Costa Rican authorities are considering the revival of legal sports betting to generate money for football and other sports in the country.
Fernando Ocampo, president of first-division soccer team Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, said, “It’s time to be creative and consider proposals to generate resources for football and other sports.” He said news on the matter and “hopefully a proposal” should be forthcoming in the next month.
In October 2019, Esmeralda Britton, executive president of the Costa Rican Social Protection Board said that she is evaluating sports betting options: “We understand that this is a small market, but before choosing it. But before we decide to legalize it, we need to go through a platform investment process that will allow us to enter the market in a proper way.”
According to CDC Gaming Reports, Costa Rica previously legalized sports betting through Pitazo and Progol, but “they did not have the expected level of profitability and therefore they were removed from the market.”
“I feel that at the time we weren’t prepared for sports betting, but today we know much more, the world has advanced a lot and we are in contact with other countries where this modality has already been implemented, such as Colombia or Argentina. We’re analyzing their strengths, their mistakes, to avoid those problems and choosing the most profitable model for us,” Britton said.
