Brazil: A problem turned into an opportunity

Ampersand View with Fernando Paes Afonso, Owner and CEO, Valuable Numbers

Inefficiency of the federal lottery monopoly demonstrates the scale of the opportunity in Brazil, where the lottery generates turnover of €3bn. Portugal, a much smaller and less populous country, surpasses that total with €3.2bn.

That’s what Fernando Paes Afonso, former chief executive of the Portuguese lottery, Santa Casa, is counting on. Despite the pandemic and in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that gave states the right to operate their own lotteries, he is preparing to roll out a new lottery business in Brazil. Should this be successful, he plans to expand into new states.

It is actually the efficiency and productivity of the online meetings, as opposed to the in-person ones, that he credits with his plan being on track and even accelerated. That and the knowledge of the local realities, language bureaucracy and limitations on foreign investment – critical for anyone wanting to do business in Brazil, whether in lottery or sports betting.