Speaker 1 (00:00.172)
The Brazilian iGaming market is already well undergoing and the regulation is in force but there's still a lot to do in the South American giant. Welcome to iGaming Daily, a new episode about the Brazilian iGaming market. I'm Fernando Nott, Senior Business Journalist for SBC Noticias and your host for today. And today we have a very special, a very broad panel of broads.
with Lucia Gando, Editor SF, SBC Noticias and also known as The Boss. Welcome Lu, how are you?
Hello, it's been a while. I'm happy I joined this Marvelous team today with the podcast. How are you?
I am very happy to be on another SBC podcast and another iGaming Daily episode and also very happy to join Elisa Marcante our business journalist for SBC Noticias Brazil. How are you Elis?
Hey fair, I'm all good. Thank you. Hi girl
Speaker 1 (01:02.734)
And also, she said girls not because she misgendered me but because there's also Ana Maria Menezes, business journalist for SPC Noticias Brasil as well. Ana, how are you? Hello!
Hi, girls. Hi, fit. We have a very broad panel today and Fer is just like hanging out among the girls. I like that.
Yeah, yeah, I'm already used to that but we have a new joiner in the SBC Noticias team, Spoiler Alert, and he's not a woman so that's a spoiler, that's a teaser of what's to come for SBC media, content, SBC Noticias, iGaming Daily, all that stuff. Before we go and start
our episode, let's thank of course OptiMove, the number one CRM marketing solution for the iGaming market and sponsor of iGaming Daily. Thank you very much OptiMove for joining us like every episode. So while the new regulation in Brazil is already in place, the market has been highly praised with this new regulation since January and all, there's still some major issues to actually tackle.
many hurdles to overcome in Brazil so one of them is the municipal lottery issue like the state lottery issue was already a big one and now we're also talking about the municipal lotteries and how far their autonomy goes Ana
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So, on March 12, the political party Solidaria Daigi, they filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Federal Court as the F and they questioned the legality of municipal lotteries and they request a declaration of unconstitutionality of these lotteries and they also want measures to be taken in order to just halt their operations. So, they emphasized that the municipal lotteries have exceeded their competence
on this.
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And they have been operating in a disorganized manner outside the legal parameters that were on established by the federal government. So this is what they're basically saying that, they, that there should be more rules and more, you know, just like vigilance over the municipal lottery. So they won't like overstep their own boundaries and geological boundaries, geographic boundaries, sorry, geographic boundaries or jurisdiction as well. And.
they filed this to the Supreme Court because they justified that the STFs, the Supreme Court's intervention, would protect the constitutional order and the legality in lottery operations in the whole country. And yeah, I think in this part, they also said that the municipal laws that they want to create could help the country to have a more organized industry, a more organized
commerce and I'm organized actually like as a country, I'm organized country.
So what can we expect from this filing by Solidaridadji? Because of course there's a lot of issues all around the gaming industry and any industry actually so people can complain, people can file lawsuits and all that stuff but most don't get anywhere but what can we expect from this and what comes next?
Okay, so the next step is the Minister Nunes Marquis is going to analyze the request and decide whether he's gonna grant the requested injection and suspend the municipal arteries until the final judgment of the case, or if he's just gonna disregard the matter. There are still no final days, no deadlines for that to happen. We're just gonna have to hashtag wait and see, as you like to say. But yeah, this is the main point right now, and this is a...
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pretty big discussion, especially after the Loterge case. So we have this follow-up and it does actually align a lot with what STF said. They said, we're gonna judge Loterge, the state lottery of Rio de Janeiro. They said, we're gonna charge them in the federal sphere, because we want to set a precedent so it doesn't happen again. So lotteries will not overstep their own jurisdiction. And this is exactly
what is coming next. So Solidaridad is exactly following the steps and trying to do the same, but in a municipal level. We're still going to have to see how this develops. But yeah, let's
Yeah, hashtag wait and see for Brazil and if you want to see rather than wait just go to SBC Noticias Brazil, make sure you are subscribed to the newsletter so you get all the news in there. Good thing you mentioned Loterchi because that's a big conflict for Brazil and something that the industry has been following, of course following through SBC Noticias Brazil, but that's a massive conflict that still hasn't been solved.
But where does that stand right now?
Yeah, so on January 21st, the Federal Supreme Court suspended the operation of lotteries, sports betting and online games outside the boundaries of Rio de Janeiro by companies licensed by Loterge, as decided by Minister André Mendonça. He also determined that licensed operators must use electronic geolocation mechanisms. The next step is for the merits of the
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original civil action number 3696 to be considered in the STF binary, but no date has been set yet.
Yeah, I think that geolocalization tool is like a very, very discussed topic, like very often, but it has had some issues. Like I can speak for the Buenos Aires market, both Buenos Aires markets. And Lou and I have had conversations with people in the industry that said, hey, geolocalization is cool and all. We have our own markets in each province and the city of Buenos Aires acts.
pretty much as the province itself so it has its own market but there are some issues with these tools around the limits of the city and the province of Buenos Aires so we'll have to hashtag again, wait and see what happens with the implementation of this tool in Brazil specifically for Loteiros and its operations in the state of Rio de Janeiro because they have to comply with the the ruling of the STF and of course the regulation of the country
And speaking of regulation, there's actually some news around the match fixing CPE, the Congress Investigative Commission, Lou, what's new about that?
Well, actually, yes, they've been moving forward with the investigation regarding the March fixing scandal that started in 2023. So now the senators of Brazil are proposing different bills to address this issue with more, with an accurate framework. one of the proposals is to ban
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athletes from participating in sports betting schemes, even though this is mentioned in the regulation of Brazil, now would be affected by jail. Like if you're a sports person and participate in a sports betting scheme related to match fixing, you can face jail time. So that's one of the proposals. The other one is to make
obligatory to make mandatory for suspects to go to the parliament to confess and do the interviews they need to do when the commission is investigating. Nowadays, you can just refuse and say, I don't want to go. I'm not in the country or whatever. With this new bill that was proposed, this would be mandatory. So they are trying to push
Very hard for that. And the last one is to ban this. This has been discussed in a lot of Latin markets, but to ban microbettings, microbettings, like in isolated events, like yellow cards, red cards, corners, and all that stuff. So this would have a huge impact in the sports betting market because nowadays microbetting is very popular.
especially in Brazil, so let's see if this one moves forward but at least the first two ones are getting all the support in the chamber that it can get, so...
Yeah, and the CPI is actually working on its final comments right now as at the time of the recording of this podcast, so make sure again you are subscribed to SBC Noticias Brasil newsletter. Please. I'm begging you. Make sure you don't miss anything on the Brazilian market because if you blink, you'll miss something for sure. There's a lot going on in Brazil. Everyone is rushing here, they're doing things, doing striking deals.
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and
definitely will, but right now we're gonna do a very brief commercial break so you can you can like get a glass of water or something and we'll be right back with this iGamingDaily episode and welcome back to iGamingDaily and we have been insisting on this a lot but we will cover this on the second half of the episode because there's a good reason to insist on this which is marketing strategies, responsibility and potential new rules for marketing campaigns
which are going to be a top priority for Brazil this year for potential new amendments, for potential new restrictions. And over the last few days, actually, a push to ban advertising altogether has reached Congress early.
So a few days ago, the sports committee decided to hold a public hearing to discuss Bill No. 200985 and the 2004-05 from 2023, which aimed to prohibit the advertising and promotion by Sportsbook. As a justification, senators commented on the increase in gambling addiction cases in Brazil, comparing the situation to being host.
which as Carlo Portino mentioned, due to the lack of stricter regulation, encourage gambling addiction and money laundering. However, Leila Barros highlighted the importance of these companies' investment in national sports. And she also said that the public hearing should take place in April. So we have just wait and see again. It's how Brazil works.
Speaker 1 (12:35.596)
Yeah, we're always waiting and seeing but like I said, we're always reporting on what happens like we wait, we see, we report so you can just see us so make sure you are subscribed to FBC Notices for Ascension News and I will say it as many times as I have to say it so bear with me here but I think it's very important to be serious I was serious by the way, subscribe
But I think it's very important what lawmaker Leila Barrow said about a balanced debate. And I think that's very important because usually lawmakers find it very easy to just attack the gaming industry. It tends to have a bad rap, the industry. So they really don't want to be the lawmaker that's standing
next to or behind the gaming industry which tends to be demonized by some segments of the society, even though it generates a lot of tax revenue, a lot of jobs and moves the economy, right? But we all know that it can tend to have a bad rap. so, lawmakers don't usually back the gaming industry. So it's important to have one that says, hey, let's scale down a bit and think about this.
Let's have a balanced debate. Let's understand why the industry is important for Brazil, for its economy, for its sports industry, and actually consider what we have to discuss here from that point. So I think it's really important to have that stance in the Senate. But this is actually something that is not new, not for the gaming industry, especially not for the latam gaming industry.
Loo
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Yes, as you were saying, all this stuff, they have to take it back once they realize they are damaging society because that's when you see the results of illegal gaming and whatever growing. it's important to learn from past mistakes and from the example of other regulated markets.
We've seen it in Spain that it I think it lasted one year and a half, the limitations. And they caused a great impact in the industry negatively. And now they had to change it back. But this all requires a lot of resources and time and money to adapt. So it's better to be aware of what's going on in the rest of the world.
because we've seen it, like you said, so it's all there. The information is there. that's why also Fecol Józ, for example, in Colombia is stating that there should be, again, a dialogue, a conversation among the government, the regulation committees and operators and the industry in general.
Yes, definitely. Definitely because when you talk with the industry, you get to understand how it works. And then from that point, you can work on a proper regulation to protect the things that needs to protection that need actual regulation because regulation is needed. And we have seen that and seen why regulation is needed in a lot of different scales of the gaming industry.
But you need to understand first before you set the ground rules for an industry to work. So it's very important the dialogue and I'm sure it's a concern that is not exclusive to Brazil. Like you said, we had Spain, Argentina made a push last year with the deputies approving a bill to ban all gaming advertising in the country, including sponsorships that has reached the Senate with
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which hasn't actually debated it yet. Operators say they are not really concerned about this because they trust that the president of Argentina will veto this law. He has vetoed some laws he didn't like in the past. And so they are confident he will veto if the Senate decides to treat it and if the Senate decides to approve it. But like I said, it's not new to Brazil. It's something that affects the gaming industry worldwide. So
I think it's very important for the industry to reach out to the government and say, hey, let's sit down, let's have a talk like Ojoa said, like Ojoa did and reach out to the government and say, let's have a debate, let's discuss how things work. And from that, we can actually prepare the rules that are needed for a healthy industry to protect the consumers, to protect the industry, to protect the tax money and the employees that the gaming industry creates.
It's a very complex process and it's not all about just, hey, let's ban this, let's restrict that. It's a delicate process. But again, there's a need for the industry to be responsible itself for its own actions.
And that's why I think it's important that the SVC events work as a platform to promote this dialogue and join forces all together.
Yes, absolutely. lot of the key decision makers in the industry are in SVC events. The most important specialists and experts on different topics are in the events like José Francisco Malzur, who is a former special advisor of the executive secretary of the minister of finance in Brazil, who was a very important actor in the development of the regulation in Brazil, who is now an independent
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consultant and he said hey clubs need to really analyze what they are doing with marketing to show clubs and of course betting companies to show the benefits from the betting industry in the economy. But speaking of marketing
Elisa Marcanti, business journalist for SVC News Brazil, you did a very interesting interview about marketing with actually CEO of marketing agency Propane, which is specializing in gaming marketing, which is CEO Leonardo Benitez. You talked with him. What did he have to say?
Thank you, Fer. Yeah, in Miami, actually, he mentioned about this course. And in Rio, when I was talking to him, he said the propane training center was developed to provide training for affiliates and influencers in order to remove all the responsibility of promoting a healthy environment from the operators. Lyle said that if the operator proves that they did everything right,
The operator provided all the necessary information for the affiliate or the influencer who is promoting the betting in a proper way should be held accountable for the actions. This project was supported by Conar, the self-regulatory advertising house in Brazil, of Brazil. And the goal of this course is to train professionals, affiliates and influencers in a responsible manner.
So yeah, it was very interesting conversation we had, and he was like very open to explain how the course works. We have everything on SPSNOTS Brazil, of course, you can go there and check. And yeah, it was very nice conversation. He's the best.
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Well, big shout out to Leonardo Benitez and you can read that of course on SBC Noticias Brazil But we will also link the link down in the description so you can find it easily and you can just go there read it and Subscribe to the newsletter. Of course also subscribe to SBC Noticias newsletter for all the news in the about the rest of Batam And now you can follow iGamingDaily on TikTok because we are on TikTok
So just search for iGamingDaily Podcast and you will find us there. You will see our lovely faces and hear our lovely voices with all these important things we have to discuss about the Latin American industry, the Brazil industry, Argentina, Colombia, everywhere in the world. All of that you will find on iGamingDaily. So with that said, thank you very much.
Lucia the boss, thank you very much Alisa, also to Anna who was on the first half of the episode and Anaya McDonald thank you very much for producing this episode to all our listeners out there, we'll see you in the next one, goodbye