Brazil
Where does the Sport of Kings fit into the Brazilian market?
With a regulated Brazil now in sight, Richard Duncan, Head of Business Development at racing odds and data provider PA Betting Services, assesses the potential for the sport to become a key product in this emerging market
With the last few months having seen Brazil’s sports betting bill clear all the hurdles needed to finally be signed into law, many in the sports betting world have understandably taken a keen interest in the possibilities offered by South America’s largest country.
The home of footballing greats Pelé and Ronaldo and boasting more World Cup titles than any other country, Brazil’s passion for and the resulting potential of football betting is clear. There are a number of parallels to be drawn between a market such as the UK and Brazil when it comes to football. For one thing, the similar level of devotion among the fan base looks set to ensure that football will easily remain the biggest betting turnover generator in Brazil, as it is in the UK.
What’s less clear is how likely racing is to come anywhere near the second place it holds in the UK market, where it accounted for 36% of remote betting turnover in the last set of official Gambling Commission statistics. However, there are a number of comparisons that can be made between the UK and Brazil when it comes to racing. For example, there’s a hardcore fraternity of racing fans and many more casual racegoers, those who are likely to view a day at the races as much in terms of the experience as the opportunity to have a flutter. Not to mention that Brazil boasts the third-largest horse population globally. The thoroughbred industry has been growing steadily since the 1990s, with notable group one winners such as Siphon, Sandpit and, more recently, Bal a Bali elevating the breed’s prominence.
But there’s a huge difference in the local availability of racing. While Brazil’s enormous size makes it the fifth largest country in the world and its population of more than 215 million makes it the seventh most populated, it has just four racetracks, albeit these are well-attended on race days. The UK, ranked 80th by land area and 21st by population, meanwhile, is home to 59 racecourses.
This disparity goes some way to explaining why football is taking the lion’s share of sports betting turnover in Brazil despite currently being unregulated, while racing takes a fraction of this even though it’s been legal for many years.
Online operators could be doing more to cash in on local racing than they currently are. The key to making the most of the Brazilian opportunity is educating the local population on the benefits of betting opportunities that the sheer volume of international races affords and cross-selling this to keen sports bettors.
Filling the gaps
Because while football is unlikely to lose its crown as the most popular sport among Brazilian bettors, the problem with football, NFL, basketball, MMA, golf, tennis and everything else, is that there are so many gaps in the schedule. And once the significant licence fees outlined in the new law have been paid, both local and foreign operators are likely going to need to optimise their product with as little downtime as possible in order to justify their investment.
Racing has the edge over all other sports because on a global basis there exists a full calendar where there is always something to bet on.
In the UK and Ireland we’ve already seen this approach used to great effect with the relatively recent introductions of North American, French, South African, Australian and Asian racing for domestic audiences. This secondary content does well as it lands in either prime leisure hours or is filler at weekends or for poor weather conditions. The increasing globalisation of racing was, in fact, one of the key reasons for our acquisition of Asian racing data provider iRace Media in the second half of last year.
In this respect, foreign operators, some of which have established a foothold in Brazil prior to a regulatory regime and are savvy with this approach used in established markets, may have an edge over others, simply because they’re experienced with the product.
Brazil is likely to be the same as any other fledgling market in the sense that if a company has just started offering a legal gambling product, they are likely going to have greater comfort in offering products to bet on that they are familiar with.
Mitigating the risk
In conversations our team has had with operators in emerging markets such as Brazil, Latam and Africa, the racing knowledge gap is an issue that’s come up repeatedly. They could easily integrate with a data provider such as ourselves from a technical perspective, but they may not fully understand the data they are looking at and some worry this leaves them overexposed.
There are a number of things that make racing more challenging than other sports to trade. For a start, the vernacular used in racing is not something that everyone understands if they’ve not been exposed to it before. In addition, a lot of operators fear racing because while they believe it can make them good money, they know there are people out there, professional punters and big racing syndicates, that know more about racing than their own traders.
This view is not unique to Brazil or even new markets, it’s something we also hear in our core markets and it possibly goes some way to explaining why new operators sometimes take every sport on offer before they get to racing. But inevitably, most take racing at some point because the volume on offer is too great to ignore. However, one recent shift worth mentioning is that more operators new to racing are opting for a platform partner or pricing partner to avoid being exposed to risks they aren’t comfortable with.
This is something that may be even more attractive to operators in emerging markets like Brazil given their lack of experience with global fixed odds racing to date. One thing that may work in their favour is that the country’s bettors would also appear to lack the maturity shown in established markets when it comes to the type of bets they are placing.
For instance, virtually all of the bets taken on football in Brazil are multis, which are bad for punters but which operators love as they are high margin and low risk. A diverse racing portfolio similarly has the potential to deliver high margins for operators and keep players engaged year-round, meaning the product could be just as successful in Brazil as it is in many more established markets.
Richard Duncan is Head of Business Development at PA Betting Services. He has been with parent company PA Media Group since 2002, with the bulk of his career having been spent working in its racing team.
Global entertainment brand SkillOnNet has announced the expansion of its partnership with premium slot provider Habanero into Brazil, as both companies deepen their presence in one of the world’s fastest-growing regulated iGaming markets.
Players at PlayUZU.bet.br and BacanaPlay.bet.br now have access to Habanero’s acclaimed portfolio of slots and tables games. This includes fan-favorites like Hot Hot Fruit, new titles like Love & Riches Eldorado, and Habanero’s industry-renowned progressive slot, Jackpot Race, which uses a sophisticated algorithm to deliver instant prize drops to players.
Brazil’s newly regulated online gaming market, effective since January 1, 2025, is projected to generate $2.9 billion in gross annual revenue this year, with potential growth to $6.3 billion by 2028, according to Vixio regulatory analysts.
SkillOnNet was among the first operators to secure licensing in the country, launching PlayUZU.bet.br and BacanaPlay.bet.br earlier this year.
The rollout of Habanero’s games into SkillOnNet’s Brazilian platforms reflects the company’s strategy of offering diverse and high-quality gaming experiences tailored to local markets.
Arcangelo Lonoce, Head of Business Development at Habanero, said: “We are extremely pleased to extend our partnership with SkillOnNet to Brazil and further boost our collaboration. As one of the most anticipated market openings in a number of years, it has been a key focus for us. We are delighted that games like Hot Hot Fruit, Santa’s Village, and Zeus Deluxe – all of which have already proven successful in several other markets – will now be available to SkillOnNet’s Brazilian customers.”
Jani Kontturi, Head of Games at SkillOnNet, said: “Brazil represents one of the most exciting and dynamic opportunities in the global iGaming landscape. Partnering with Habanero in this market allows us to deliver world-class content to a rapidly growing audience hungry for premium gaming experiences. This move reflects our long-term commitment to localized growth and best-in-class entertainment.”
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New partnership opens door for more players to enjoy Playson experience across South America
Playson, an accomplished iGaming industry supplier, has reached an agreement with sports betting and gaming platform technology provider Cactus Gaming, in a move that will extend its reach across Brazil and the wider LatAm region.
Playson’s range of immersive games are already live with brands under the Cactus Gaming operator network, including popular titles 3 Pots Riches: Hold and Win, Burning Fortunator and Luxor Gold: Hold and Win. The studio showcased its flexibility during the onboarding process, integrating within Cactus’ API protocol and making it easier for operators to go live with its content.
The deal ensures more players within Brazil will gain access to Playson’s range of immersive games, with Cactus Gaming holding a commanding position within the country’s iGaming market.
Cactus Gaming has been a leading provider of award-winning sports betting and gaming platform technology since 2018. The company’s mission is to continuously provide innovative, flexible and customer-centric solutions to partners, delivering them the competitive edge.
Cactus Gaming has been standing out in the iGaming, bettech and sports betting sectors being recognised as “Best Whitelabel” at the Sigma America Awards 2024 and as “Best Platform of the Year” at the BIS Awards this year, a great achievement that reinforces the importance to always offer the best services to its clients.
Cristhian Zito, Head of LatAm Squad at Playson, said: “To partner with Cactus Gaming, a recognized leader in the iGaming space, is thrilling. This collaboration not only expands our presence in Brazil and the wider LatAm region but also brings our diverse portfolio of engaging games to a broader audience.
Our integration with Cactus Gaming’s platform has been seamless, and we are confident that their extensive operator network will benefit more from our high-quality and immersive gaming experiences.”
Tiago Carneiro, CRA at Cactus Gaming, said: “Adding Playson’s globally renowned games portfolio onto our gaming platform technology is a major boost to our overall offering.
“We’ve been impressed with the high-quality graphics and immersive nature of their games, which will no doubt capture the attention of our extensive operator network and their players.”
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The Brazilian Ministry of Sports and the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) have signed a sports betting integrity cooperation agreement. This partnership will enable the sharing of information concerning suspicious betting activity connected to Brazilian sports and support collaboration on integrity-related investigations.
The agreement brings together the governmental body tasked with safeguarding the integrity and development of Brazilian sport, and the largest international betting integrity monitor for private operators in the world. Leading industry data and intelligence company H2 Gambling Capital has forecast that IBIA covers more than 70% of Brazil’s licensed remote gambling market.
According to ‘The Availability of Sports Betting Products: An Economic and Integrity Analysis’ study published last year, the sports betting regulatory regime in Brazil is projected to create $34bn (R$191.7bn) in sports betting turnover by 2028. With this increased growth comes a greater responsibility to protect customers, sports and betting operators from match-fixing.
A key element of the new Brazilian regulatory framework is the requirement that operators seeking a licence must join an independent sports integrity monitoring body. This licensing requirement is helping to strengthen IBIA’s capacity to monitor, assess and protect betting transactions in Brazil’s regulated sports betting market and maintain the integrity of Brazilian sporting events.
Minister of Sport, André Fufuca, said: “Today we are signing a milestone in the fight against match-fixing in Brazilian sport. Integrity must be a constant principle when it comes to transparency, ethics and, above all, the correctness of sports results. With these agreements, we will have more than enough instruments to curb this practice and guarantee greater transparency in competitions. Thus, athletes, clubs, organizations, fans and the entire population will be able to fully trust in the fairness of the results and, with this, will have peace of mind to develop the full potential of Brazilian sport.”
Khalid Ali, IBIA CEO, said: “IBIA welcomes this important partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Sports. As the market grows, so too does the responsibility to ensure that robust integrity safeguards are in place. This agreement will ensure that information on suspicious betting is swiftly shared with the Ministry to support effective integrity actions. This includes access to detailed, account-level data available only through IBIA’s unique network.”
IBIA is a globally recognised non-profit organization that seeks to safeguard the integrity of the sports and betting sectors by fighting betting related match-fixing and fraud. It provides a free integrity monitoring service to sports governing bodies, regulatory authorities, government ministries, and law enforcement agencies that, importantly, has no potential conflicts created by the provision of competing commercial services, enabling all parties to efficiently and effectively cooperate in investigating, prosecuting and deterring sports betting related match-fixing.
IBIA monitors over $300bn per annum in betting turnover across more than 140 sports betting brands globally, making IBIA the largest betting integrity monitor of its type for private operators in the world. The association’s unrivalled access to detailed global customer transactional data has, and will continue, to play a pivotal role in protecting the Brazilian sports betting market and sporting events from corrupt activity. IBIA recently released its global alert data for the first quarter of 2025, detailing that 63 cases of suspicious betting were reported to the relevant authorities.
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