When Gurhan Kiziloz talks about building Nexus International, he doesn’t describe expansion in terms of “markets” or “regions.” His focus is narrower, more immediate. Brazil isn’t just one market among many; it’s the proving ground.
In 2024, Nexus reported $400 million in revenue from Megaposta, the company’s flagship gaming platform in Brazil. The scale of the number matters, but so does the context: Nexus has no outside investors, no board, and no financial cushion beyond its own cash flow. Kiziloz made an early, concentrated bet on Brazil just as the country’s regulatory landscape for iGaming was starting to open, and it worked.
Now, that same market is the foundation for his next leap: a $1.45 billion revenue target by the end of 2025. Whether Brazil remains a launchpad or becomes a constraint is a question Kiziloz has yet to entertain. For now, it remains the center of gravity in a company that has grown fast, on its own terms.
Betting on Brazil Early
Brazil’s online gambling market has surged since regulation cleared the way for legal operation. Sports betting, digital casino play, and broader iGaming platforms are now under a formalized regime, attracting foreign capital and spurring local competition. While the opportunity now seems obvious, it wasn’t when Kiziloz first moved in.
“When we launched the marketing, the users came. It wasn’t mapped out in detail,” he recalled in a recent interview. Rather than follow a phased international rollout, Kiziloz chose to lean into a single jurisdiction, even as regulatory frameworks were still evolving. That decision, risky at the time, has since proven pivotal.
In Brazil, Nexus focused on securing licensing early, building the legal scaffolding to operate at scale. The company’s flagship product, Megaposta, quickly gained market share, benefitting from a combination of offline marketing, local partnerships, and a high-adoption digital payments ecosystem. Importantly, Nexus moved before most of its competitors, which gave it a meaningful first-mover edge.
Geographic Focus as Strategic Leverage
Many startups aim to expand broadly and hedge across markets. Kiziloz did the opposite: he concentrated operational, marketing, and compliance energy in a single geography. This wasn’t a tactical limitation, it was a deliberate bet.
Brazil offered what he needed: scale, youth demographics, mobile penetration, and now, a path to legal certainty. But it also introduced volatility, unpredictable regulatory processes, language barriers, and high consumer acquisition costs. For most companies, those frictions would signal the need for outside capital or external risk sharing. Kiziloz disagreed.
“We don’t raise,” he said. “If I can build it myself, I will.”
That posture, equal parts pride and pragmatism, has given Nexus complete control over how it expands. But it also places every operational pressure point on a single founder’s shoulders. Licensing delays, user behavior shifts, or regulatory changes don’t just impact a team, they come straight back to the top.
At the core of Nexus’s Brazil operation is a pace-oriented structure. Kiziloz speaks frequently of speed: no committees, no approvals, no delays. “If something makes sense, we go. It’s that simple,” he said.
That model works in fast-moving markets, and Brazil, in the wake of iGaming reform, is moving fast. As foreign companies navigate tax clarity and local representation, Nexus has already run campaigns, secured partners, and integrated local payment rails.
Still, speed comes with trade-offs. Without institutional oversight or governance input, the margin for error is thin. There is no fallback plan if a licensing environment changes or a campaign fails. But for Kiziloz, the upside outweighs the risk. “If it fails, I start again,” he said.
This founder-driven decision logic allows Nexus to pursue exponential growth, but also concentrates accountability. Kiziloz doesn’t delegate high-stakes decisions. He makes them, quickly, often instinctively, and without the safety net most operators rely on.
Toward the $1.45 Billion Target
The path from $400 million to $1.45 billion is steep, and it will almost certainly require diversification beyond Brazil. Nexus has not publicly confirmed which markets come next, but Kiziloz has indicated the company will expand where user engagement and operational clarity align. In other words: where he sees the signal, not just the story.
Brazil, however, will remain central. Its gaming sector continues to grow at a rapid pace, driven by strong consumer demand and rising average revenue per user (ARPU). Regulatory momentum, once a risk, is now a tailwind, and Nexus’s early investment in compliance is paying off.
The question is whether the same founder-led structure that worked at $400 million can scale 3x without institutional architecture behind it. For now, Kiziloz seems unfazed. “Not everyone is built for this speed,” he said.
Gurhan Kiziloz didn’t follow the standard expansion playbook. He didn’t split bets across regions, raise capital to de-risk, or wait for investor greenlights. He picked a market, moved early, and operated fast.
Brazil has become the engine behind Nexus’s $1.45 billion ambition, not because of chance, but because one founder committed before it was obvious to do so. In that sense, Nexus is more than a digital gaming company. It’s a case study in how geographic focus, founder control, and strategic instinct can still defy the venture-backed script.
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