We sat down with Tequity’s VP Growth Originals, Dominic Sawyer, to discuss how the industry is evolving to meet the unique appetites of Brazilian players and how technical scaling is the secret weapon for ambitious studios.

Brazil is now well over a year into its regulated era. How has the focus shifted for operators who are looking beyond that initial launch phase?

The first year was about land grabs and establishing a footprint. In 2026, the conversation is much more grounded in operational efficiency and the cost of player acquisition. Brazil is a massive market, but it is also an expensive one. If an operator is spending a premium to bring a player through the door, losing them to a generic, uninspired lobby is a massive waste of resources.

The focus has shifted heavily toward retention. We are seeing operators move away from the volume at all costs approach and towards building a brand-based ecosystem. This is where bespoke content comes in. By using our Originals framework, operators can create games that feel like a native part of their platform. This builds a sense of familiarity and trust. In a regulated market, player loyalty is the only thing that can protect your margins against evolving tax frameworks and marketing restrictions.

We know Brazilian players have a deep-seated love for sports. How is this influencing the types of casino games that are succeeding in the market?

The crossover between sports betting and casino in Brazil is perhaps more pronounced than anywhere else. Brazilian players crave high-energy, high-frequency interaction. They want the tension of a live match translated into a casino format. This is why we have seen such an explosion in the popularity of ‘burst games’ and instant-win titles.

Our product roadmap is heavily influenced by this desire for real-time excitement. Our Crypto Trading Games range, for instance, resonates because it mimics the volatility and decision-making of a live market or a high-stakes football bet. Features like 1,000x leverage and the ability to manage multiple active bets simultaneously provide a level of agency that traditional slots often lack. With the World Cup on the horizon, we expect this appetite for sports-adjacent casino content to reach a fever pitch. Operators who can bridge that gap effectively will see the highest levels of cross-vertical engagement.

With so many international brands entering Brazil, how can an operator ensure their content doesn’t just look like a translated version of a European site?

Laziness in localization is a fast track to irrelevance. A player in São Paulo isn’t looking for a translated UK slot, but a game that feels like part of the local culture. True differentiation involves cultural alignment, brand recall, and a pacing of gameplay that matches local preferences.

We believe in providing a modular approach that hands the creative keys back to the operator. This allows them to tailor visual treatments and UI to reflect local festivals, brand ambassadors, or specific colour palettes. When a game feels like it was built for the Brazilian market rather than just adapted for it, the player connection is significantly stronger. You want your content to feel like part of the local furniture, reinforcing the operator’s brand identity at every turn.

Innovation is high, but technical barriers often slow things down. How is Tequity helping studios scale faster to bring high-quality games to the Brazilian market?

There is no shortage of brilliant creative ideas in the industry, but there is often a massive technical bottleneck when it comes to global distribution and compliance. For an ambitious studio, the prospect of navigating the specific regulatory requirements of Brazil while trying to build a global presence is daunting.

This is exactly why we launched Tequity Publishing. We want to dismantle those technical barriers. Through our RGSaaS (Remote Game Server as a Service) model, we provide the infrastructure, distribution muscle, and compliance frameworks that allow studios to focus entirely on the creative side. Whether it’s a small studio with a fresh concept or a more established provider looking to plug into our aggregator network, we provide the pathway to the player. By removing the operational friction, we ensure that high-quality, innovative content can hit the market at the speed the industry demands.

The industry is increasingly streamer-driven. How are suppliers ensuring games are stream-ready for the influencers who currently dominate Brazilian social feeds?

Social media is the new storefront in Brazil. The traditional casino lobby is being bypassed in favour of TikTok, Twitch, and Telegram feeds. If a game isn’t visually engaging or doesn’t provide natural clipping moments, it’s missing a massive trick. Successful suppliers are engineering content to be inherently shareable, creating a narrative that is easy for a streamer’s audience to follow. When an influencer shares a high-multiplier win, it creates an organic marketing event that is far more effective than a standard banner ad. It’s about providing the tools for operators to lower their acquisition costs by creating content that players want to emulate and share.

The 2026 edition of SiGMA South America kicked off  today in São Paulo, bringing together some of the leading figures in the iGaming industry in Latin America.

The event takes place from April 6 to 9 at the Transamerica Expo Center, with a program spread across the Itaim, Jardins and Paulista stages.

Over three days, experts will address key topics for the current moment of the Brazilian market, such as regulation, sports integrity, responsible gambling and innovation in user experience.

Responsible gambling and mental health in focus

Among the highlights is the panel “Mental Health and Responsible Gambling: The Search for Solutions to the Invisible Challenge of the Gaming and Betting Market”, which proposes an integrated approach between regulation, mental health and public management.

Participants include Leandro Pamplona, partner and lawyer at BKP Advogados; Marcus Vinícius de Almeida, state deputy at the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul; Cristiano Costa, CKO of EBAC – Brazilian Company for Support to Compulsivity; Daniel Romanowski, president of Lottopar; and Ana Bárbara Teixeira, Director of Government Relations and founder of ABRAJOGO/AMIG.

Pamplona states that the balance between protection and autonomy lies in “responsible freedom”.

“The operator cannot assume an absolute paternalistic position, but cannot be passive in the face of potentially problematic behaviors either”, he says.

According to him, the operator begins to exercise a delegated regulatory role, based on three pillars: clear information, mandatory preventive tools and effective monitoring.

Regarding Brazilian legislation, he believes there is already a relevant foundation, although still under consolidation.

“The integration of data between operators, regulators and the clinical field will be key to measuring the effectiveness of the rules”, he says.

“Brazil already has a relevant regulatory framework, but it is still in the process of practical consolidation. Until now, these issues were treated in isolation.

There is still no precise data to identify potential regulatory gaps.”

“Going forward, there will be integration of data between operators, regulators and the clinical or medical field. Based on this data, we will be able to verify the effectiveness or not of the current legislation.”

Sports integrity and real-time monitoring

The panel “Integrity on the Field: Preparing the Regulated Market for a World Cup of Safe Betting” brings together Felippe Marchetti, Director of Integrity Partnerships at Sportradar LATAM; André Megale, representative of SIGA Latin America; Michelle Ramalho, executive at the CBF; Carla Dualib, executive at SOFTSWISS; and Caio Porto Ferreira, representative of the Brazilian Federal Police and the STJD.

Marchetti explains that risk monitoring currently combines advanced technology and cooperation with operators.

“Tools based on artificial intelligence identify unusual betting volumes and significant deviations in odds, both in legal and illegal markets”, he says.

According to him, the detection of warning signals is based on a combination of advanced technology and cooperation with operators.

“Today we have tools such as the AI-based FDS, which monitors both legal and illegal markets and generates alerts when there is an unusual volume of bets or significant deviations between expected and actual odds”, he noted.

This type of system makes it possible to identify atypical patterns that may indicate potential manipulation risks.

Marchetti also highlighted the importance of information sharing with operators as a fundamental part of the integrity process.

“Another key indicator is when operators’ own risk teams detect suspicious behavior and share that information with us, allowing us to carry out a double verification of the markets”, he explained.

This is complemented by signals linked to the sports ecosystem itself.

“For example, when there is a concentration of athletes with a history of manipulation within the same team, this generates additional alerts and leads us to monitor the situation more closely”, he added.

Regarding collaboration between operators, sports entities and authorities, Marchetti stressed that the Brazilian scenario has evolved significantly following market regulation.

“Today Brazil is in a much more advanced position than in the pre-regulation period, starting with the legislation, which requires operators to maintain agreements with integrity entities”, he stated.

In this regard, he highlighted that Sportradar already works with dozens of regulated operators in the country, facilitating a constant flow of information on suspicious matches and atypical behavior.

This cooperation model also extends to public bodies and sports entities.

“We have agreements with regulatory authorities and work together with state federations, the CBF, CONMEBOL and other organizations, both in market monitoring and in educational initiatives”, he explained.

He also highlighted progress in building a national policy to combat match-fixing, which includes training for security forces and institutional coordination spaces.

User experience and personalization on the rise

The panel “Beyond the Screen: The Impact of the World Cup Betting Experience” will feature Natalia Nogues, CEO and founder of Control F5; and Dario Leiman, Head of Business Development LATAM at SOFTSWISS.

On the topics of the discussion, Felipe Costa Nadalini, Senior Account Executive at Optimove, points out that there is still limited understanding of the concept of real time in the sector.

“Real-time engagement does not mean responding immediately without relevance. The differentiator lies in personalization based on data and user behavior”, he says.

“Let’s imagine a scenario: you enter an e-commerce site and, as soon as you leave, you receive an email, a push notification or an SMS with an offer that has nothing to do with what you were looking for or your history. That is not effective engagement. Today, operators not only compete among themselves, but also with a huge indirect competition for the user’s attention.”

“Real-time engagement is important, but personalization is equally, or even more, relevant. We need to understand who the player is, their history with the brand and their behavior in order to deliver the right content at the right moment.”

“True real time happens in the background. It is the crossing of historical data that allows the action, when the moment comes, to be truly relevant. It is not just about sending an offer. It can also be a responsible action, such as detecting unusual behavior and offering responsible gambling content.”

“In addition, it is key to understand the channel. Some players interact more via email, others via SMS or push. Choosing the right channel is just as important as the message.”

When asked about underutilized technologies, Nadalini noted: “Data alone does not perform miracles. Many operators in Brazil still use their tools in a limited way, replicating competitors’ strategies instead of building something of their own.”

“There is no point in having a mountain of data if it is not used intelligently. The real differentiator lies in crossing that information to understand what content, in which channel and at what moment makes sense for each player.”

“If I do not personalize the experience, everything becomes white noise. And when that happens, the player simply stops paying attention.”

Convergence between physical and digital

The panel “Physical or Digital? Between Boundaries and Convergences in the Casino Industry” will feature Leonardo Benites, founding director of ANCASSINOS; Luiz Felipe Maia, partner at Maia Yoshiyasu Advogados; and Bryan Ortiz, director of Zitro Digital Brasil, in addition to Marco Pequeno, country manager at Amusnet; and Fernando Mora, Business Development Executive at Sportradar Brasil.

The discussion will address the growing convergence between physical and digital operations, driven by omnichannel strategies and the evolution of consumer behavior.

The role of the media in the regulatory debate

The panel “The Role of the Media in the Debate on the Restriction of Betting Advertising” will feature Magnho José, editor-in-chief of BNLData; Paulo Saad, vice president of Grupo Bandeirantes; and João Gallucci Rodrigues, managing partner at Poder360.

According to Magnho, Brazil is still going through a process of adaptation after decades of gambling prohibition.

“The Brazilian media, like the Judiciary, is still learning to coexist with sports betting and online gaming”, he said.

“A large part of the media that currently covers the sector does not understand it, and in many cases does not even try to understand it, which results in superficial and often biased coverage.”

The journalist and editor also warned about the impact of these narratives on regulation: “There is a real risk that misguided coverage may push for advertising restrictions and end up favoring the illegal market.”

For him, advertising plays a key role: “Bettors often cannot distinguish between what is legal and illegal, and advertising plays a fundamental role in that distinction.”

Finally, he concluded: “It is not about stricter regulation, but about misinformation. It is a lack of knowledge about the sector.”

To view the full agenda: https://sigma.world/summits/south-america/agenda/ 

BiS SiGMA South America 2026

BiS SiGMA South America is part of the SiGMA Group’s global event portfolio, one of the leading international platforms dedicated to the gaming, betting, and technology industry, with editions held in various regions across the globe.

Held annually in São Paulo, BiS SiGMA South America has consolidated its position as the largest and most traditional business event for the iGaming and betting sector in Latin America.

It gathers operators, technology providers, platforms, investors, government representatives, and specialized media in an environment geared toward business generation, knowledge exchange, and market development.

For the 2026 edition, the event is expected to host 18,500 participants, featuring more than 400 exhibitors and sponsors, and a content program with 250+ speakers—reinforcing the event’s scale, its international relevance, and São Paulo’s role as the region’s primary business hub for the industry.

Beyond the trade exhibition, BiS SiGMA South America offers a robust lineup of content, panels, workshops, and awards, covering topics such as innovation, operations, market trends, and industry best practices, actively contributing to the evolution and professionalization of the ecosystem.