Five hurdles gambling businesses must overcome to succeed in Brazil

Gambling businesses are converging on Brazil’s newly regulated market after years of waiting patiently for the highly anticipated opportunity. However, as Comtrade Gaming chief commercial officer Steven Valentine explains, enterprises need to be ready to tackle decisive challenges if they are to maximise the opportunity in Latin America’s biggest market.

Brazil’s transition to a regulated gaming powerhouse has opened up unprecedented opportunities for operators worldwide that are keen to drive growth through the industry’s most exciting new frontier.

Even before regulated online gambling launched on 1 January 2025, Brazil’s grey market was estimated to be worth $3.4 billion (£2.6 billion/€3.0 billion).

By next year, the Brazil gambling market is projected to have 39 million active online betting and igaming accounts in a nation of approximately 150 million adults, while the country’s online betting market is expected to reach $10 billion in gross gaming revenue by 2029.

It is therefore easy to see why there has been such excitement around Brazil gambling legislation that has ushered in a new era.

However, operators and providers alike are well aware that they face a significant challenge, as well as an opportunity, in a fast-growing, newly regulated market like Brazil. For instance, many sports betting and igaming enterprises have burned through cash while attempting to build their businesses in the relatively nascent US market in recent years – and key players in the industry are keen to avoid a similar scenario.

Securing a foothold

Comtrade Gaming, which was founded nearly a quarter of a century ago, is one industry entity that is well placed to offer guidance on the complexities of Latin America’s biggest market.

The Slovenia-based software provider for the online and land-based gaming sectors has been certified in Brazil since mid-January, and has already secured a foothold by signing up two clients in a busy first half of 2025.

This is just the start, though. Having taken a leap to start producing its own games last year, further certification is expected to arrive imminently that will allow the company to bring its growing game portfolio to Brazil.

“It’s a very exciting market, and very different to the US, which I think everyone got extremely excited about before it really turned out to be a false dawn for most people,” Comtrade’s chief commercial officer Steven Valentine said.

“For many, there has been very heavy investment and not that much opportunity in the US, but I think Brazil is very different. There is a lot of opportunity for providers like ourselves.”

The five key hurdles in Brazil

1. Staffing

The first of five challenges outlined by Valentine for any gambling company hoping to fully leverage the Brazilian opportunity is staffing.

With only around 5% of Brazilians speaking English, it is essential to hire staff who can speak Portuguese – and are ideally Brazilian.

“We’ve recruited several Brazilians who are based in the country, including Brazilian project managers and account managers, and we’re going to expand that further. That’s an absolutely key step to take, so you can understand a client’s requirements in their native language.”

2. Localisation

Ensuring the product offering is highly relevant for the local market is vital for any business seeking to make an impact in online gambling in Brazil, Valentine added.

“It is important to streamline the process as much as possible for operators,” he says.

“There are a lot of different payment and game providers in Brazil, and you need to understand the KYC (Know Your Customer) process.”

3. Evangelisation and education

Valentine believes there is a level of evangelisation required so that clients can lean on the global experience of businesses like Comtrade to understand there may be alternative ways of operating.

“We’re not well known in Brazil, so it’s about going down there and educating people about who we are and how we are different to other companies that have been there for a few years,” he says.

“I think Brazilian operators are used to things being done very quickly and at a low cost. So, I think it’s about explaining to them that they can get a much better level of service if it just takes a little bit longer for the migration, or it costs slightly more – and the growth benefits will far outweigh the initial time and money.”

4. Regulation

While Brazil’s online gambling market launched in earnest at the start of the year, the expert legal perspective is that 2025 will be a year of consolidation for the sector in the country as regulations and expectations are interpreted and finalised.

Furthermore, many businesses in the sector are still grappling with the relatively complicated and convoluted regulatory frameworks that have been introduced.

“I’m talking about Brazil being the biggest single gaming market in the world”

“Regulation in Brazil is very different,” Valentine says. “With any material change, you are required to recertify the platform – and we are a business that releases new updates every three weeks or so for our clients.

“To ensure everything stays certified is quite complex and costly, but you just have to be aware of every update you are making.”

Valentine likens Brazil gambling regulation to a “a giant sieve at the moment, panning for gold” – with several companies having already halted their plans due to up-front licensing fees.

“I think over the next year, you will start to see more and more local providers either fall away or join together to share licensing fees, but I also think you will see more European entrants joining the market in 2026 – and we know large operators that are planning to do that.

“So, there will be probably be lots of M&A as well, with some wanting to grow quickly just by acquiring other existing operators in the market.”

5. Competition

On a related note, Valentine cites competition as the final key challenge, particularly given the presence of other providers with an established presence in the market.

When posed the question of how providers can differentiate themselves in order to appeal to Brazilian operators, Valentine ponders the long-term impact of increasingly intense levels of competition in the global gambling marketplace.

“A few years ago I could probably count the major platform suppliers with my fingers, but now I don’t know who half of them are. There seem to be another 10 that launch almost every month,” he says.

“So, it’s a challenge to differentiate in a market where everybody seems to be offering the same thing, so operators can see why our company stands apart as a reliable and quality service.

“The biggest challenge for us in the industry as a whole is that the market is now more price-driven because of that level of competition, and operators are able to squeeze vendors much more now because they have that choice.”

The future

For businesses like Comtrade Gaming – and others that enter the country with their eyes open rather than a complacent spring in their step – if the challenges can be overcome, then the Brazil gambling market is ripe for growth.

However, adopting a broader perspective, Valentine cautioned that increasing competition will lead to a “survival of the fittest” over the coming years. He added: “There are no quick exits for start-up gaming businesses anymore, so others will either have to become profit-making companies, which is not easy to do, or will probably have to close their doors.”

Encouragingly, with his eye on Brazil, Valentine spoke of his belief that there will be space for many different operators in the country, rather than merely a handful of dominant players – as is the case in the US, he adds.

“It’s very difficult for other people to get into the space in the US, but I think the Brazilian market is just going to be very different,” Valentine says.

While there has been an understandable focus on sports betting, given the country’s obsession with football and a number of other sports, Valentine expects the offering to become more expansive in due course.

“Over time I think we’ll see a transition to casino as the market matures – and I think it will grow and grow,” he said, before stressing how a more knowledgeable gambling audience will help to optimise the sector’s offering in Brazil.

“As players become more educated, and the market reacts to the products that are being put in front of them, I think it will help the market to grow further. I’m talking about it being the biggest single gaming market in the world, and I can certainly see it achieving that status.”

Editorial published in: Gambling in Brazil's regulated market: Five key challenges