Latin America
SBC Exceeds Forecasts, Drawing 4,000 Attendees to Debut Event in Rio
In an dynamic entrance into Rio, SBC’s inaugural Brazil-focused event exceeded all forecasts, drawing in a staggering turnout of 4,000 attendees — surpassing the anticipated 3,000 — and signaling a promising start to the future expansion plans disclosed during the event.
Held from March 5th to 7th, SBC Summit Rio served as a deep dive into the Brazilian market during a pivotal moment of opportunity, spurred by Brazil’s recent approval of online gambling regulation. The Summit played a protagonistic role in creating a platform for senior executives to unite and discuss the future trajectory of the industry in the country, blending local insights with global perspectives.
Featuring over 70 exhibitors, the show floor at the Windsor Convention & Expo Center was abuzz with activity throughout the event, which sold out well ahead of its scheduled dates. This strong demand underscored the imperative to transition SBC Summit Rio to its new venue, Riocentro, for next year’s edition, allowing for the accommodation of over 10,000 delegates and 400 exhibitors and sponsors.
Exhibitor contentment was evident, as indicated by an initial Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 54, with the overwhelming majority of 2024 exhibitors already confirming their participation for the 2025 edition. The show floor featured prominent international suppliers including Amusnet, BetConstruct, Digitain, IDnow, Oddin.gg, Pragmatic Play, and others.
Victor Arias, Vice President LatAm at Pragmatic Play detailed his experience exhibiting at the event: “For me, it is always a joy to participate in an event organized by SBC, and this one in Rio was no exception. I left very satisfied because I was able to meet with friends and colleagues and analyze the possibilities offered by a market as relevant as Brazil. Without a doubt, this opportunity was fundamental for Pragmatic Play, which is experiencing continuous growth in the country. These days were extremely intense, with important commercial agreements and a stand that was filled with visitors who enjoyed the environment and the experience that Pragmatic Play provided.”
The operator sector witnessed notable participation, comprising 30% of the total attendee numbers, from key players such as Aposta Ganha, Betano, Betsson, Esportes da Sorte, EstrelaBet, Galera.Bet, Rei do Pitaco, Superbet and Vai De Bob, among others. Feedback gathered from the post-event survey revealed a commendable NPS of 62 among operators, reflecting the positive reception of the event from the segment. Additionally, a diverse range of operators participated as exhibitors, indicating their proactive approach to market penetration.
“Timing couldn’t be more impeccable; our recent entry into Brazil in December aligned perfectly with this event. SBC Summit Rio offered an exceptional opportunity for us to leverage the existing momentum and establish vital connections. With a notable turnout and invaluable networking sessions with prominent figures in the Brazilian sector, the event delivered on all fronts. For a European company venturing into this new territory, the knowledge acquired and relationships forged with affiliates and suppliers will be pivotal in shaping our strategy,” said Alex Fonseca, CEO Brazil, Superbet.
The projected affiliate count of 300 was also surpassed, with 447 affiliates in attendance, marking a significant 49% increase over the initial target. This sets a promising precedent for the launch of the dedicated Affiliate Leaders Summit in Rio in 2025, providing a platform for affiliation and marketing professionals to deliberate on traffic acquisition strategies in the burgeoning market.
Clever Advertising COO Marcos Oliveira commented: “SBC truly outdid themselves with this event — the diverse representation of operators, both local and international, was fantastic to see, and the connections we made will help us set a strong foothold in Brazil, marking a crucial step forward for our business. SBC Summit Rio was about learning, taking action, and making things happen. For the 2025 edition, I am very pleased to support and sponsor the Affiliate Leaders Summit — adding a dedicated summit is definitely a step in the right direction.”
Zé Roberto, the celebrated Brazilian former footballer, kicked off the event with a keynote that drew a full house, initiating a highly productive conference segment featuring 100 influential voices in line with SBC’s renowned standards. Furthermore, the event witnessed the official launch of the Associação de Mulheres da Indústria Gaming (AMIG), underscoring SBC’s commitment to empowering women within the gaming sector.
One of the networking highlights beyond the exhibition floor throughout the event’s three-day duration was an evening gathering at the Museu do Amanhã. This event welcomed Rio de Janeiro governor Cláudio Castro, who engaged in discussions with organizers, exploring the profound impact that events of this magnitude have on the industry and Brazil’s economy.
Rasmus Sojmark, CEO and Founder of SBC said: “I wouldn’t exactly label the turnout as surprising; it was evident from the outset that this event held great promise for several reasons: the timing, the choice of Rio as the host city, and the quality associated with SBC.
“Nevertheless, I’m genuinely delighted to have had the opportunity to host both the Brazilian and international industry at our debut event in Rio. The conference provided much-needed insights from top experts, and the expo floor was teeming with activity. I’d dare say that the entire Brazilian industry was in attendance. Thank you all for your support. Let’s all work on making great things happen in 2025.”
Black Label
Pragmatic Play signs Latam Agreement with Black Label
Pragmatic Play, a leading content provider to the iGaming industry, has strengthened its reach in the regulated Latin American market through a multi-product deal with platform provider Black Label.
The partnership will see Pragmatic Play’s premium portfolio, including Slots, Live Casino, and Virtual Sports, integrated into the Black Label platform, enabling regulated operators across LatAm to seamlessly access the supplier’s content.
Pragmatic Play titles, including multi-award-winning slots such as Gates of Olympus and Sugar Rush, as well as popular crash games like High Flyer and Spaceman, are now available to Black Label’s partners in the region.
Black Label, a 360‑degree online gaming experience, serves as an end‑to‑end integration platform for launching or scaling online casinos.
Built with a deep understanding of Latin American players and offered in Spanish, it provides locally aligned solutions for one of the fastest‑growing regulated markets in the industry.
Victor Arias, VP of Latin America at ARRISE, a global iGaming software and services leader and a key partner to Pragmatic Play, said:
“Latin America remains one of the most dynamic and fast-growing regions in the industry, and partnering with Black Label allows Pragmatic Play to further boost its reach across the market.
“Combining Pragmatic Play’s award‑winning content with Black Label’s locally aligned platform to support operators and players across the region is another positive step, and one that further cements Pragmatic Play’s status in Latin America.”
Roberto González, general manager at Black Label, added: “Pragmatic Play is a globally respected supplier, and integrating its multi–product portfolio is a major milestone for Black Label.
“Our platform is built specifically for the needs of Latin American operators, and adding Pragmatic Play’s high‑performing content further strengthens the value we deliver to our partners.
The post Pragmatic Play signs Latam Agreement with Black Label appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
Advanced Compliance Technology
Advanced Compliance Technology partners with the Soccer Federation of Rio Grande do Norte
ACT has been selected to collaborate in building integrity programs of Brazil’s football leagues through its independent, real-time Sports Integrity monitoring technology and specialized education programs to strengthen Brazilian Sports Integrity.
Advanced Compliance Technology (ACT), a leader in compliance, sports integrity and risk solutions for the global regulated betting and gaming industry, has entered a partnership with the Soccer Federation of North Rio Grande, a regional member of the national Brazilian Soccer Confederation (CBF).
The agreement signifies an important step forward in Brazilian football’s vision for the future as it adapts to the needs of the country’s new sports betting regulations, with an equal focus on safeguarding the integrity of competitions and protecting the athletes.
Under the agreement, ACT will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the current status of the leagues’ needs operating within Brazil’s emerging regulated market.
ACT will also deliver educational programs tailored to the Brazilian sports markets, drawing on its expert sports leadership team, who share decades of experience and who have identified some of the largest match-fixing incidents in the United States.
The ACT team will combine their knowledge of sports betting, insider trading, and specialized analytics to address the growing need for sports integrity monitoring across Brazilian leagues. This will include the application of advanced technology through ACT’s proprietary online monitoring platform, the only real-time technology of its kind that is independent from betting operators and trading services.
Susan Bala, Co-Founder and Director at Advanced Compliance Technology, and former Delegate for the U.S. Commerce Department in Central and South America said:
“We are entering a new chapter in global sports with the introduction of legalised sports betting in Brazil. The country has an incredible and proud history in soccer, producing many of the game’s greatest athletes.
ACT is very pleased to collaborate with the leadership of the Soccer Federation of Rio Grande do Norte league in their mission to build a strong future through education and application of the most advanced technology solutions to safeguard the sport.”

Felipe Silva, Acting President of the Soccer Federation of Rio Grande do Norte, and José Silva, Vice President of the Brazilian Soccer Confederation, said:
“We are extremely pleased to be working with ACT on this initiative. We recognise the importance of educating our athletes and protecting the sport we love. It is our mission through this work to contribute to the future success of Brazilian football.
About Advanced Compliance Technology (ACT)
Advanced Compliance Technology is a leading provider of regulatory technology solutions for compliance and integrity monitoring in the global betting and gaming sector.
ACT’s all-in-one platform delivers the most advanced technology tools to help leagues, operators and regulators meet their complex compliance requirements with an independent expert service and real-time performance.
The company’s technology combines advanced geolocation intelligence, identity verification, advanced anti-fraud mechanisms, sports integrity and behavioural analytics to prevent circumvention, strengthen market integrity and support player protection.
The post Advanced Compliance Technology partners with the Soccer Federation of Rio Grande do Norte appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
Brazil
“In regulated iGaming, context is as important as technology”
Esportes Gaming Brasil, the 100% Brazilian company behind Esportes da Sorte, Onabet and Lottu, has had one of its most active periods since launching under Brazil’s regulated betting framework.
Esportes da Sorte now ranks as the second largest operator in the country, with most of its technology built and managed internally from its base in Recife, in Brazil’s Northeast.
The company received Great Place to Work certification, won gold at the 2026 CX ClienteSA Award in the Sports Betting and Online Gaming category — following an independent audit by V2 Consulting.
Also launched two high-profile marketing campaigns: “Torça como um Corinthiano,” built around the brand’s partnership with Corinthians and the resilience of one of Brazil’s most passionate football fanbases, and “Convoque,” a multiplatform World Cup campaign that transforms Esportes da Sorte’s iconic blue hat into a narrative universe featuring creators, musicians and football personalities.
At the centre of the company’s technological infrastructure is Ruy Conolly, CTO of Esportes Gaming Brasil.
In this interview, Conolly speaks about how the company built its own internal intelligence layer for risk, data and governance; why the Northeast has become a genuine strategic hub for iGaming in Brazil; and what it really means to treat compliance as infrastructure rather than bureaucracy.
GA – You structured an internal layer of operational intelligence, data and risk governance. How does this technology differ from market solutions and what was the biggest technical challenge in integrating it into the operation’s critical flows?
Ruy Conolly – I usually say that the main difference lies not just in the use of artificial intelligence, but in the ability to transform operational data into reliable and auditable decisions.
Market solutions are important and serve a relevant role, but they often arrive as external, standardised layers with low adherence to the real context of the operation.
What we sought internally was to build an intelligence layer closer to the transactional journey, operational events, risk signals and Brazilian regulatory requirements.
The biggest technical challenge was not simply processing volume. Volume is solved with infrastructure. The real challenge was creating an architecture where data is consistent, auditable and useful for decision-making.
In a regulated operation, a poorly calibrated signal can create unnecessary friction for the client, while an absent signal can create risk for the company.
Technology needs to balance speed, precision and governance. For me, that is the central point: AI in iGaming cannot be treated as decoration. It needs to be tied to well-structured data, traceability, clear criteria and the capacity for human review.
You frequently highlight the Northeast as a strategic engine. How does the location of your technology team influence agility in implementing regulatory changes compared to operators that depend 100% on foreign platforms?
Location influences less through geography and more through cultural, operational and decision-making proximity to the problem.
The Northeast has a very strong culture of execution. People are close to the business, they understand Brazilian user behaviour, they know the local dynamics of payments, customer service, acquisition, risk and operations.
This creates an important advantage in a regulated market, because regulation is not just a legal rule — it needs to become product flow, data validation, permissions, reporting, alerts, customer service and user experience.
When an operator depends 100% on a foreign platform, it often joins a global queue of priorities. Brazilian regulatory changes compete with demands from other countries, other markets and other roadmaps.
When you have local technical intelligence, you can translate regulatory requirements into execution much faster.
The Northeast, in this sense, is not a peripheral alternative. It is a real centre of operational, technological and strategic capacity for the sector.
You have led educational initiatives on match manipulation for athletes. How does your technology team work alongside global monitoring tools such as Sportradar to detect anomalies?
Sports integrity needs to be treated as an ecosystem. There is no single tool, single database or single reading capable of solving everything on its own.
Global monitoring tools are fundamental because they bring a broad market view, international standards, atypical movements and specialised intelligence.
The role of the internal technology team is to connect those signals with the operational reality of the house: betting data, transactional behaviour, history, exposure, limits, recurrence patterns and local context.
But there is an important point: technology does not replace governance. It organises signals, reduces noise, improves response time and helps prioritise investigation.
Responsible decisions require process, human analysis, records, traceability and interaction with areas such as risk, compliance, legal and integrity. In the workshops, the message for athletes is complementary: match manipulation is not just a betting problem.
It is a problem of education, culture, prevention and collective responsibility. Technology helps detect it, but the sector also needs to act before the problem occurs.
When integrating solutions from partners, what is your main technical criterion for ensuring that user experience does not suffer latency, given Brazil’s internet infrastructure?
The first criterion is understanding that integration cannot be treated as merely a technical connection. Integration is user experience, operational risk and brand reputation.
Before any relevant integration, we evaluate stability, response time, resilience, observability, audit capability and impact on the user journey. It is not enough for a partner to function in a controlled environment.
It needs to work well in the Brazilian reality, with different devices, mobile networks, regions and connectivity standards.
The main point is designing the architecture to prevent an external dependency from degrading the overall experience.
In the end, the user does not want to know whether the latency came from the platform, the provider, the jackpot, the payment method or the authentication.
For them, the experience is one. That is why the CTO needs to view integration as a product, not just an API.

You mentioned that iGaming has become a “stack” of integrations that generates noise. What is the first step for a CTO to unstack those layers and give executives a clear view, without inflated dashboards and redundant metrics?
The first step is separating data from decision. The iGaming market has created a culture of many dashboards, many screens, many reports and little clarity.
That gives a false sense of control. The executive does not need another screen, they need to understand what is happening, which risk deserves attention, which indicator actually moves the business and which metric is simply repeating another with a different name.
To unstack, the CTO needs to map the sources of truth. Who owns the data? Which system records the original event? Which metric is operational, which is financial, which is regulatory and which is purely analytical? Without that, each area creates its own numbers and the company ends up debating reports instead of decisions.
Then comes governance: standardisation of concepts, reconciliation, traceability, reduction of redundancy and the construction of a simple executive layer. Good architecture is not the one that shows everything. It is the one that shows the essential with confidence.
How does federated authentication and real permission segmentation move beyond being a security item and become a tool for business speed?
When authentication and permissions are poorly designed, security becomes bureaucracy. When they are well designed, security becomes speed.
In a regulated operation, each area needs to access what is necessary to perform well, but without undue exposure of sensitive data. If everything depends on manual approvals, exceptions, generic access or overly broad profiles, the company becomes slow and vulnerable at the same time.
Federated authentication and real permission segmentation create a more mature model: access by function, audit trail, segregation of responsibility and reduction of operational risk.
The business gain is direct: less internal friction, less improvisation, less risk of data leaks, more speed to launch products, respond to audits, serve regulators and make decisions.
How is Esportes da Sorte’s technology structured to ensure that growth is sustainable rather than fragile, especially when user scale rises sharply?
Fragile growth is the kind that depends only on campaigns, media or volume. Sustainable growth requires structure.
From a technology standpoint, this involves several pillars: reliable data, resilient integrations, observability, security, access governance, audit capability and processes prepared for scale. In iGaming, growth means nothing if the operation cannot reconcile payments, respond to users, monitor risk, protect data and meet regulatory requirements.
Technology needs to be thought of as critical infrastructure. It does not only appear when there is a problem. It sustains the user experience, financial operations, partner relationships, compliance and brand credibility.
My view is that scale is not measured only by how many users enter. It is measured by how much of the operation remains reliable when that volume grows rapidly. That is where a mature operation separates itself from one that is merely loud.
You said at BiS SiGMA Americas that technology is no longer the differentiator, execution is. What does the technical team in the Northeast deliver today that foreign off-the-shelf solutions cannot match?
Technology has become more accessible. Cloud, AI, APIs, providers, dashboards and tools are available to everyone. The differentiator is no longer having access to technology. It has become knowing how to execute with context.
A technical team close to the problem understands the particularities of the Brazilian user, Pix, local operations, regulation, customer service, fraud, communication and the speed at which the market changes.
hat proximity allows faster course corrections and the building of less generic solutions.
Foreign solutions are important and part of the ecosystem, but they often arrive with a global logic. Brazil requires adaptation.
The Northeast delivers precisely that field-level reading: less distance between problem, decision and execution. In practice, this means turning complexity into operational routine. And that may be one of the most valuable capabilities in the regulated market.
How are you designing the architecture so that the new 2026 rules are natively integrated, turning compliance into protection rather than friction?
Compliance becomes a brake when it is placed at the end of the process. When a company designs its product, data and operations without considering compliance from the start, any regulatory requirement feels like an obstacle.
The architecture needs to be built with compliance embedded. That means traceable data, well-defined permissions, logs, audit trails, reconciliation, identity validation, behaviour monitoring, exposure rules, risk management and consistent reporting.
When compliance is native, it protects the business, the user and the brand. It reduces rework, prevents decisions without evidence, improves the relationship with regulators and builds confidence to grow.
The key mindset shift is understanding that compliance does not compete with growth. In the regulated market, compliance is a condition for growth to be lasting.
How do you see the Northeast’s evolution as the second largest iGaming hub? Is it a matter of operational cost or is a specific execution culture emerging in the region?
Reducing the Northeast to operational cost is to misread what is happening. There is, indeed, an execution culture emerging in the region.
It combines proximity to the consumer market, technical capability, pragmatism, speed of adaptation and a very strong culture of solving real problems.
The Northeast is not just providing labour. It is building leadership, technical teams, operations, product vision and market intelligence.
Brazilian iGaming requires a rare combination: technology, regulation, data, marketing, payments, customer service, risk and responsibility.
That combination is not built simply by importing a platform. It is built with people who understand the territory, the user and the operation. I see the Northeast as a strategic hub because it delivers something the market will increasingly need: execution with context. And in the next cycle of regulated iGaming, context will be just as important as technology.
The post “In regulated iGaming, context is as important as technology” appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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