MeridianBet CEO: we will exhaust every way to resume Brazil business

Meridian Holdings has committed to staying in Brazil and riding out the legislative and judicial storm that has engulfed the country’s gambling industry. The company, which operates the MeridianBet online sportsbook, acknowledged that President Lula da Silva’s online gambling ban had a big impact on its business during Q3. Total group-wide revenue came in at $46m (£34.6m), down 3% year-over-year (Q3 2025: $47.3m). This dampened what was otherwise looking like a promising year for Meridian, with year-to-date revenue up 16%. The most daunting figure from the quarter was the net loss of $13.3m. This has been directly attributed to $11.4m of non-cash impairment charges, including ones related to the Brazil online gambling ban. “This was a challenging quarter, impacted by customer-favorable sports results, regulatory developments in Brazil and higher operating costs,” said Zoran Milosevic, Chief Executive Officer of Meridian Holdings. “Brazil suspended fixed-odds betting, including online casinos, by all operators. Our core business remains healthy and outside one-off adjustments continue to generate cash to drive its own growth.” Fighting talk from MeridianBet Brazilian licence holders were given until 6 October to close their betting platforms. The judicial debate over the constitutionality of Lula’s ban is now well underway in the Supreme Federal Court (STF). Lower level court challenges against the ban have been suspended by the Court pending its own decision. Meanwhile, the National Congress still has the ability to amend or reject the president’s Provisional Measure (MP) following a 120 day review. With all these factors in mind, does it make sense for MeridianBet – and others for that matter – to cut their already substantial losses and give up on Brazil? In Milosevic’s view, definitely not, as he told investors following yesterday’s results. “Our decision is to stay in Brazil and to exhaust every single possible legal way to resume our business,” he said. “Actually, every single company is doing more or less the same. “I don’t know anyone that actually exited the market. And we lowered our expenses. We have a minimum office, minimum expense.” As Milosevic noted, MeridianBet is not alone in fighting Lula’s betting ban. Betano, owned by Kaizen Gaming with Allwyn holding a minority stake, was quick to confirm it would pursue legal action shortly after the ban was announced, for example. The costs of the Brazil exit are still plain to see in MeridianBet’s finances, however. The company’s adjusted EBITDA, for example, was down considerably from $4.8m last year to $400,000 this year. Luckily for the company, Brazil is not it’s only market, and while the ban there may have dealt it a heavy blow this quarter there are other markets to help absorb the impact of this political gut punch. Serbia-founded MeridianBet is active in 18 jurisdictions, while Meridian Holdings also owns MexPlay in Mexico, prize draw competitions firm RKings in the UK, and trade promotions platform Classics for a Cause in Australia. Some of these businesses still ran into hurdles, however. Growth has been eluding RKings and Classics for a Cause, for example, with Chief Financial Officer, WIlliam Scott, telling investors “we’re working on trying to grow those businesses and stop the decline”. Despite the revenue declines and widening loss, Meridian was still able to end Q3 with some positives, namely a reduction in debt. The group closed the quarter with $16m in cash and total debt down from $34.7m in Q3 2025 to $24m this year. It was also able to secure a deal with its former owners in September to extend the repayment of $15.6m owed to them until November 2031 with no interest – a development Scott remarked “allows us to keep investment where we are growing”.