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What is Catanza?
The court action came as MDJS was warning of the financial impact of offshore betting. Director General Younes El Mechrafi told a parliamentary sport forum in December that illegal sports betting stakes reached about MAD3.5 billion in 2024. He put the cost to the state at some MAD700 million, split between the national sports development fund and the Treasury.
Meanwhile, Tunisian gambling law rests on Decree-Law 74-20 of October 1974. The only lawful sports betting channel is the state company Promosport. Pari-mutuel horse race betting is managed by the Agence Tunisienne de Solidarité.
Parliament is now considering two competing approaches to online gambling. But neither has produced a licensing framework.
What is Catanza?
The initial batch of FSPIs launched with NHL performance gauges, triggering a wave of filings from exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers seeking to launch futures-based funds for each professional hockey team. One issuer even filed plans for leveraged ETFs tied to the NHL indexes.
A similar scenario is playing out on the back of the MLB index introduction. Both LeagueShares and RexShares filed plans for ETFs tied to the FutureSports MLB indexes.
If approved, the funds would hold baskets of the CME-traded derivatives. LeagueShares went a step further by adding a filing for 2x leveraged MLB futures funds.
What is Catanza?
With the central challenge of tax to compete with, operators face a test of whether they can maintain growth while remaining competitive in an increasingly fierce market.
Escobar expects the competitive landscape to evolve as the market settles, with operators facing a different set of priorities from those that defined Peru’s initial regulatory rollout.
“I don’t believe Peru has reached maturity yet, but I do believe it is entering its next stage of development,” she says. “Peru has one of the strongest long-term outlooks in South America.”
