The National Congress of Brazil will soon begin discussing the provisional measure (MP) that will create a legal market for sports betting, both retail and online and end the current Wild West environment. This will occur once the MP is reviewed by the ministries of Finance, Justice and Sports, reports SBC Notícias Brasil.
SBC interviewed José Francisco Manssur, special advisor to the executive secretary of the Ministry of Finance about what the bill contains. He noted that Law 13,756/2018 legalized fixed-odds sports betting, but did not create a regulatory framework. That was the job of the executive branch of the government.
The government almost missed the deadline for regulating the sector due to delays by outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro. The incoming president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, “had to fill that gap in just a few months,” said Manssur.
The MP the Congress will take up includes information about taxes, penalties and other details. It closely resembles the regulatory framework on gambling in the U.K. With a notable exception: no banning on advertising. “Our idea is not to cause damage and drive sponsors away from the teams,” said Manssur, per SBC.
Under pressure from the Evangelical Parliamentary Front (FPE) and the Parliamentary Front for a Brazil without Gambling, the government will look into problem gambling, said Manssur. He added that the goal is “create rules so it doesn’t lead to a wild betting environment, as it currently is.”
The government team is consulting with the National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (CONAR) “to find out what the advertising market and the entities that work with problem gambling and addiction can do to carry out regulated, conscious and responsible activities,” said Manssur.
The MP will also deal with match-fixing and money laundering.
This coincides with the announcement by the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) that it will expand its integrity monitoring and anti-match fixing operations into the country at the request of the government, Yogonet reports. Recent data released by IBIA disclosed that Brazilian sports is in the crosshairs of illegal match-fixers.
IBIA members make up almost two-thirds of the online gaming market in the country. “That leading market position will enable IBIA to provide a highly accurate analysis and effective deterrent against match-fixing-related betting fraud in Brazil. IBIA is, therefore, uniquely positioned to support a crack-down on match-fixing in the country,” said the association in a statement.
IBIA CEO Khalid Ali commented, “We welcome the Brazilian government’s decision to regulate the sports betting industry as an overwhelmingly positive move. As IBIA’s 2021 optimum betting market study confirms, balanced and efficient sports betting regulation is part of the solution to sports betting-related match-fixing.”
IBIA is able “to track transactional activity linked to individual consumer accounts rather than analyzing simple odds movements,” said Ali. “No other sports integrity solution can provide access to this data, which covers over $137 billion in sports betting turnover per annum, making IBIA the largest and most effective integrity network of its nature globally.”
According to H2 Gambling Capital, the Brazilian sports betting market grew 44.4 percent from 2021 to 2022, to BRL4,506 million ($940 million) in gross gambling revenue (GGR). It is expected to grow another 105 percent by 2027.
