Brazil’s on every global iGaming operator’s radar. With its rapidly emerging licensing regime and a forecasted online betting market expected to reach over $3.6 billion by 2028, the country is poised for the most significant growth in Latin America. But with that opportunity comes complexity. Brazil’s compliance landscape is not just strict — it’s uniquely specific. Standardized onboarding and fraud prevention systems designed for broader international use often break down when applied directly to Brazilian users and regulations.
The companies succeeding in this environment aren’t just those with the deepest pockets or the fastest rollouts. They treat compliance as a product challenge — one best solved through close, ongoing collaboration with customers on the ground. Rather than taking a “copy-paste” approach to KYC and AML frameworks, these organizations invest in geo-specific solutions driven by honest operational feedback from their Brazilian partners. And it’s working. In a region where tight timelines and noncompliance are costly, customer-led development has become an imperative.
Brazil Isn’t Just “Another Market”
Brazil’s iGaming compliance framework is among the most technically demanding in the world. The recently implemented Law No. 14,790 and SPA/MF Ordinance No. 827 require operators to meet a set of criteria that includes CPF validation through Brazil’s national identity database, biometric facial recognition at onboarding, player screening against Bolsa Família welfare participation and strict geolocation requirements that tie users to national domains and payment rails. These mandates are a broader push to enforce domestic integrity and prevent offshore operations from skirting local accountability.
Unlike other jurisdictions where regulators tolerate a degree of gray space, Brazil’s framework emphasizes digital transparency and local infrastructure. Operators must house data centers within the country, utilize bet.br domains and integrate with government-backed monitoring systems such as SIGAP. With license fees topping R$30 million for five years, these aren’t hurdles that can be solved with general-purpose compliance software. They require specific, validated functionality that aligns with Brazil’s unique legal and cultural landscape.What this means in practice is that success depends less on speed and more on precision. Companies entering Brazil often find themselves revisiting core aspects of their KYC, transaction monitoring and identity verification processes — not to meet new standards broadly, but to meet one country’s very specific digital, technical and bureaucratic requirements. Those who treat Brazil like just another “LATAM expansion” typically fall short.
The Role of Customer-Led Development
When operators take a top-down approach to compliance — building features based on assumptions or past market experience — they often miss what matters in the market. The KYC logic that works in Spain or Ontario rarely maps directly to Brazilian onboarding flows. Instead, the most effective operators embed local stakeholders, product feedback loops and operational leaders into their development processes from day one.
This is customer-led development at its most practical. It’s not about customer surveys or passive listening. It’s about integrating local partners — compliance leads, payment managers, risk specialists — into iterative product sprints. These stakeholders are often the first to encounter real friction: CPF mismatches, unrecognized biometric inputs or failed liveness checks due to local device configurations. By surfacing these blockers early, they drive the product toward functional, in-country success and away from theoretical readiness.This year, 73% of iGaming companies plan to add fraud headcount or technology spend specifically to handle Brazil’s new requirements. The operators seeing the fastest licensing success weren’t just investing more. They were integrating better — using local knowledge to prioritize, test and deploy geo-specific product features that met regulator expectations on day one.
Local Challenges Require Local Thinking
Operators often underestimate how deeply local infrastructure affects onboarding success. In Brazil, identity validation starts with the CPF — an 11-digit tax identifier that must be matched in real time against national databases. However, the CPF system is sensitive to inconsistencies in naming conventions and formatting, which can lead to legitimate customers being rejected if verification tools aren’t tailored to Brazilian naming patterns. This isn’t a language issue. It’s a logic issue that can only be resolved with local insight and product flexibility.
Then there’s biometric onboarding. Brazil mandates using facial recognition to confirm identity, not just once but periodically, to prevent impersonation. But mobile device fragmentation in Brazil is high. Lower-end phones, older Android versions and unreliable camera quality all impact liveness checks. Operators who simply plug in third-party biometric tools frequently encounter high failure rates unless those tools have been trained on real-world Brazilian user behavior and device types.Geolocation requirements add another layer of complexity. Since only Brazilian-issued debit cards and Pix accounts are allowed for gameplay, operators must validate not just payment origin but also user location, device integrity and IP legitimacy. Fraudsters exploit this through VPNs and spoofed device farms. The companies that have best navigated this have built — or co-developed — device intelligence layers that flag environmental inconsistencies.
Strategic Advantages of Building for Brazil
While Brazil poses unique challenges, the benefits of building for this market extend beyond its borders. Modular KYC systems, adaptable onboarding logic and customizable AML rules built for Brazil are already being reused across other high-compliance markets. In short, Brazil is forcing a product maturity that scales.
Operators who invested in Brazil-specific workflows are better prepared to enter other stringent markets, from India’s digital ID system to Germany’s transaction tracking mandates. In adapting to Brazil’s complexity, they’ve unintentionally built resilience. Their systems are faster, more granular and better manage user risk without alienating legitimate players.
Moreover, customer-led development drives internal clarity. Teams aligned around specific, externally validated requirements move faster and waste less time debating abstract compliance theory. Brazil provides urgency. Customer-led development channels it into outcomes that matter.
Lessons for Global iGaming Leaders
For iGaming operators eyeing international expansion, Brazil offers a blueprint. Success here isn’t just about knowing the rules — it’s about building the muscle to adapt quickly when those rules evolve.
The product teams that thrive are those who listen closely to their operational partners, prioritize flexibility in design and treat each market as an opportunity to strengthen core infrastructure. By centering local customer needs, operators aren’t just meeting compliance deadlines. They’re creating a product advantage that pays off well beyond a single jurisdiction.
