What Brazil's iGaming regulation means for operators, with Rafael Biasi

Brazil's regulated iGaming market was set to start in full on 1 January 2025, and traffic buyers wanted to know what would change. In the second Adsterra Podcast episode, recorded at SBC Lisbon, Rafael Biasi of Octus Legal iGaming speaks with Adsterra's Mikhail Zhukov about licensing, advertising, payments and Latin America.

In this episode

• Biasi says Brazil legalised sports betting in 2018 but published regulation only at the end of 2023, followed by ten ordinances on labs, operators, payments and responsible gaming (1:31, 2:02).

• Operators face a $5 million application fee covering up to three brands; he says this favours large operators, though smaller ones can form joint ventures, after years of thousands of operators and no rules (3:31, 4:00, 4:30).

• The operator is the regulated party: it must open a Brazilian company and hold contracts with partners, while providers certify their games and platforms (10:01, 10:30).

• Advertising must treat betting as entertainment, not investment, he says; regulator Conar already monitors operators and has sent notices asking for changes (5:00, 12:00, 12:32).

• He says Pix changed sports betting with instant deposits, bettors must prove they are present, and VPN use is blocked; crypto cannot be used for payment, and payment methods need Central Bank authorisation (8:31, 9:01, 14:01, 14:30).

• He says only operators with a federal licence (around 120 applications) or a state one (around 30) can work after 1 October; approval takes about 150 days, and esports betting is unclear (15:30, 16:02, 21:32).

Interview from Adsterra Podcast by Adsterra, published on YouTube.