BY BRENDAN D . BUSSMANN
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Growth opportunities abound in Latin America
BY BRENDAN D . BUSSMANN
Latin America remains one of the largest opportunities for the gaming industry . The region looks at expansion and regulation in this corner of the world to better serve the populations within a host of countries .
As other jurisdictions such as North America , Europe and Asia have become limited or challenging , Latin America provides significant opportunities over the next several years for expansion in both the land and online gaming sectors .
Much of the recent discussion in the region has been surrounding the Brazil market . This is one of the most long-sought markets by the gaming industry , having looked at different models for decades .
This is not only because of the vast opportunity that a country of this size and stature possesses , but because it is known for its already-established desire to game due to the currently illegal wagering that continues to exist in the market .
Last year alone , it was estimated by the Ministry of Economy that Brazil ’ s sports betting market had $ 21 billion in unregulated transactions . The market has been filled with operators since the initial passage of sports betting , including sponsorship deals with football clubs and other entities .
Much has been made about the previously existing unregulated market which came under scrutiny at the end of 2024 when anti-gaming groups attacked the existing wagering that was taking place . These groups argued that curbs needed to be put into place to stop all of the wagering . It was viewed that these operators , all of which were conducting business illegally , were preying on bettors in the market .
In a culture like Brazil that has a propensity to love sports , the activity has already been occurring in an unregulated fashion . This type of unregulated market offers zero protections to consumers , no knowyour-customer procedures , and no anti-money laundering verifications .
These same groups continued to make the case on why a regulated market needs to be in place to include such checks and balances using licensed entities as opposed to the Wild West that has been occurring previously .
As the regulated market has been launched , it is key that only those that desire to act responsibly and have been found suitable are licensed . All bad actors need to be removed that are conducting nefarious activities . The government of Brazil has taken extraordinary steps to do so at the end of 2024 .
As with any emerging new market , there can be incidents of erratic activity in an effort to launch . Brazil was no exception to that , as we have seen with some of the legislative acts that were trying to change the rules of the engagement in the 11th hour . This included having multiple areas of contention , but focused largely on advertising measures and the transfer of data . But there are other minor hitches leading into the market launch .
One of the key initiatives was the passage of Ordinance 1902 that was passed in early December 2024 in the Secretariat of Prices and Bets . This provided further context to an earlier ordinance ( 1231 ) that was passed in July 2024 . With the focus largely on advertising , the measures included but are not limited to :
14 Global Gaming Business JANUARY 2025