Why Latin America is the industry's growth story
For most of the last decade, when an operator or supplier said it was investing in growth, it meant Latin America. The reasons are structural. The region has a population of about 667 million in 2025, on World Bank figures, a young demographic, a deep football culture, rising smartphone and payments penetration (the share of adults with an account rose from 55% in 2017 to 74% in 2021), and, until recently, almost no regulated online gambling. Since the mid-2010s that last point has changed: Colombia showed the model, Brazil created fixed-odds betting in law in 2018 and passed the law to license it, Law 14.790, in December 2023, and a run of countries has followed or is following. In 2025, the first year of Brazil's licensed market alone, authorised operators reported gross gaming revenue of R$36.96 billion from 25.2 million unique bettors. The result is one of the largest sets of newly regulated markets anywhere in the world, and a set of markets that are more different from each other than newcomers expect.
This course is for people planning, executing or assessing entry into the region: operators, suppliers, affiliates, investors and advisers. It assumes you know how licensed online gambling works in general and want to know how it works here.
The map, in tiers
It helps to sort the region into tiers by regulatory state, because the entry playbook is different for each.
Regulated national online markets, open for licensing. Colombia (since 2016, when Coljuegos set the requirements for online concessions, the regional pioneer), Brazil (federal fixed-odds betting and online gaming from 1 January 2025), Peru (its remote gaming law in force from 12 February 2024), Argentina's provinces (a patchwork, with the Province and the City of Buenos Aires the most prominent regimes, both limited: the Province authorised seven online licences under Law 15.079 and the City stopped accepting applications on 24 June 2024), and Mexico (the Federal Gaming and Raffles Law of 1947 and its 2004 Regulations, last reformed in November 2023, which let permit holders take bets over the internet). These are where the licences are and where most investment goes.
Regulated with restrictions or in transition. Chile (no online licence yet: a bill to license platforms passed its general vote in the Senate in August 2025, and in September 2025 the Supreme Court ordered internet providers to block unauthorised sports betting sites, upholding the exclusive rights of the Lotería de Concepción, one of the lotteries authorised by law), Ecuador (a special income tax on sports betting operators, written into its tax law and given its regulations by Executive Decree 313 of June 2024), Paraguay (a concession model: one exclusive sports betting concessionaire today, with a 2025 law allowing up to three and adding online casino to the games that must be tendered), Panama (licensed by the Junta de Control de Juegos, which has regulated internet gaming since 2002, small), Venezuela (the national casino commission lists authorised online casinos, but the operating environment is difficult), Bolivia (its gaming authority, created under Law 060 of 2010, says the law covers online games and lets it license them), Costa Rica (a base for offshore operators serving elsewhere, which it taxes as companies that receive and process data for electronic bets, not a domestic online market), the Dominican Republic and much of Central America (land-based-led regimes, such as the Dominican casinos, lottery and sports betting shops, with online in various states of formalisation).
Monopoly or effectively closed. Uruguay, where online casino games are absolutely prohibited, and the only online exceptions are the executive's power to run international sports forecast contests and specific authorisations already granted. Chile, until its bill passes, is close to this tier in practice.
The tiers move. A country that is closed this year can be tendering next year, and the course's method is to teach the questions to ask rather than a snapshot that will date.
What makes the region different
Coming from Europe or North America, the features that most often surprise:
Football is the product. In most markets sports betting means football, and football means the domestic league, the continental club competitions and the national team. Casino grows fast once a market is licensed, but sports opens the door, and the marketing calendar is the football calendar.
Payments are the hard part. Bank account penetration is lower than in Europe and card usage varies enormously. Local instant payment systems (Brazil's Pix above all, launched by the Central Bank on 16 November 2020) transformed the business; before them, cash vouchers and local wallets were the norm. Payment strategy is a market-entry decision, not an afterthought, and lesson five is devoted to it.
The grey market got there first. Every market that regulates has years of offshore operation behind it, with brands, affiliates and customer habits already established. Regulation is partly a process of converting that market, and the tax and restriction settings decide how much of it converts.
Tax and enforcement are political. Rates change, sometimes quickly: Mexico raised its special tax on games with wagers to 50% from 1 January 2026, and Brazil raised the public share of betting revenue in steps from 2026; enforcement against unlicensed operators ranges from serious (payment blocking, domain blocking, advertising bans) to negligible; and the state's own lottery or betting operator is often a competitor with a policy voice.
Local partners matter more. Licensing conditions, cultural fit, media relationships, payments and regulatory navigation all favour a local partner, and many entries are joint ventures or acquisitions rather than greenfield.
Spanish is not one language and Brazil is not Spanish. Product, marketing and support have to be localised per country, and Brazil's Portuguese-language market is its own universe.
The three ways in
Direct licence. Apply in your own name, build or bring a platform, localise, launch. Full control, full cost, slowest.
Partnership or joint venture. With a local land-based operator, media group or existing online brand. Faster to market and to trust, at the cost of shared economics and governance complexity.
Acquisition. Buy a licensed or licensable local operator. Fastest to scale, priced accordingly, and with the diligence problems the region's grey-market history creates.
Suppliers face a parallel choice: license directly where B2B licences exist, or serve licensed operators through an aggregator or platform already certified in the market.
What this course covers
Lesson two is Brazil, because it is the largest market in the region and the one most people are asking about. Lesson three is Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Mexico. Lesson four is licensing and compliance across the region. Lesson five is payments, localisation and product. Lesson six is the go-to-market plan and the mistakes that have already been made.
Throughout, the discipline is the same as in every regulated market: know who the regulator is, know what the licence requires, know what the tax is, know who the customer is, and know how the money moves. The region rewards operators who do that work and punishes those who assume it is Europe with a different accent.