The sports betting market has had a good year. According to estimates by the Colombian Federation of Gambling Entrepreneurs in Colombia there was an increase of between 30 and 40% in sports betting, thanks to the enthusiasm of fans and the wide range of regulated companies that provide these services.
Until April 2024, according to the association, online betting transferred 117,068 million pesos to the health sector, and in all of 2023 this figure reached 846,000 million pesos. Currently, there are 15 authorized platforms that operate within the established legal framework, “each one has complied with strict standards of security, transparency and social responsibility, thus guaranteeing a fair and protected gaming environment for all users,” said Evert Montero, president of Fecoljuegos.
The most prominent players in this industry are BetPlay, WPlay, Codere, Betsson, Yajuego and Rushbet. The strength they have gained has been such that a report developed by Seenka detailed how sports betting houses in Colombia increased their advertising presence on television in the context of the Copa América and the Olympics.
For the final of the soccer tournament held in the United States, 41 brands from 20 industries were registered on the different channels that broadcast the matches. Caracol and RCN were the Colombian channels with the highest number of advertisers, accumulating a total of 5,701 seconds of advertising. RCN led in the number of brands and advertising seconds, with 28 brands and 3,617 seconds, surpassing Caracol, which had 23 brands and 2,084 seconds.
While Betsson and Betplay shared almost half of the advertising seconds. The rest of the entities in this category represented only 0.8% of the total. Although this year there were competitions in different sports, the crown of online betting goes to football with 85% of the market in Colombia.
“The Copa América, the final stages of the Champions League, and the matches of the local leagues and the main European leagues such as Serie A, the Premier, La Liga and the Bundesliga are the events in which Colombians bet the most.”
The Consumer League CON-SUMMA filed a complaint with the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC) for the video of the song ‘El ritmo que nos une’, by Ryan Castro, which was the ‘anthem’ of the Copa América for Colombian fans. CON-SUMMA argued that “in said video, the singer Ryan Castro, several players of the Colombian National Team and a group of Colombian fans are shown singing and celebrating, among them several minors.
For its part, the Gelsa Group, behind chance, Super Astro, Raspa Todo, Loterías and the Betplay collection, assures that the latter is the business that is growing the most, with a 25% increase in sales and a market share close to 60% at the national level.
