Brazil dominated the sports betting and gaming discourse in 2024 as the country prepared for the opening of its regulated online market, which opened at the top of the year.

On the latest episode of the Safe Bet Show, Martin Lycka was joined by José Francisco Manssur, who was instrumental in bringing regulation to the nation in his role as a Special Advisor to Brazil’s Ministry of Finance.

Manssur recalled how he was called on to help facilitate the regulation process due to his prior work in shaping legislation across Brazilian football.

He said: “Gabriel Galípolo, when he assumed the [role of] Executive Secretary of the finance minister, invited me, saying you have the experience to write a law, you have the experience to dialogue with congressmen and I trust you.

“[He said], we have this betting industry that is not regulated until now, even though it’s permitted since 2018, and the finance minister has the obligation to regulate it. So he invited me to go to the finance minister with this mission [which] was to provide a regular implementation for the betting industry.”

Manssur continued that they began the process by consulting with the industry whilst also listening to the “issues and pains” of customers. 

What they learned early on was the need for careful consideration when balancing the government’s desire to receive funds through taxation and the stress high tax considerations can place on the industry.

“We firstly understood that if we put taxation bigger than the industry was able to pay, we could push the enterprise to the grey market,” explained Manssur.

“The most important discussion we had was about finding a way to provide fair taxation in order to make the industry motivated to stay in the regulated market in Brazil.”

According to Manssur, regulators also had to deal with the “mountain of people that are addicted and spending more money than they can in betting”. 

They did this by looking at the best practices of markets in Europe and the US and then implementing appropriate measures – such as restrictions on advertising and mandatory responsible gambling tools for operators.

A more recent ruling from Brazil’s Supreme Court has also stated that welfare beneficiaries should be banned from using government money to bet. 

Reflecting on the ruling, which has been appealed by the Attorney General’s Office as it claims it does not have the technological capabilities to facilitate the ban, Manssur said: “We have a donation of money every month to people that need money to provide food and education and people were, unfortunately, using this money to bet believing that betting could be a way to earn money as a profession. Betting is not a profession, it’s a way to have fun.

“So, I really believe that the decision of Minister [Luiz] Fux that was followed by the other members of the Supreme Court was good and has given us a good perspective to the final decision in the case.” 

As mentioned, Manssur’s previous roles focused on regulation in football. 

In 2015, he helped to bring in new laws that meant Brazil’s professional football teams were considered as businesses rather than football associations – therefore enhancing their commercial potential and ability to compete with the giants of European football.

As part of this, Brazilian clubs have followed the trend of global football in embracing their relationships with the sports betting industry. Most recently, Vbet marked the opening of Brazil’s betting market by signing a sponsorship deal with the current Brasileiro Série A champions, Botafogo.

On the sports betting sponsorship in football, Manssur concluded: “Betting is providing lots of money in advertising for clubs and helping the clubs to increase their development.

“We could never avoid or prohibit betting to advertise with clubs because it’s something that betting contributes to developing policies that are good for the youth and good for health. When people come to sports [they get] out of criminality, out of drugs and bad behaviour.

“So, I believe that betting has given a very good contribution to [these policies] in Brazil.”