Zuhair Rizvi's Insights from the BiS SiGMA South America Interview
BiS SiGMA South America drew more than 18,500 delegates to São Paulo’s Transamerica Expo Center this April. Amid the usual conversations about growth and market entry, one interview took a step back from the hype: Yogonet’s conversation with Zuhair Rizvi, Director of Operations at testing lab Gaming Associates, on what certification actually requires and why regulators treat it as non-negotiable.
The Checklist Starts With the Regulator, Not a Generic Standard
Zuhair Rizvi explained the process in order:
“When seeking to certify a gaming platform, the first step is to understand the regulator’s list of requirements . These lists will highlight exactly which components are considered critical and which are not. It’s essential to ensure that the critical components strictly comply with the regulator’s specifications. For example, if a regulator has stipulated that the time between spins must be 3.2 seconds, as specified in certain European markets, then you must ensure that the time between a player being able to trigger or use a spin is that specified time. It cannot be less. Once those components are certified for that particular market, you move on to the non-critical requirements , which might include the game’s design or how certain buttons display information when interacted with. Once these steps are completed, the testing lab can issue you a certificate, and that certificate will give you the green light to operate in that market.”
Europe's Benchmark Markets Are About Breadth, Not Size
Asked which markets serve as reference points, Zuhair Rizvi told Yogonet Latin America:
“I would say that the UK, Italy, Malta, and Spain are just a few examples of markets that really serve as benchmarks for the online gaming community. When our clients come to us looking to enter Europe for the first time, those are the markets I usually recommend they start with, because it allows them to cover a wide range of requirements and makes the transition to other markets a bit easier”.
AI Is Already Reshaping Certification Timelines
On where the sector is headed, Rizvi pointed to AI’s growing role in testing itself:
“AI is a rapidly expanding field. AI is carving out significant space in the certification arena . And what we’re doing at Gaming Associates is leveraging AI’s inherent capabilities and using them to our advantage. This means we’ve been able to establish faster and more efficient certification timelines using our own in-house developed AI tools, which obviously translates into lower costs and more efficient timelines for our clients”.
