Uruguay tries to avoid betting-ad fines for the 2026 Copa Libertadores final in Montevideo

Uruguay is preparing to host the Copa Libertadores final at Montevideo’s Estadio Centenario on November 28, 2026, and that means the country is once again running into its familiar problem with sportsbook advertising. For high-risk payment and gambling businesses, the point is simple: local rules on ad exposure can turn a football broadcast into a fines-and-pass-through-costs exercise.

1. According to Búsqueda, Ignacio Alonso, president of the Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol (AUF), is meeting CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez and Uruguay’s president, Yamandú Orsi, to find a way to handle betting ads during the final without triggering penalties.
2. Uruguay’s online gambling framework is strict: the law bans the promotion and advertising of digital bookmakers that do not have local authorization. That creates a direct clash with South American football, where many clubs, especially Brazilian ones, wear betting-brand logos on their shirts.
3. The Ministry of Economy in Uruguay fines CONMEBOL whenever that advertising appears in stadiums in the country, whether on pitch-side signage or on visiting teams’ kits. CONMEBOL then passes the cost to AUF, which in turn holds the Uruguayan home clubs responsible. In other words, the bill keeps moving down the chain until it lands on local sports institutions.
4. The AUF and CONMEBOL are now asking the government for a solution before the November final, when Uruguay will receive thousands of spectators and the two finalists. The goal is not to rewrite the whole system, but to avoid another round of sanctions when the spotlight is at its brightest.
5. Speaking after the meeting, Yamandú Orsi said the government is not considering a broad legal reform: “No analizamos cambiar legalmente eso, no fue el planteo,” he said. He also described the current setup as “una espada de Damocles” over Uruguayan sports institutions, while noting that static signage or TV graphics can be managed more easily than shirt sponsorships appearing on broadcast feeds.

For PSPs, acquirers, and gambling operators, Uruguay’s setup is the useful part of the story: local authorization matters, television exposure matters, and cross-border sponsorships can produce fines even when the operator is not physically in the market. That is the sort of detail compliance teams like to hear before the regulator explains it for them.