Debate over betting regulation ignored by clubs

Today, a subject claimed by clubs and the CBF, the debate on the regulation of betting platforms in Brazil was ignored by almost all associations four years ago. The event called ‘Brazilian self-regulation by the gaming sector’ took place in June 2019, at a hotel in São Paulo.

The only club that had a representative at the time was Basque, represented by its then vice-president of Marketing, Bruno Maia. The meeting featured important names such as Paulo Saad, vice-president of Grupo Bandeirantes; Lorenzo Caci, director of Sportradar; Alessandro Valente, CEO of SuperAfiliados; as well as betting site executives.

Maia even ended up closing Vasco with one of the first sponsorships from this market in Brazilian football. The agreement was with NetBet, which was present at the event. “Nobody paid attention to it when this phenomenon started in Brazil. I mean, no club. Now, everyone wants to participate because we reached a level of absurd dependence. It was a sponsorship market that had already been falling in 2018 and 2019, but in 2020 it started to decline. turn just because of this betting segment”, says Maia, current CEO of Feel The Match.

Matter is being dealt with by the Ministry of Finance

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, expects to raise up to R$ 15 billion with taxation of betting sites. The statement was given to GloboNews last week. The minister will receive club leaders in Brasília this Tuesday (11) to discuss the issue.

The four big clubs in Rio de Janeiro and the big four in São Paulo released a note the next day, expressing concern with the proposed changes in the law and demanding direct participation in the debates. The statement was signed by Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense, Vasco, Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo and Santos.

Then it was CBF’s turn to manifest itself and send a demand to the Ministry of Finance, asking for higher remuneration for football with the regulation of sports betting. Currently, 39 of the 40 Serie A and Serie B clubs are sponsored by bookmakers — the only exception being the cuiabá.

“Football recipes are being recreated on several new fronts right now. It’s not crying over spilled milk, but calling attention to the importance of looking beyond the current recipe, because, as Belchior would say, new things always come and their short-term survival can pass him by”, says Maia.

What does the current law say about betting?

The current Law 13,756/2018 provides that 1.63% of the gross revenue from games is allocated “to Brazilian sports entities that assign the rights to use their denominations, their brands, their emblems, their anthems, their symbols and the like for publicizing and executing the fixed odds betting lottery”, as sports betting is known.

In 2018, the acting President of the Republic, Michel Temer, sanctioned MP 846/2018 which regulated sports betting in the fixed odds model. The measure provided for the distribution of the amounts collected to areas of education, culture, sport and public safety.