ANJL and Editora Globo to host August 14 seminar on Brazil’s regulated betting market

Brazil’s fixed-odds betting market has now spent 18 months under regulation, with 86 companies and 188 licensed platforms operating in the country. The thing is, that still leaves a very large illegal market in play, and that is exactly the problem the ANJL wants the industry, regulators, and payment providers to keep staring at.

1. The Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL) will hold the seminar “Desafios pós-regulação do mercado de apostas” on August 14, with Editora Globo producing the event. The agenda is built around the usual pressure points for a high-risk market: tax burden, sustainability, new consumer protection technologies, and responsible gambling measures.
2. Confirmed speakers include Udo Seckelmann, head of the Gambling and Crypto department at Bichara e Motta Advogados; Eric Brasil, director at LCA Consultores; and Luís Otávio Veríssimo, president of the Superior Tribunal de Justiça Desportiva do Futebol. The seminar will also feature a technical presentation by economist Guilherme Mendes Resende of MR Consultoria Econômica, who holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, on the factors affecting Brazilian household delinquency.
3. According to international consultancy Regulus Partners, which specializes in sports and leisure, Brazil ranks fifth in the global betting market. That matters because scale changes the payment conversation: once a regulated market is that large, the fight is no longer about whether the vertical exists, but about how much volume is still leaking into unlicensed rails.
4. ANJL president Plínio Lemos says the core issue in the market’s second year of regulation remains illegal gambling. He cites a H2 Gambling Capital study from early 2026 showing that illegal operators account for about 50% of the betting market in Brazil. In his view, the answer is persistent enforcement and daily monitoring of the internet to identify illegal operators.
5. Lemos also argues that regulated betting companies should not be lumped together with the illegal market. He says licensed operators pay for authorization, practice responsible gambling, and pay attention to customers’ mental and financial health, while illegal sites do not care about minors and have links to organized crime. For PSPs, that distinction is not academic; it is the difference between servicing a licensed MID and taking exposure to a market that regulators and industry bodies are still trying to squeeze out of the system.