Interactive
Brazil – Codere launches online betting site in Brazil
By Phil - 4 January 2016
Spanish gaming company Codere has launched a portal for online gambling in Brazil in collaboration with the Jockey Club of Porto Alegre.
The website has launched in its beta stage in order to take advantage of the possible legalisation of gambling in the country.
The site Suaposta.com offers exclusive bonuses for those who register with the site. Referring to the possible changes in Brazil’s gaming laws with the announcement that “Something Amazing is on its Way” the site highlights the fact that Brazilians could soon be allowed to bet online on races staged at both local and international tracks. These events would be overseen by the Brazilian authorities and prizes would be handed out in local currency.
The company has reportedly invested around R$400,000 (US100,000) in the development of the site so far and will contract 20 people to develop the site further. The new website will only initially accept bets on horse racing but will eventually be expanded so that it will cover other sports as well.
The move shows that operators are becoming increasingly optimistic when it comes to changes in Brazilian gaming laws which could occur later on this year. Although the horse racing industry has suffered many setbacks of late Codere is well placed to take advantage of any changes.
In Brazil horseracing is run by jockey clubs, which own and operate their own track. Each club is allowed to run off site betting agencies in the area where they operate and Codere has 10-year exclusivity agreements with some of the main national Jockey Clubs through licences granted by the Ministry of Agriculture. In addition the company now runs a total of seven sports betting shops in Brazil under brand name Turff Bet & Sports Bar.
In 2012, CODERE signed an agreement with United Tote that enables the company to extend its services to Brazil and Latin America racetracks, as well as to its off-track betting network throughout the entire region. In 2014 Codere reported income of €2.8m and EBITDA of €0.4m from its horse race betting operations in Brazil.
Although online gambling is currently banned in Brazil it is estimated that Brazilians gamble US$600m a year via offshore sports betting sites. Andrew Gelfi, director of Codere in Porto Alegre announced: “An estimated five to six million Brazilians already play online. We will be the first national platform to tap into that market.”
