Fellipe Fraga, Chief Business Officer (CBO) e responsável por Relações Institucionais na Stellar Gaming, compartilha suas perspectivas para a Copa do Mundo de 2026, que tem potencial para ser a maior edição da história do torneio.
In the text, the executive analyzes how the event should boost not only football, but also sectors such as digital entertainment, technology and regulated sports betting.
The article also addresses the evolution of user experience in the igaming market, the technological advances that have been transforming the segment and the importance of responsible gaming initiatives in a scenario of accelerated growth in Brazil.
Check out Fellipe Fraga’s article in full:
“In 2001, Titãs released the album “A Melhor Banda de Todos os Tempos da Última Semana”, a clever irony about how the world transforms everything into “the biggest”, “the best” or “the most historic”, until the next new thing appears. Few analogies explain the current moment in football as well as the expectation surrounding the 2026 World Cup.
The next edition of the World Cup is already surrounded by superlatives. It will be the biggest World Cup in history. For the first time, 48 teams will compete in the tournament in 104 matches, 40 games and 16 more teams compared to the Qatar edition, in 2022. And if the last World Cup was marked by geographic compactness, now the stage will be an entire continent: the United States, Canada and Mexico will share the organization of the event in an unprecedented operation for world sport.
But the grandeur of the 2026 World Cup goes far beyond the four lines.
The tournament should generate one of the biggest entertainment economies ever seen in sport. International projections estimate that more than US$35 billion will be circulated globally in betting and gaming during the World Cup. In Brazil, where football is a national issue and a collective experience, the impact tends to be even more significant. According to a survey by Creditas/OpinionBox, around 60% of Brazilians intend to interact with digital betting platforms throughout the competition. The difference is that, this time, Brazil will experience its first World Cup under an officially regulated market.
WHAT CHANGES? As of 2022, the sector is still operating in an embryonic environment from a regulatory perspective. Now, in 2026, the country arrives at the World Cup with clearer rules, public supervision, compliance requirements, user protection mechanisms and a greater commitment to integrity and transparency.
This completely changes the dynamics of the sector, both for companies and consumers. In practice, the dispute is no longer just about who offers better odds. In an environment of extremely high competition and billions of interactions in real time, user experience becomes the true competitive differentiator.
It is precisely this movement that Brazilian companies in the igaming segment have been investing in. The sector is quickly moving towards a broader model of digital entertainment, community and continuous relationships with the public, a concept defined as the “Attention Economy 3.0”.
In a World Cup on a record scale, technological infrastructure, operational stability and speed are no longer just technical attributes and start to directly impact the consumer experience. After all, in a digital ecosystem driven by emotion and instantaneity, every second matters.
Responsible Gaming
At the same time, technological advances also expand the ability to promote a safer and more responsible environment. As is the case with the project between Estrela bet and FUMEC, in which predictive models were developed with artificial intelligence to identify behavioral patterns and strengthen Responsible Gaming initiatives, combining technology, data intelligence and humanized service.
The objective is clear: to make the growth of digital entertainment during the World Cup happen in a sustainable, balanced and safe way, reinforcing that betting must be, above all, a fun experience. Because, after all, the 2026 World Cup really promises to be the biggest of all time, at least until 2030.
*Fraga has a degree in Law from PUC Minas, with a specialization in Public Law from UNESA, and has extensive experience in the areas of Public, Electoral and International Law. He was a founding member of the Superior Court of Sports Justice for American Football (STJD-FA) and was a member of the Sports Law Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB-MG).
