When the World Cup returns to the Azteca Stadium in Mexico after forty years, the Latin American betting market has also reached an unprecedented turning point. The 2026 tournament will be the first World Cup after the legalization of gambling in Brazil, allowing Brazilian bettors to legally place their money on the national team. For operators, this is not just a festive event, but also a tough battle of technology. Matteo Lenoble, head of Kambi's sales in Latin America, made it clear in an interview: In Brazil's highly competitive market, simply spending money on branding is no longer effective. The real difference is made by transaction technology, product innovation, and the depth of localized operations. PASA's official website also observed that the World Cup is becoming a touchstone for testing the quality of various technologies.
Brazilians love to try new things, bet builder and AI pricing become the engines
Lenoble has a precise portrait of Brazilian bettors: they naturally like new things. In recent years, the trend was to cash out early, then came early payouts, and now Brazilian players are fascinated by Kambi's self-developed bet builder, which allows them to manually combine more complex multiple bets and accumulator bets. This product hits right at the core of Brazilians' gambling preferences—football accounts for nearly 90% of betting shares in this country, far exceeding other markets.
However, Latin America is not a monolith. Kambi has been operating in Colombia and Mexico for over a decade, well aware that tastes vary greatly in every corner. Mexico and the Central American Caribbean region have a high acceptance of American sports, the Dominican Republic has a special affection for MLB, while in Brazil, baseball is almost non-existent. Lenoble emphasizes that localization is far more than just getting the language translation right; pricing, transactions, payments, and product combinations must precisely match each market, and regulatory compliance cannot be compromised. BetPlay has been collaborating with Kambi for over ten years in Colombia, helping Kambi secure a leading position locally. Although Brazil's first-year gambling revenue breaking through $7 billion is eye-catching, Lenoble believes that a long-term understanding of the market is the real moat.
The profit margin difference between 6% and 13% hides a technological dividend
A number that the industry must ponder over is the profit margin gap. The profit margin for sports betting in other mature Latin American markets is about 13%, while many operators in Brazil can currently only achieve 6% to 7%. Lenoble believes that this gap precisely indicates that there is still significant room for optimization, and the key to optimization lies in the flexibility of transactions and the accuracy of pricing. He has encountered some operators who can't even adjust their own odds because the third-party technology they use does not grant this permission. For sports betting, the ability to dynamically adjust odds and profit margins is not just icing on the cake, but a matter of survival.
This summer, Kambi will deploy a fully AI-driven sports betting transaction system during the World Cup, with currently over 60% of transactions globally completed by AI. Lenoble sums up the contribution of AI in one sentence: finding that most comfortable balance between profitability and attractiveness. More accurate pricing and more agile transaction responses will ultimately be directly reflected in the profit margin.
The Brazilian market is not without its noise. President Lula recently declared a ban on gambling, and taxes have also been announced to increase from 12% to 14%. However, Lenoble's judgment is quite firm: there will not be a fundamental policy reversal. The legal market in Brazil has been operating for several years, and gambling has already taken root, with only more additional restrictions likely. Colombia has experienced similar adjustments and ultimately chose to protect the industry. For those operators who have already heavily invested in technology and localization, the World Cup is just the starting phase of a long race, and the real test of patience is the market sedimentation after the event ends.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel: https://t.me/pasa_news
Original deep channel for gambling: https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data reports: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
