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A new industry body has entered Chile’s online gambling landscape at a pivotal moment for the sector: with a licensing bill for online betting now in its second constitutional stage before the Senate, AgruGaming has launched to represent a part of the ecosystem that’s had no organised voice in the regulatory debate so far – the suppliers behind the platforms, rather than the platforms themselves.
Unlike the Asociación Chilena de Casinos de Juego, which represents operators such as Betano, Coolbet, JugaBet and RojaBet, AgruGaming’s membership is built around game labs, live casino providers, sports betting technology firms, platform vendors and payment gateways – the B2B layer that keeps consumer-facing brands running.
Leadership with direct regulatory experience
The association’s leadership brings a notable mix of regulatory and commercial credentials. Francisco Leiva, Chile’s first-ever Superintendent of Casinos de Juego, will serve as director of institutional relations; Patricio Broerse, a gaming consultant and investor, takes the executive chairman role; and David Fica Jaque – founder of online casino technology firm Land Vegas Group and AI-driven casino optimisation platform Haimee, with prior experience as a supervisor at Enjoy and gaming director at Dreams – will head development and coordination.
Speaking to Diario Financiero, Leiva framed AgruGaming’s purpose as building trust between suppliers, regulators and platform operators at a stage when that three-way relationship has been missing a piece: suppliers, he noted, had no seat at the table in Chile’s online gambling regulatory discussions, making it necessary to organise them both to keep them informed of the national picture and to channel their positions to authorities. He pointed to a practical reason this matters for compliance readiness specifically – since platforms integrate multiple content providers to deliver their services, it’s essential those suppliers understand and meet the regulatory requirements that will eventually apply to them.
Early membership, ambitious growth target
AgruGaming currently counts eight member companies, split evenly between four Chilean and four international firms, with the association targeting 50 affiliated companies by year-end – a scale that would make it a substantial voice in the sector’s compliance preparation well before any licensing framework takes effect.
Leiva, reflecting on his own move from overseeing physical casinos to the online space, said his consistent interest has been seeing Chile’s gaming industry develop in line with international best practice. He noted that the country’s current regulatory constraints, combined with the pace of technological change, mean online gaming is the industry’s clear next stage of development – one where Chile still lags several other Latin American markets.
