The operators that succeed in LatAm focus on sequenced expansion intelligently and build scalable regional infrastructure

Latin America remains one of the most closely watched regions for international betting and gaming operators, but regional expansion continues to present operational challenges that are often underestimated.

While markets such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru are frequently discussed under the same LatAm growth narrative, each presents different regulatory conditions, payment behaviors, acquisition costs, and competitive pressures.

In this interview with Yogonet, Eddie Morales, BDM Director at Zenith, discusses where operators commonly misjudge regional complexity, how commercial structures affect long-term scalability, and why timing, sequencing, and local market knowledge are becoming central to sustainable growth.

Operators who find early success in one LatAm market often assume the playbook will travel. In your experience, where does that assumption first start to break down?

It breaks down at the local execution layer, and it usually happens faster than operators expect. The assumption makes surface-level sense: there’s a shared language, cultural similarities, and a broadly familiar player profile. However, the reality is that payment behaviour, player psychology, acquisition economics and regulatory frameworks differ significantly from country to country. 

A strategy that performs well in Peru can struggle badly in Brazil due to entirely different competition levels, payment expectations and marketing dynamics. Colombia may require a completely different sportsbook proposition, PSP setup and retention approach altogether.

The operators that succeed across the region are typically those that centralise technology, business intelligence and operational infrastructure. This also requires heavily localising payments, acquisition, VIP management and market execution on a country-by-country basis. The technology can travel but the playbook cannot. 

What changes operationally once an operator moves from running one LatAm market to managing several at the same time?

The business stops functioning like a local operation and starts behaving more like a regional infrastructure company, and this transition catches plenty of operators off guard. The need to balance centralisation with deep localisation becomes the defining operational challenge.

Technology, CRM tooling, finance, compliance frameworks and executive management need to be centralised for efficiency, while acquisition, payments, VIP management and regulatory execution must remain highly localised per country. 

Complexity increases exponentially because each market introduces different PSP ecosystems, tax structures, reporting obligations, promotional restrictions and competitive dynamics. At that stage, success depends less on having a good product and more on building an organisation capable of coordinating multiple regulatory environments and payment flows simultaneously.

All this also needs to be achieved without losing local relevance in each individual market. Speaking as someone who’s seen this in action, it is a fundamentally different organisational challenge from running a single market well. If you want to scale in LatAm, you’re going to need to get this right. 

Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Peru are all moving at completely different speeds right now. How does that impact operators looking to grow across several markets at once?

It forces a level of strategic discipline that many operators underestimate when they first map out a regional expansion plan. Instead of executing a single LatAm strategy, operators are essentially managing four different businesses with four different regulatory timelines. 

Brazil is becoming a scale-driven environment requiring significant investment and a deep understanding of compliance from the outset – this is easy to see with the constantly changing regulations. Peru still offers a comparatively lower-cost entry point with faster paths to operational traction.

Colombia is more mature as it was the first to regulate, as well as more structured, but it is also becoming increasingly competitive. Mexico remains commercially attractive yet fragmented from a regulatory and payment perspective; many would argue that this is the market’s sleeping giant. 

In my view, the strongest regional operators tend to stage expansion by using smaller or more efficient markets to build cash flow and operational expertise. This is effective as it sets the stage before deploying heavier investment into larger, more competitive jurisdictions like Brazil.

In practice, successful multi-market expansion becomes less about entering everywhere quickly and more about timing, sequencing, and building scalable infrastructure without losing local execution quality along the way. Those who get this right have every chance to be the best. 

What separates the operators who scale successfully from those who spread themselves too thin?

The operators that succeed are the ones that understand early that regional expansion is about building scalable infrastructure while remaining locally relevant in each market. Sequencing, capital allocation and operational focus are all non-negotiable.

You need to be at the top of your game, with technology and business intelligence centralised at the top – while payments, acquisition and market expertise are localised country by country. Realistic expectations around timing, regulatory complexity and player acquisition matter just as much as the product itself. 

Success in one jurisdiction does not automatically translate to another. For me, the operators who truly get that tend to be the ones still standing three years in. The brands that spread themselves too thin tend to launch in too many markets simultaneously without the organisational depth or capital to sustain their presence.

Player behaviour, compliance and competitive dynamics can be vastly different across Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Mexico. Underestimating that will prove to be the downfall for many operators as it creates operational fragmentation, rising customer acquisition costs and management overload. The pattern is consistent enough that you start to see it coming – at that point you must adapt, fast.

How important are commercial structure and pricing when operating across several LatAm markets at once?

Commercial structure is critically important, and it is an area that does not get enough attention relative to licensing and acquisition in the early stages of expansion planning. The real long-term pressure comes from how your commercial agreements can scale across different jurisdictions, payment environments, bonusing flexibility and market maturity levels.

A pricing model that is sustainable in Peru may become unprofitable in Brazil once higher acquisition costs, local taxes and compliance overhead are factored in. Of course, this needs a very measured approach. 

For me, this is where having the right aggregation partner makes a material difference. Zenith’s GamesAPI gives operators access to some of the most competitive commercial rates globally on tier-one content, directly helping offset the margin pressure that builds across multiple jurisdictions. A great example of this is our close partnership with PG Soft. Our sheer scale of distribution allows us to offer the best rates on the market.

Alongside that, our OneAPI reduces the technology overhead further by consolidating content access across markets through a single integration. We’re here to partner with those that realise that the strongest regional operators negotiate flexible, market-sensitive commercial structures on a country-by-country basis.

Rather than applying a flat model across the region, multi-market LatAm operations are ultimately won or lost through the ability to maintain healthy unit economics across markets. With us, you get the flexibility to operate at very different competitive and regulatory speeds, ensuring you can scale with ease.

If you could give one piece of advice to an international operator planning their LatAm expansion strategy for the next 18 months, what would it be?

Do not underinvest in the foundations. The operators that create long-term value in this region are rarely the ones that launched the fastest. The ones who succeed are those that focus on sequenced expansion intelligently and build scalable regional infrastructure without cutting corners on local execution. 

To do that, you need to get the operational setup right from the start, including the technology supply, commercial structures and localisation strategy that will underpin everything else. By working with a partner like Zenith, whose infrastructure is already built for LatAm – and whose team genuinely knows these markets from the inside – we remove that entire layer of complexity.

Something as seemingly minor as placing your operational hub in a time zone that is six hours or more removed from your key markets will have a real and sustained impact on your success. You need to think and act local.

In my experience, the details that feel administrative at the beginning tend to become structural problems later. Get the foundations right and the rest of the expansion becomes significantly more manageable. At Zenith, we’re here to help.