As the betting and gaming industry descends upon Brazil in 2025 following the launch of a federally regulated marketplace, the race to acquire customers is well and truly on.
However, operators are challenged with adapting to the local regulations after the transfer from a grey to a regulated market. Crucial to this is payments, with all sportsbooks and online casinos required to utilise the Pix system for its payment processing.
Pix is the Brazilian Central Bank’s instant payment system and has its own idiosyncratic features, which means operators must adapt.
One company that seeks to support operators through this difficult period is PayBrokers, a company formed and based in Brazil which has a payment processing system. As a Brazil-native company, PayBrokers intimately understands this market and how the Pix system works.
This is something that Leonardo Brodsky, Head of Sales and Account Management at PayBrokers, was eager to stress when meeting up with Payment Expert at SBC Summit Rio in February.
Brodsky notes that compliance is essential for success in the Brazilian market, and there are several parts that operators need to be aware of.
“Merchants need to get accustomed to everything they need to do on the compliance side. This includes KYC services, AML measures, anti-fraud measures,” he says.
In reality, though, compliance is merely one necessary part of a whole network of aspects that operators must get right in the payments part of their operations to ensure that they are set up for success.
Speed, compliance and low levels of friction make the perfect blend, Brodsky says. When selecting a payment processor, operators should not be afraid to pay a higher price to ensure this blend.
“Once you get a secure environment and at the same time, the payment journey is fast and as frictionless as possible, you have the perfect mix,” he adds. “Oftentimes it’s not just the pricing alone that should be the key component to choosing the right service to use. It’s important to keep in mind that having more than one payment system or having more than two should be ideal to have a healthy operation.”
Meeting the needs of Brazil’s merchants
While new global operators enter Brazil’s market for the first time, and others transition from grey to regulated, PayBrokers has identified several issues that merchants are experiencing.
While, of course, the language is different and the currency is different, there are other nuances that make Brazil such a complex place to do business. Brodsky explains that it’s essential to have boots on the ground and local support to make the most out of this huge opportunity.
“It’s adapting to the reality of the market itself because it’s completely different. The customs are different, the way they do business, how they interact with websites. It’s different to any other culture. I think having a team based in and from Brazil with market experience is a game changer.”
He also notes that the opening of the regulated market and the influx of international operators is also a positive for Brazil as they often bring decades of experience in online gambling and navigating complex regulatory frameworks.
“If you have a combination of both, you’re going to have quite an easy path towards success,” remarks Brodsky.
Much has been said about the Brazilian regulatory framework and the regime certainly has its detractors. Yet it took a long time for the industry to get to this point, with regulation in Brazil being mooted since around 2017.
With this in mind, PayBrokers is minded not to call out the framework, but rather roll up its sleeves and get to work helping operators during this adaptation period.
As Brodsky explains: “It’s a change, so we change. There’s always going to be friction, there’s always going to be things that need adapting. I believe it’s the right path.
“What I also believe is that the more we are vigilant on unauthorised operators, the better it will be. I believe it’s a job for all of us players within the market to make sure it is as effective as possible when it comes to pushing out the black market.”
As a Brazilian company, PayBrokers believes it is uniquely positioned to help operators in this market.
And after being acquired by Trio Pagamentos, the firm says it now has a blend between igaming experience and robust payment and financial expertise.
On the acquisition, Brodsky notes: “We’re able to bring something to the market that currently is not being provided. That is within the same integration, within the same environment, two redundancies, two different big sources with the same quality, the same pricing structure and data coming from the same dashboard without the need of any extra integrations.”
Exploring the PayBrokers solution
With its Brazilian experience and the backing of Trio, PayBrokers accelerates its position in Brazil, bringing its solutions to operators new and old.
But what makes the system a go-to for those entering the market?
Brodsky tells Payment Expert that its onboarding processes identify all compliance issues then the platform allows operators to process payments extremely quickly.
“The core of our tech architecture and the way that we do the integration with platforms as a whole (sets us apart). That’s not to mention the fact that currently, we hold a huge array of integrations with several different platforms, national and global, which allows most of the operators to already be integrated without even knowing.
“It makes it a whole lot easier to start the operation, plus the way that we dynamically change different features adds aspects and adds new things towards our documentation, making sure that we follow the needs that all operators have.”
The firm recently announced a new product solution called PB Rentals, giving it a retail presence and allowing licensed retail sportsbooks to offer a seamless omnichannel solution by offering the same payment wallet between retail and online accounts, simplifying the process for Brazilian bettors.
It has further product and business developments in the pipeline, but is keeping its cards close to its chest.
But as Brodsky says, 2025 is shaping up to be an exciting year for PayBrokers.
As he concludes: “We have a few things in our roadmap to have further launches, and it will include from diversification of financial services to launching new products and new features to help out growth in a sense, for all the merchants that work with us.
“So from new features of heat map to a few other tools that are a little bit more advanced. For now, we’re still not fully giving any kind of spoilers, per se, but throughout this year, we’re going to have a few more launches that will be game changers.”
