Since the beginning of legal operations in Brazil, betting revenue has grown rapidly.
Data from the Federal Revenue show that tax collection from licensed betting companies doubled in the first four months of this year compared to the previous one, jumping from 2.2 billion to 4.5 billion reais.
This financial volume already places the online gaming industry on the same level of contribution as economic giants, such as the agricultural and tobacco sectors.
Today, the country has hundreds of authorized sites and the number of players continues to grow.
What accelerates betting revenue and the expansion of the sector in Brazil
The proximity of the World Cup appears as a great driver to increase the revenue of these platforms.
Experts project significant gains in deposits during the sporting event.
Assessing this moment, the president of the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL), Plínio Lemos Jorge, assured that “it is a sector that is consolidating”.
Despite the optimism, some executives project a slightly more moderate pace of expansion going forward.
The CEO of Ana Gaming, Marco Túlio Oliveira, explained that “it was a market that didn’t exist and now companies have already established themselves.”
He projected that “afterwards, the legal market will grow as the economy grows.”
As the scenario stabilizes, the tendency is for smaller companies to be purchased or close down.
Ed Birkin, president of H2, summed up the situation: “It’s not a popular thing to say, but the fact is that there are legal operators who simply underperform and don’t have a good enough structure,” he said.
Concerns about family debt and the fight against illegal gambling
Rapid growth also generates debates about the population’s debt.
A study by the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) pointed out that the country suffers from high rates of problem gambling, and retail entities associate family debts with betting.
The National Commerce Confederation (CNC) declared that “the activity causes harm to companies and consumers, especially the most vulnerable”.
The president of the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming, André Guelfi, countered the criticism, classifying the retail reaction as “envy”.
He argued that “retail is struggling because the blanket is short for the Brazilian family.”
“They see the bets advertising and think we are making money, the money they lost,” he said.
Finally, official operators still face strong unfair competition
Clandestine platforms move billions of reais without paying for government licenses, which makes regular companies demand firm action against the illegal market and unauthorized prediction platforms.