Lula says Brazil wants to study Uruguay’s sports betting rules, but Uruguay’s model is a closed monopoly

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi in New York on Monday, 21, and said he wants to learn from Uruguay’s regulation of online betting. For high-risk operators, the catch is that Uruguay is not really a competitive betting market at all: it is a tightly closed system with one national operator, Supermatch, and no open market for private sportsbooks.

1. The meeting lasted just under an hour and took place at the official residence of Brazil’s UN ambassador, Sérgio Danese, ahead of the UN General Assembly. Lula said on X that the two presidents discussed bilateral issues, especially infrastructure and agricultural trade, and that he thanked Uruguay for allowing Brazil to use the surplus of Uruguay’s beef export quota to China.
2. Lula also wrote that he “manifested interest in knowing the Uruguayan experience of regulation of online betting (bets).” That matters because the Brazilian government is preparing a provisional measure to ban virtual casinos, while leaving sports betting and sponsorships of sports clubs and championships outside the ban.
3. Here is the catch: Uruguay does not have an open online betting market with private operators. The only nationally authorized platform is Supermatch, which operates under state supervision and only offers sports betting. According to Uruguayan senator Felipe Carballo, who presented a bill in November 2025 to try to change this setup, the current arrangement is effectively a “private monopoly in fact,” with the state not directly participating in most of the profits, since Supermatch is run under concession by La Banca.
4. The market closure is not limited to operations. Licensed foreign betting companies are prohibited from sponsoring clubs and sports events in Uruguay. The state also fines local football clubs when foreign broadcasters show ads for betting sponsors of opposing teams during international broadcasts — a situation Orsi himself called an “absurdity” days before meeting Lula.
5. Attempts to open the system have been stuck for years in Uruguay’s political process. In September 2024, the Chamber of Deputies did not even put a regulation bill on the agenda after it was blocked by the Colorado Party; a bill approved by the Senate in August 2022 is still stalled in the Chamber; and a new proposal presented by casino-sector entities in August 2026 is still moving without a timetable for progress.

The scale is also not comparable. Uruguay’s population is estimated at about 3.4 million to 3.5 million people, so even before you get to licensing mechanics, sponsorship rules, and market access, this is a very different reference point from Brazil.