Brazil and Latin America are on the minds of most online gaming industry executives right now, and rightly so. Operators, suppliers and consultants have been busy working on deals and helping shape regulations in the continent's biggest markets for many years. As Brazil prepares for regulated online sports betting and casinos, many of those long-term projects are now coming to fruition.

The region is, and has been, growing for some time, and while Brazil is the largest and most significant market, countries such as Peru and Chile are active and new deals are also being closed in important jurisdictions such as Mexico and Colombia.

However, for all the talk of promise and growth, it is also important to remember that all markets in the region, especially Brazil as the largest of them, have been active for many years and have several major operators who dominate market share and hope to maintain that share once regulation comes into effect. Furthermore, unregulated operators will not stop operating and concentrating on the market once regulation is introduced.

Therefore, just like the regulated markets in Europe, competition will come from all directions. Success factors. This means that factors such as brand recognition, reputation, reliability and word of mouth will play a key role in influencing where players decide to open accounts.

This will be even more pertinent in the early days of regulation, when the topic will receive a lot of media attention. It will be covered extensively on mainstream television channels, while newspapers and mass market consumers talk about sports betting and exchange tips and anecdotes about odds and betting. Reputation and recommendations are the factors that most influence users when choosing an online bookmaker, while faster payouts (unsurprisingly) top the list of improvements punters would like to see from operators.

Clear focus. When it comes to companies supplying the industry, most openly state that Latin America, and Brazil in particular, are important focus areas for them. Giant neighbours. For US operators, the fact that the US market has become an effective duopoly and the top four betting brands control around 85% of the market means that looking south for new markets to develop is an obvious step. In markets outside of Latin America, “many sports bettors are motivated to bet because they want to make money or bet on the teams they support.”

In the US, the strong heritage of fantasy sports means there is a greater interest in individual athletes, and this has created significant interest in player-focused prop bets and matched bets. This history has allowed sports betting to quickly take root in the broader US fan experience and has “given rise to the concept of the recreational bettor who wagers in-game to truly enhance their personal enjoyment.” As Brazil’s sports betting market continues to evolve with regulation, “we will see behavioural trends emerge among sports bettors in the region” and, with expansion slowing in the US, “operators are putting more emphasis on product improvements as well as improving the user experience to generate more revenue from existing customers.”

These personalisation and gamification features will play a key role in Brazil, “already occurring for some time” across the board. “Gaining user data to offer highly targeted bets to players based on their history and clientele levels allows operators to maximise lifetime values, segment the player base and implement robust personalisation features.” As operators, suppliers and affiliates continue to jostle for position in Brazil and other Latin American countries, competition levels will be intense.

But amid all the sound and fury of a Brazilian market that is forecast to generate revenues of $9.7 billion by 2028, the key will be attention to detail and the provision of deep and broad offerings to attract and retain players.

The resolution that was published regarding land use, made us run bases since its publication in October of last year and we still can't catch up, we continue to process before curatorships, mayors and they don't resolve it; I did say that they are going to ask us for money, and it is happening to me personally with 2 requests in Cundinamarca.

Speaking with operators from other cities we agree with the same concern: The prosecutor's office and Coljuegos. Recently Coljuegos published the transfer of more than 160 processes to the accusing entity and names as usual the games located and the illegal operation, and I don't have any good thoughts about it because we, the located ones, only appear in the news of the entity to give credit to some illegal operation, confiscation or similar; not being the case of baloto, chance, sports that always contribute and contribute, according to Coljuegos President.

Returning to my concern, it bothers me that with Coljuegos' desire to take center stage against those located, they are carrying out a witch hunt, accusing them of anything and there they can defend themselves.

Let us remember that some of the land uses that we contributed a little over 8 years ago, could not be valid because either the POT changed and if there is something that has characterized the current administration it is the blinded hatred against us and the easiest thing is to accuse us of being false for not respecting acquired rights or simply with the excuse of not having enough personnel to process it.

I hope time does not prove me right, this is one of those bets that I want to lose.

In the digital age, the use of invoices and electronic equivalent documents has become mandatory in the business field. However, this technological advance has also opened the door to new challenges.

To date, they have not yet issued the technical annexes so that electronic providers can carry out the development for this sector, even the latest version of technical annexes does not contain anything for games and is the last one enabled on the Dian page.

On the other hand, Decree 358 of March 5, 2020, issued by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, contemplated at that time that for all equivalent documents for games of chance and luck, which are a special case, because the operators report to other Public entities the reality of their operations, which will be taken into account as an electronic equivalent document.

The above meant at that time and until now, that the reports made online and in real time to the supervisory and surveillance entities, especially Coljuegos and the National Council of Games of Luck and Chance, will be accepted as electronic equivalent documents to the invoice in each of the gaming operations, for which the Dian will coordinate with the respective entities the transmission of the equivalent document.

The conclusion of this compendium of modifications is that without technical annexes that indicate how the process of transmission of the equivalent electronic document for localized games is, we would not be in breach of the Resolution and in addition to this, we are protected by Decree 358 of March 5, 2020 issued by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and the paragraph of Article 20 of Resolution 165 of 2023 issued by the Dian.

The coding geniuses of the world have always considered poker to be the most complex game. While, for example, all the pieces are clearly visible on a chessboard, and the strategy itself is calculated for many moves ahead, in poker, the cards of all opponents are closed, so the options winners were selected based on incomplete data.

However, the machine with a specially launched program managed to master the methodology of using the well-known bluff. Before then, it was believed that machine intelligence was incapable of deliberate provocation and that only a human could bluff at poker.

The game of poker is a challenging task for AI as it requires decision making based on uncertainty and incomplete information.

Therefore, AI can help players make more informed decisions and improve their game strategy, but it cannot completely replace a player.

However, it is important to understand that the use of AI in poker does not guarantee victory at all, since the game of poker depends mainly on random factors and the intellectual and psychological abilities of the players.

The use of AI to influence the outcome of the game is contrary to the ethical principles of the game and may harm the experience of other players. If you personally want to improve your poker skills, then artificial intelligence will not help you in this, but will only harm you. After all, over time, you can lose your intuitive abilities and the abilities of your opponents' behavioral characteristics.

In addition, the use of AI can pose a threat to the privacy of players, since some of them can access the personal data of poker players and use it for their own purposes.

Some argue that AI can kill the original spirit of the poker game, since the winner can no longer be the one who can read the opponents and calculate everything in advance, but the one who can memorize the most patterns and apply them in the game. game. That is, AI can harm online poker, but that does not mean that it will completely replace human intelligence in this game. After all, poker is a game that requires not only computer skills, but also intuition, experience, and the ability to read other players.

In recent years, the online poker market has expanded significantly thanks to innovative technologies that are constantly being introduced to the game. Therefore, all favorable development indicators and conditions point to a growing demand for online poker among users. Gamification will become an independent development vector.

Games of chance will move more and more towards gamification; they will become faster and more interesting.

We can already see trends when users choose a platform to play not because it has the best conditions, but because it has some unique feature, you can level up, character, get achievements, etc.

Let's not forget about artificial intelligence. In the future, the AI will be used to create interesting and dynamic game situations that will adapt to the player's level and playing style. Additionally, AI can be used to create more realistic virtual opponents using virtual reality technologies that will consider all possible game development options. The use of blockchain technologies in poker will also grow rapidly. Blockchain will be used to store and exchange information between players, such as game history and results. This will help increase the transparency of the game and reduce the possibility of disputes, but there is still no reason to be alarmed that the AI does not yet have the sixth sense, yet…

The Paris Games are expected to be the most heavily wagered Olympics in U.S. history, but some of the most popular sports are already off the table in two of the 38 states (plus Washington, D.C.) where betting is legal.

Louisiana and Massachusetts do not allow betting on refereed events, meaning betting operators cannot accept wagers on gymnastics, horseback riding, breakdancing (the official name is breaking), surfing and BMX freestyle.

“If we decide in Louisiana, I’m sure the other 38 jurisdictions might say, ‘What are they thinking?’ But at the end of the day, the president and that gaming control board are responsible for what happens in that jurisdiction; regulators don’t like to operate in a gray area, and these types of sports present a gray area problem,” said Ronnie Jones, former chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.

The ban on refereed sports in the two states showcases the patchwork of regulations that have emerged since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018. The decision authorized states to offer legalized sports betting that Nevada had exclusively had for decades.

It has, in turn, led to different standards in each jurisdiction. Louisiana's gambling regulations detail that outcomes must be "determined on the field of play and can be demonstrated by a scoreboard or statistical analysis" for betting to be allowed in the state. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted in January 2023 to “exclude Olympic events [whose] outcome depends primarily on the assessment of a judge or panel of judges. But the two states have different views on boxing.

Louisiana allows Olympic boxing betting, while Massachusetts does not. And just because states allow betting on sports and events does not necessarily mean that operators like DraftKings and FanDuel will offer such bets.

At best, bettors in states that allow betting on refereed competitions will be able to wager on only 60% of the 329 medal events at the Paris Games.

“The most popular sports are the ones that are truly American, like men’s and women’s basketball get all the betting, but events like racing and swimming get very, very little action.”