Brazil’s betting revenue hit BRL5.89 billion in January-May 2026, already 60% above all of 2025

Brazil’s sports betting and online gaming sector kept climbing in the first five months of 2026, with the Federal Revenue Service reporting BRL5.89 billion ($1.18 billion) in betting revenue. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, the useful part is simple: this is not a niche volume story anymore, and the tax take is already moving at a pace that makes enforcement and licensing decisions matter.

1. The Federal Revenue Service said Brazil collected BRL5.89 billion ($1.18 billion) from betting from January through May 2026, compared with BRL3.169 billion ($634 million) in the same period of 2025. That is growth of 85.88% year on year.
2. For full-year 2025, Brazil collected BRL9.95 billion ($1.99 billion) from betting. With the first five months of 2026 already in the books, revenue has surpassed the full-year 2025 figure by 60%.
3. The data was presented by tax auditors Claudemir Malaquias and Marcelo Gomide during a session attended by Revenue Secretary Robinson Barreirinhas. In other words, this is not market chatter; it is the tax authority’s own readout of what is flowing into public coffers.
4. The government was told it could double tax revenue if it brought clandestine websites into the legal framework, or at least blocked illegal operations effectively enough to push bettors toward licensed sites. That is the part payments providers should watch: the line between “licensed flow” and “offshore leakage” is still where the money is made or lost.
5. Klavi, a data intelligence company, said that from the start of the World Cup through 25 June, bettors had transferred nearly BRL510 million ($102 million) to licensed platforms in Brazil. Klavi also said more than BRL25 million ($5 million) changed hands during the match against Scotland on 24 June alone, 35% above the daily average before the tournament started.

Klavi said its analysis tracked transfers made by 1.2 million individuals to 187 sites licensed in Brazil. It also found that the average transaction value rose from approximately BRL185 to BRL235 ($37-$47), a 24% increase. If that pattern holds, Brazil’s year-end revenue could push past BRL14 billion ($2.8 billion), which is the kind of number that tends to get both regulators and payment teams very interested.