Yogi Bear

What is Yogi Bear?

In one of his Instagram stories, speaking directly to the camera, Pedro (a fictitious name for a “professional gambler”) shares a “unique opportunity”. He says that he is going to release a “super promotion for a premium group, which has higher odds”.

The normal price for access to the Telegram group would be BRL397 ($77.18) per month. But, exclusively on that day, he would release both groups together for “only BRL14.91 per month on the annual plan”. This group is the main product sold by Pedro, where he publishes sports predictions, tips on betting operators and higher-value betting odds.

The problem is that many of these recommendations involve companies that are not authorised to operate in Brazil. Some may be licensed in other countries, but that doesn’t allow them to operate legally in the Brazilian market.

What is Yogi Bear?

Land-based gambling can attract international investment. Cirsa expanded its Marrakech presence last November. Private online betting has no equivalent licensing route.

Cirsa’s own IPO prospectus is blunt about it: “Online gaming only exists for betting, which is operated by a state agency,” it says of Morocco, adding that online casino games “are not allowed”.

The same divide exists in Tunisia and Egypt. Governments there have focused on prohibition and enforcement rather than opening online markets to private operators.

How to play Yogi Bear

“Because you’re a small business, you need to pick your battles,” Wilson says. “I can’t go and get 10 licences this year. It’s just unrealistic. It would require so much work that it would distract us. Now we have that ability through our relationship with RubyPlay, and we are grabbing that opportunity with both hands.”

There is also a natural product opportunity. Splash Tech has traditionally been weighted towards sports within free-to-play, while RubyPlay brings a substantial casino ecosystem. For Wilson, the agreement creates a chance for Splash Tech to bring its distinctive engagement thinking into the RubyPlay world, planting a seed for future products that combine Splash Tech’s free-to-play and jackpot expertise with RubyPlay’s content ecosystem, market knowledge and distribution reach.

For RubyPlay, Splash Tech supplies a way to move beyond games and towards a broader content-and-engagement proposition. For Splash Tech, RubyPlay supplies the reach to take already proven products further. And for operators, the value is practical: a flexible engagement layer that can sit across casino, sportsbook and third-party content, reduce operational complexity and create more reasons for players to keep coming back.