BetMGM’s Brazil executives are betting that a media-heavy launch strategy can still win share in a market that was already loud before the company even showed up.
COO and CMO Daniel Xavier and Ana Paula Castello Branco say the operator’s joint venture with Grupo Globo gave BetMGM the “punch” it needed to enter Brazil at scale – and to do it with credibility from day one. MGM set up the JV in August 2024, leaning on Globo’s reach as the country’s dominant broadcaster and one of Latin America’s biggest media groups. The logic is familiar: use a mass-media partner to compress the time it takes to become a household name, rather than grinding awareness up from zero.
That advantage mattered because BetMGM didn’t launch into a clean slate. Brazil’s regulated market opened on 1 January 2025, and BetMGM entered after regulation, stepping into a landscape where many brands had already spent years building early momentum. Castello Branco describes the moment as “a lot of noise” – and argues Globo is what allowed BetMGM to cut through it fast.
In her view, Globo didn’t just provide inventory or visibility. It functioned like a credibility transfer. If you’re new to a market and everyone is shouting, being attached to the country’s biggest broadcaster makes it easier to look like you belong there.
That positioning is directly tied to the goal MGM keeps repeating on earnings calls: winning 10% market share in Brazil. Xavier says the target is realistic, but only if it’s treated as a long game rather than a launch-week scoreboard.
He points to the structure of the JV itself as the key. The pitch internally, he suggests, is patience plus infrastructure: Globo and MGM are aligned on a multi-year build, and the job now is to lay foundations that can carry sustained acquisition and retention – not just short-term spikes.
Investment is part of the story, but they’re trying to frame it as disciplined rather than reckless. Castello Branco acknowledges BetMGM is spending across the board, yet insists the approach is “rational” and payback-driven. The subtext is clear: Brazil is expensive, competition can bait you into overpaying for growth, and the JV wants to avoid becoming the brand that buys share at any price.
What this really reveals is how BetMGM wants to compete in Brazil: not by claiming it has a magic product edge, but by using distribution power and brand authority to shorten the ramp-up period. In a newly regulated market where dozens of operators are fighting for attention at once, BetMGM is arguing that its Globo-backed launch isn’t just marketing – it’s a structural advantage.