World Cup puts sports betting compliance back in focus in Brazil

The World Cup has pushed sports betting back into the Brazilian spotlight, but the real story for PSPs and operators is the regulatory regime that has been in force since January 2025. Licensed bookmakers now have to prove who their users are, track transactions, and keep AML and consumer-protection controls in place, while the illegal market remains a direct competitive risk.

1. Since January 2025, fixed-odds betting in Brazil has operated under federal regulation. The rules apply to authorized companies and are designed to tighten user security, curb clandestine operations, and give the state more control over financial flows and tax collection.
2. According to Alberto Goldenstein, a sports law specialist and founding partner at GMP G&C Advogados Associados, compliance has become one of the core pillars of legal betting operators in Brazil. He said regulated platforms must follow a set of requirements imposed by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, from identity verification to stronger anti-money laundering and consumer-protection measures.
3. Those obligations include KYC (Know Your Customer), which requires confirmation of a bettor’s identity and legal age, plus systems to monitor suspicious financial activity, AML policies, and mechanisms that make every transaction on the platform traceable and auditable. In practice, that is exactly the sort of plumbing PSPs and acquiring partners care about, because if the records are weak, the risk sits with everyone in the chain.
4. Responsible gambling controls are also mandatory, including self-exclusion tools, deposit limits, and monitoring for risky behavior. For payment providers, that means the betting stack is no longer just about acceptance and payouts; it is also about controls that can be demonstrated to regulators on demand.
5. Leonardo Brodsky, Director of iGaming at Trio Grupo Financeiro, said regulation has “completely transformed” the sector. He noted that the regulated environment brought strict user identification requirements, technology certification, daily monitoring of operations, and constant reporting to authorities. He also said tax and licensing revenue exceeded R$ 10 billion in 2025, the first full year of regulation, and that more than 190 sites are currently authorized to operate legally in the country.

One more number matters here: specialists said the illegal market is still roughly the same size as the regulated one. For PSPs, that is the uncomfortable part of the Brazilian story — there is now a compliant, licensed path, but there is also a shadow market large enough to keep attracting traffic, and the first question for any operator remains whether the platform has federal authorization.