FIRST – Best in Sports announced a wide-ranging deal with Pixbet to provide the Brazilian operator with its sportsbook solutions in the rapidly growing market. 

In light of the landmark deal, FIRST’s CEO Tom Light chats to SBC News to outline how the deal came to be and what this agreement means for FIRST’s reputation in Brazil.

Light also comments on the maturity of Brazil’s market less than a year into the regulated framework, and notes how localisation is simply not an optional extra in a market as idiosyncratic as Brazil.

SBC News: Tell us about the deal with Pixbet and why FIRST decided to work with the brand.

Tom Light: Pixbet represents something bigger than an operator; they represent how Brazil bets, celebrates and follows football. When a company like that chooses a technology partner, it’s not about features. It’s about trust in the long term.

From my side, I’ve been watching the evolution of the Brazilian market for many years. Brands grow quickly, but very few maintain the connection Pixbet has built. They understand volume, they understand culture and they understand what regulation will demand. When those elements meet, you get a partnership that isn’t tactical. It’s strategic.

Working with them gives us the chance to build the sportsbook infrastructure that will define the next phase of the Brazilian market.

SBC: What are the aims of the collaboration and what solutions will you deliver?

TL: The best way to explain it is with scale. Brazil will be adding millions of new sports bettors in the next regulatory cycle, and the country already operates at peak volumes similar to some European markets. Pixbet knows this better than anyone, they see the traffic in real time.

Our objective is to give them a platform that won’t just survive the growth but take advantage of it. On a big football weekend, a top Brazilian operator can see transaction spikes that multiply by five or six within seconds. You need pricing engines, payment flows and UX layers that don’t slow down under those conditions.

So rather than delivering a list of features, we’re delivering an environment , one that lets Pixbet grow safely from now to 2030 without having to rebuild their product every two years. That’s the real aim.

SBC: Brazil’s operators are competing on tech, not branding. What makes FIRST stand out technologically?

TL: What’s happening in Brazil happened in other markets I’ve lived through: once regulation enters, the marketing race stops mattering and the technology race begins. And technology exposes everything, speed, uptime, real in-play performance, payment efficiency, latency.

FIRST stands out because we didn’t start with a European base. We started with LATAM reality. We built engines that update markets fast enough for Brazilian football, cashout models that handle aggressive user behavior and Pix flows that settle instantly, not “near instantly”.

The difference becomes clear when an operator has 200,000 people betting live on the same match. In those moments, you see who truly engineered for Brazil and who simply adapted for it.

SBC: FIRST’s platform is LATAM-first. How do you localise specifically for Brazil?

TL: Brazilian behaviour is extremely distinctive. A Brazilian bettor touches the interface four to six times more per session than the average European user. They move fast, they decide fast and they abandon anything that hesitates.

When you know that, localisation stops being about “Portuguese content” and becomes about designing a platform that breathes the same rhythm as the player.

For example, during a classic derby, odds can shift every few seconds. We build for that speed. Pix flows are optimised for the timing Brazilians expect. The front end is structured around Brazilian football hierarchy, because that’s where users naturally go.

And if I project to 2030, all this accelerates. More mobile usage, more in-play, more micro-moments. The operators who win will be the ones whose product feels Brazilian, not imported.

SBC: How important is localisation for operators entering the market?

TL: It’s more than important, it’s decisive. In Brazil, localisation determines whether a user gives you a second chance or closes the app. People in this market are extremely sensitive to friction: slow screens, unclear markets, non-Brazilian flows. They leave immediately.

I’ve seen brands with huge global reputations fail in LatAm because they underestimated this. The ones who succeed understand that localisation is not a marketing exercise. It’s an operational advantage. It lowers churn, increases lifetime value and stabilises acquisition costs.

In a regulated environment, where licences come with expectations, localisation becomes a compliance tool as much as a commercial one.

SBC: What are the sporting and betting preferences of Brazilian bettors, including bet types?

TL: Brazil is one of the most intense sports ecosystems in the world. The amount of interaction during a match is extraordinary. You see spikes in traffic when there’s a change in momentum, a dangerous attack or even a VAR check. That behaviour naturally makes in-play the dominant format.

Pre-match remains strong, but live betting is where Brazil really asserts itself. Same-game parlays have grown sharply, especially among younger users who want control and creativity in the bet.

And everything happens on mobile. Not “mostly”, but overwhelmingly. So if your journey isn’t built for one-hand usage, fast tapping and instant confirmation, you’re already losing users.

Speed defines Brazil. And if you’re not built for speed, you’re not built for this market.

SBC: What results has FIRST delivered with other partners in Brazil, and how will you replicate that with Pixbet?

TL: Results vary by operator size, but the pattern is always the same. When an operator moves onto our infrastructure, the product becomes faster and the numbers follow. We’ve seen consistent double-digit increases in bet frequency, improvements in retention and a clear shift toward sports when the experience is well designed.

Pixbet is a different story because they already operate at national scale. When we plugged in our technology, the early behavioural changes were immediate. Users were betting more often, moving through markets faster and engaging deeper in live play. That’s not marketing, that’s a product.

Looking ahead, what we’re building with Pixbet is meant for the long horizon. By 2030, Brazil will be one of the three most active sports betting markets in the world. Operators that want to lead that era need automation, personalisation and infrastructure that doesn’t break under pressure. That’s what we’re delivering.