As Latin America cements its position as one of the fastest-growing iGaming regions globally, payments are rapidly emerging as a strategic differentiator on par with odds, content, and product design.

Last week at ICE Barcelona, the world’s largest iGaming event, Edward Chandler, our Group CEO, sat down with Yogonet to share his perspective on how shifting consumer behaviour, mobile-first habits, and rising expectations around speed and trust are reshaping online betting across the region.

From the explosive adoption of Pix in Brazil to the impact of the upcoming World Cup, Chandler explains why frictionless payments, deep localisation, and smarter personalisation are no longer optional. Instead, they are becoming the defining factors that will separate platforms that convert momentary interest into long-term loyalty from those that fall behind in one of the industry’s most competitive markets.

Q1. How is LatAm consumer behavior changing in 2026 when it comes to online betting?

What we’re clearly seeing across Latin America is a shift toward far more spontaneous digital behaviour. Wider mobile access and faster connection speeds have created a “now-or-never” mindset, where users expect instant gratification and have very little tolerance for delay.

Mobile adoption is accelerating rapidly—but it’s not just about smartphones in general. The uptake of high-end devices is growing particularly fast. While adoption still varies significantly by country and even within markets like Brazil, the overall direction is clear: users are increasingly operating on more powerful devices.

Network speed has evolved in parallel. The transition from 2G to 4G, and now 5G, has enabled real-time, on-the-move usage. That matters enormously for betting and gaming. When a user decides to place a bet, they want to do it immediately—without friction.

Our preliminary data reinforces this shift. 41.2% of iGamers describe their online behaviour as almost always spontaneous. Transaction speed therefore becomes a critical success factor. Nearly 29.4% of users will abandon a transaction if it takes longer than 30 seconds, while 18% expect it to be completed in under five seconds.

This demand for speed is also reshaping the wider payments ecosystem. Instant payment methods such as Brazil’s Pix are growing at 35% annually, precisely because they align with these expectations. For platforms and payment providers, this creates a clear imperative: audit time-to-transaction end-to-end and use real-time monitoring to measure the exact moment a deposit is initiated to the moment funds are available.

Finally, generational change is amplifying this trend. Younger users particularly Gen Z, are even less patient and we will see this trend in the next gens that are coming. Decisions are made in seconds, and if they can’t act immediately, they will switch providers or move on altogether. Instant gratification isn’t a nice-to-have anymore; it’s a baseline expectation.

Q2. If a platform has the best odds or the most attractive investment products, surely that’s what really matters. Isn’t the payment method just an afterthought? What can you tell us about this idea? Is it a misconception?

Years ago, payments were largely viewed as a back-office necessity. Today, they are a core part of the customer experience. Without the right flow, the right options, and a seamless journey, platforms simply won’t secure the deposit or the sale.

As a result, payments have moved to the forefront of product, operations, finance, and marketing. Teams increasingly recognise that to attract and retain new players, the payment experience is not a support function, it’s a growth driver.

That experience must be frictionless. This goes beyond UX design; users need to see payment methods they recognise and trust. In Latin America, more than in many other regions, this means strong adoption of bank-to-bank solutions —Pix in Brazil being a standout example— alongside wallets and alternative payment methods commonly used outside of iGaming.

When players don’t see a familiar and trusted payment option, they won’t deposit. They’ll simply go elsewhere. Ensuring the right mix of local payment methods, a smooth experience, and consistent reliability is essential.

Our research supports this shift. 58.8% of respondents say the availability of their preferred payment method is a deciding factor, while 17.6% will abandon a platform outright if it’s missing at checkout or on the deposit page. This aligns with broader market data showing that 70% of LatAm consumers are unlikely to complete a transaction on a site that doesn’t offer local payment options.

The challenge is that global payment templates often fail to translate locally. In Brazil, for example, only 30% of cards are enabled for international transactions. This is why platforms need local payment partners that can process domestic card schemes and provide the most relevant alternative payment methods in each market.

Localizing the offering is certainly essential like Pix in Brazil, but even beyond that, there are other innovations: things like biometrics are taking over pay-and-play. No longer can iGaming operators stand still. They have to move with the way innovation goes.

Q3. We’ve all experienced online glitches. Is one bad payment experience really enough to lose a customer?

Yes, and iGaming is arguably the industry where this matters most. When a player decides to place a bet—whether on a game or in a casino—they want to do it immediately. If that moment is interrupted, they won’t wait. They’ll move to another platform and try again.

While users may retry once, payments that fail on the first attempt quickly erode trust. In iGaming, reliability isn’t optional, it’s fundamental. Payments have to work every time, all the time. Performance and experience are what lead.

This reality is particularly pronounced in Latin America, where tolerance for friction is extremely low and trust can be lost almost instantly when payments are involved. Our findings show that more than one-third of users, 35.3%, would stop using a platform entirely after just one poor payment experience. This sits within a broader context of fragile financial confidence, with external research indicating that 52%  of Latin Americans have little to no trust in the financial system overall.

To address this, platforms must actively remove friction from the payment journey. Tokenisation helps returning users avoid repeatedly entering their details, while AI-native anti-fraud solutions can stop genuine threats in milliseconds without slowing down the experience for the majority of users who expect instant results.

Q4. How could the 2026 World Cup impact the behavior of iGamers in Latin America?

The World Cup represents a unique moment for the iGaming industry, and Brazil sits right at the centre of it. Brazil alone is forecast to account for around 10% of all global World Cup bets, and this year’s tournament is set to be even more impactful than previous editions. With eight Latin American nations qualifying, interest across the region will be intense, driving a surge in betting on local teams as well as cross-market rivalries.

This also creates a significant opportunity for operators to attract new players. Our research shows that 58.8% of respondents have no fixed intention to bet, but are open to doing so if inspired in the moment. During a live match, inspiration is instant and platforms must be ready for it.

First impressions will determine everything. A smooth payment experience during the tournament can convert first-time or occasional bettors into long-term customers who return after the World Cup or explore other verticals. Conversely, if payments fail or feel slow, those users are unlikely to come back. This makes payment reliability during peak moments absolutely critical.

Payouts are just as important. For new players, the moment of winning defines the experience. If accessing winnings is slow or complicated, even a positive betting experience can end on a negative note. Frictionless payments in and out, delivered at speed and with consistency, are essential to building trust and loyalty.

Emotion also plays a major role. 35.3% of users say they will bet on their national team regardless of the odds, while only 23.5% base decisions on statistical analysis. In these high-intensity, high-traffic moments, platforms must simplify onboarding for low-value bets, rely on scalable, API-driven payment infrastructure, and stress-test systems in advance to handle sharp traffic spikes during key matches.

Q5. Beyond speed and flexibility, what is the biggest missed opportunity you see for platforms today?

It is personalization and It’s fascinating. Think we are now at ICE and walking around the expo most exhibitors in almost every conversation centres on AI, personalisation, and unique user journeys—yet our recent research shows that nearly 60% of users don’t feel their experience is personal at all.

There is still significant room for improvement across the entire player journey. From the moment a user logs in, to the content they see, when it’s shown, and how it adapts to their behaviour, location, or time of day, most platforms are still operating with broad, generic experiences. AI and generative AI have the potential to change this dramatically over the coming years, but adoption is clearly still at an early stage.

The gap is especially visible in payments. Our survey found that 58.8% of respondents believe platforms offer little to no personalisation, particularly when it comes to payment options tailored to their generation or behaviour. This is striking given that personalisation is proven to drive results. In Brazil, for example, it increases purchase intent for 59% of consumers, yet only 35% of e-commerce organisations have a cohesive personalisation strategy.

In a World Cup year, success won’t be defined solely by what happens on the pitch. It will also depend on which platforms use insight-driven personalisation to deliver seamless, empathetic payment experiences—adapting to user history, location, and context, and offering real-time guidance toward faster and more reliable payment methods at checkout.

That said, there is a fine balance to strike. Personalisation must be closely aligned with responsible gambling. If experiences become too targeted, there is a risk of encouraging play beyond healthy limits. Personalisation may be the next frontier for iGaming, but it must be implemented thoughtfully, with player protection built in by design.

Q6. In which ways can the payment experience contribute to personalization?

The payment experience can play a powerful role in personalisation because it captures behavioural data that merchants don’t always see. Merchants typically only see the successful deposit. We see the entire journey through the cashier—how users attempt to pay, where they hesitate, which methods they prefer, and where friction occurs.

In some cases, we also see patterns across multiple merchants. When this payment-layer insight is combined with player data, it becomes a highly valuable source of intelligence. It enables a deeper understanding of user behaviour and opens up new opportunities to personalise the experience in meaningful ways.

This is why one of the most common questions merchants ask us is how they can enrich their own data with ours. By supplementing player data with payment data, platforms can move beyond generic personalisation and start delivering experiences that are faster, more relevant, and better aligned with how users actually behave at the moment of intent.

Q7. Looking ahead to 2030, what do you think platforms that succeed in Latin America will be doing differently from those that fail?

Security will always be foundational. Platforms must protect large volumes of players, remain resilient, and deliver the same high-quality experience at peak moments such as a World Cup, as they do on a quiet day. Scalability is no longer optional; it’s a baseline requirement.

The more significant shift, however, is localisation. Latin America cannot be approached with a one-size-fits-all global model. Success requires deep local understanding of users, payment habits, regulatory realities, and content preferences. The platforms that win will be those that localise meaningfully and personalise experiences, offers, and games for each market they serve.

Looking ahead to 2030, success in Latin America won’t be defined by who scales the fastest, but by who understands the region most deeply. Winning platforms will move away from copy-paste global strategies and design for how Latin Americans actually live, pay, and engage digitally.

Playing Differently means recognising that trust in the region is fragile, attention spans are short, and moments matter. High-performing platforms will build experiences that work in real time, not just in theory. They will treat payments not as a back-office utility, but as a strategic layer that directly influences conversion, retention, and loyalty.

In practice, this means moving beyond speed alone toward intelligent orchestration: offering the right payment method at the right moment, simplifying onboarding without compromising compliance, and using real-time data to remove friction before users even notice it. It also means embedding responsibility and transparency into the experience, because sustainable growth in Latin America depends on trust that is earned and maintained.

Platforms that focus only on short-term spikes around major events will fall behind. Those that design for lifetime value will win. In Latin America, how you enable a transaction is just as important as what you offer and that difference is where long-term competitive advantage will be built.