Kambi’s Mateo Lenoble says Brazil betting ban is hurting investor confidence and sports integrity

The provisional measure that banned betting operators in Brazil is doing more than freezing projects. According to Kambi’s director for Latin America, Mateo Lenoble, it is also creating legal uncertainty, weakening investor confidence, and making sports integrity harder to police.

1. Lenoble said Kambi only works in regulated markets, so the Brazilian measure has disrupted projects the company had been developing in the country. The company has been supporting its clients while they wait for a final decision.
2. He said that even if betting activity resumes quickly, the legal uncertainty created by the ban will not disappear. In his view, the issue is not just a pause in operations, but the signal it sends about how stable the market really is.
3. Brazil, Lenoble said, is “among the largest in the world” and remains attractive for suppliers and operators. Kambi would be open to returning under a new regulatory framework and to supporting partners that decide to enter or re-enter the market.
4. On sports integrity, Lenoble argued that strict rules and oversight are what help fight illegal gambling and match-fixing. Without a regulated environment, he said, bettors tend to move to clandestine platforms, which reduces the government’s and regulators’ ability to control the market.
5. He also warned that if a violation of the rules in a regulated market can happen once, it can potentially happen again. That is the sort of thing compliance teams and PSPs tend to notice: once confidence in the rulebook cracks, everyone starts pricing in more risk.

For payment providers and other infrastructure partners, the message is straightforward. A market can be big and attractive, but if the regulatory setup is unstable, the commercial upside comes with a thicker layer of operational and legal risk.