How is Mexico different from other markets around the world?

What makes Mexico different is that you cannot approach the market with a standard international playbook and expect it to work. 

The regulatory model is more complex than in many European markets, so local partnerships are essential from the outset, as they shape how you enter, build and operate. Just as importantly, the player journey has to feel familiar, especially around payments, where trusted local methods such as SPEI and OXXO often determine whether a player completes the journey or leaves early.

Mexico is also a mobile-first market with a young audience that can tell straight away when a brand has simply translated a global campaign instead of building something that feels locally relevant. In my experience, the brands that perform best in Mexico are those that feel familiar, easy to use and clearly built with local players in mind, both in how they communicate and in how the product works. You can see that in CampoBet Mexico itself, which has been designed as a localized, mobile-first brand for players whose passion for sport goes well beyond matchdays. 

Are there any specific marketing techniques or campaigns you must tailor for Mexican players? 

In Mexico, the marketing has to feel local, and that starts with understanding what fans actually follow and talk about. It is not enough to speak about football in broad terms. You need to recognize the place Liga MX holds in everyday sports culture, understand that Liga de Expansión is part of the wider football conversation and acknowledge the growing attention around women’s football. When those references are used naturally, they show the brand understands the country’s sporting culture.

Player confidence grows when the experience feels consistent from start to finish. When the campaign, the product and the service all support each other, the brand feels more relevant to Mexican players and is better placed to build long-term loyalty. 

Tell us more about your Diego Simeone partnership and what you hope to achieve in Mexico via this deal? 

For Soft2Bet, the Diego Simeone partnership is about strengthening CampoBet’s connection with players in Mexico through football, which plays such an important role in the country’s culture and identity. Simeone brings credibility, recognizability and a natural link to the player journey, reflecting the progression from Beginner to Legend in a way that mirrors his own story and gives the experience more meaning for players. Brands that offer more than the product alone will always connect more strongly with local players, especially in a market where relevance, ease of use and a sense of familiarity matter so much.  

Give us more details on the new Football Manager game you’ve worked on as part of the Simeone partnership? 

With MEGA11, the idea was to turn the Simeone partnership into something players could actually engage with inside the product, rather than keeping it at the campaign level. It works as a free-to-play football manager experience alongside the sportsbook, where players build squads, set lineups and compete in leagues and head-to-head contests. As they place bets, they earn points, move through five levels from Beginner to Legend and unlock rewards along the way, which creates a much stronger connection between gameplay and the wider sports experience.

That is what makes it especially relevant for Mexico. Football has a huge emotional pull there, and when you combine that with someone like Simeone and an experience that feels interactive and rewarding, you give players something more personal than a standard betting journey. It also reflects how we use MEGA more broadly at Soft2Bet, bringing together gamification, progression and personalization to create a more engaging experience around the core product. 

How big can Mexico become compared to other markets globally, perhaps using Brazil as a reference point? 

Mexico has all the ingredients to become one of the standout growth markets in global iGaming. The country brings together scale, a highly engaged audience and mobile-first habits that create real opportunities for brands that get localization right. Brazil naturally gets a lot of attention because of its size and the speed of activity there, but Mexico has a very strong case in its own right. It has the audience, the mobile-first habits, the passion for sport and importantly, a player base that responds well when the experience feels genuinely local. 

What makes Mexico so attractive is that the opportunity is not only about size. It is also about long-term value. It gives operators access to a large, engaged Spanish-speaking audience and creates real room for brands that get localization right to build loyalty over time. So while Brazil may lead in volume, I see Mexico as a market that can become hugely valuable in its own right and one of the clearest long-term growth opportunities in the sector. 

Finally, what do you expect in Mexico for 2026, especially given recent regulatory developments? 

I expect 2026 to be a defining year for Mexico, as the opportunity remains strong but the regulatory direction is becoming clearer. Player demand is high, digital adoption continues to rise, and football remains a major driver of engagement, yet the market still operates under an older legal framework that leaves some uncertainty about how online activity is regulated. 

What we are seeing now points to tighter oversight, stronger tax enforcement and clearer rules around advertising and operator conduct. I see that as a natural stage in the market’s development rather than something negative, even if it brings a degree of short-term uncertainty. In that kind of environment, the operators that succeed will be the ones built for the long term, with strong local partnerships, responsible marketing and a compliance-first mindset.