driven marketing.
Another key advantage is language. Aside from Brazil, the entire region shares Spanish as a primary language, which allows us to scale campaigns, content, and traffic across multiple markets with greater efficiency.
Lastly, while global competitors are already investing heavily in market education and brand building, we see this as an opportunity. Their efforts help grow the category — and we can tap into that momentum with sharper targeting, localized content, and faster execution.
Yeva: As you prepare for SBC events, how are you making use of this platform to strengthen your LatAm presence and affiliate network relationships? What SBC sessions or formats will you be focusing on?
SBC is a key platform for us to strengthen our presence in Latin America and deepen relationships within the affiliate ecosystem.
Our focus will be twofold: first, nurturing existing partnerships — reconnecting with key affiliates, sharing upcoming product updates, and aligning on regional performance goals. Second, identifying new high-potential partners across the LatAm market, particularly as we scale our operations in Mexico and Brazil.
We’re also looking forward to gaining deeper industry insights through panel sessions and informal networking formats. Our booth will feature a localized concept centered around Brazil — a strategic market for us — and will serve as a hub for meetings, product showcases, and media interactions.
In parallel, we’ve prepared a high-impact PR campaign that will go live around the event to amplify our messaging and increase visibility in the region. SBC gives us the perfect timing and context to engage the right audience with the right narrative.
Yeva: Are there new markets or GEOs you plan to announce or activate around SBC LatAm, and what criteria determine where you enter next?
This year, Mexico has been our primary focus in Latin America, and we’re proud to say we’ve now officially launched operations under a local license. It’s a key milestone for us — not only from a regulatory standpoint, but also in terms of brand presence, partnerships, and long-term market potential.
We’re actively building our affiliate network, scaling performance campaigns, and engaging local audiences through ambassadors and sponsorships. Mexico has a dynamic iGaming environment, with strong mobile usage, growing digital payment adoption, and a rapidly maturing player base — making it an ideal fit for BetBoom’s product and marketing approach.
Looking beyond Mexico, we’re closely monitoring developments across several LatAm markets. Our criteria for entering a new GEO are clear:
- Regulatory clarity — we prioritize licensed, transparent environments;
- Digital readiness — mobile-first behavior, access to payments, and platform scalability;
- Audience alignment — young, tech-savvy users who respond well to digital-first engagement;
- Strategic whitespace — markets where we can enter with a differentiated offering and performance-first strategy.
While we’re not announcing any new market launches at SBC just yet, we’re using this event to explore partnerships and gather local intelligence that will directly shape our expansion roadmap for 2025.
Yeva: Finally, as CMO, you’re running BetBoom’s most visible brand moments globally. What personally excites you most about working in LatAm, and how do you define success for this next chapter?
What excites me most about working in Latin America is the incredible cultural diversity and the opportunity to learn from such a vibrant and evolving market. LatAm is not a monolith — it’s a mosaic of different traditions, and consumer behaviors, which challenges us to be more adaptive and innovative in our approach.
I also value the dynamic and highly competitive environment here. It keeps us on our toes, pushing us to constantly innovate and stay ahead of global and local competitors. This region offers a unique blend of challenges and opportunities that truly sharpens our strategic and creative skills.
For me, success in this next chapter means firmly establishing BetBoom as the leading esports and digital betting brand across Latam. It’s about deepening our presence in existing markets like Mexico, while also preparing for strategic expansion into other promising regions. Ultimately, success is measured by how well we resonate with the diverse Latam audience, drive meaningful engagement, and outperform competitors in this fast-growing space.
Company: BetBoom
Interviewee: Igor Savun
Date: 10.09.2025
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