When the regulated Brazilian online betting and gaming market opened last year, the management of Betsson, BetMGM and Betano adopted very different approaches, as they tell the latest issue of SBC Leaders magazine.
Issue 39’s cover star is Betsson CEO Jesper Svensson, who decided that to jump in on day one of the market would be the wrong way to tackle a territory that has the potential to become a significant contributor to the company’s revenue figures.
Instead of jostling for position with a host of international and local operators in January 2025, Betsson decided to focus on understanding the new market and waited until April to go live with its Brazilian offering.
Svensson believes that the decision is one that has given the company the foundations it needs to enjoy profitable growth.
“We took a deliberate decision to wait and invest given that there was so much investment going into the market in one go,” he tells SBC Leaders.
“It’s a market that we believe over time can be an important one for Betsson, and we will gradually build up our business there. We are just in the starting phase of our investment journey. What we really see is the scale of the market, it is very large.
“There is a risk that you can be a drop in the ocean, you need to find your niche and build up on that. There’s no doubt it is very exciting and sizable.”
Gaining perspective on Brazil’s gambling market
BetMGM was another brand that was not on the starting line on market launch date, despite it enjoying the benefit of being backed by two high-profile companies, the joint venture partners MGM Resorts and Grupo Globo.
It went live in February 2025 and while many would have seen the delay as frustrating, Almir Silva, CEO of BetMGM Brazil, says it has proved to have brought some benefits.
“I believe our advantage was having some distance – being able to observe what was happening from a market share and product perspective,” Silva explains..
“That helped us understand where we should focus our energy and attention. So I think that was the main advantage: even though we lost part of the race for market share, which is a disadvantage, we gained the ability to stay calm, observe market movements, and invest energy where we believed it truly made sense.”
Brazil a strategic pillar for Betano
One competitor that was on the starting blocks and raring to go on launch day was Betano.
Kaizen Gaming’s brand had been the pre-regulation market leader and, according to Guilherme Figueiredo, Commercial Director of Betano in Brazil, the group’s leadership regards the country as one of the “strategic pillars” of its global operation.
“Brazil is one of Kaizen Gaming’s priority markets. Our objective is to invest sustainably and consolidate the country as one of the main pillars of our global operation,” he says.
The status of the market is clear to see from the backing that Figueiredo and his local team received throughout 2025 and into this year.
“Betano Brazil is the translation of Kaizen Gaming’s global strategy into the Brazilian landscape,” he adds. “We receive the best of international technology and expertise and apply it with the cultural depth and agility that Brazil’s passion for sports demands.”
Developments in LatAm and Europe
Away from the excitement of the Brazilian market, SBC Leaders takes deep dives into the markets in Mexico, Chile and Paraguay. It also looks at developments in Europe, as Antti Koivula, Chief Compliance Officer of ATG Hippos examines regulatory developments in Finland and Stake’s Fabio Angeli Bufalini discusses all things Italian.
Elsewhere, Kanggiten CEO Viktor Cherkas shares the secrets behind the platform supplier’s growth and EPIC Global Solutions CEO Paul Buck explains why lived experience is such a powerful tool in education.
There’s also a retirement interview with one of the UK industry’s best-known figures, John O’Reilly, who reflects on a successful career that culminated in a long stint as CEO of Rank Group.
You can pick up a copy of issue 39 of SBC Leaders magazine at SBC Summit Rio this week or SBC Summit Malta in St Julian’s in April. Alternatively, you can read the digital edition here.