Brazil’s Supreme Court justice adds sports bodies to betting hearing

Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice Luiz Fux, rapporteur of ADI 8.027, has added the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) and the Ministry of Sport to the list of participants in the public hearing on Provisional Measure 1.394/2026. In a ruling on 27 October, the justice ordered that both be summoned, and on 28 October he published the full schedule for the hearing, which is set for 3 November at 10am in the Second Panel courtroom of the STF. The additions raise the number of participants from 26 to 28, according to the published schedule.

Each participant will have a maximum of 10 minutes to speak. The names and powers of attorney of representatives, limited to two per participant, must be sent by email by 3pm on Thursday 29 October, and audiovisual material to be shown can also be submitted in advance. A copy of the ruling is to be attached to ADIs 7.721, 7.723, 7.749, 8.024, 8.028 and 8.035.

Under Law 14.790/2023, 36% of betting revenue would be allocated to sport, with 22.20% to the Ministry of Sport, 2.20% to the COB, 1.30% to the CPB and 0.70% to the CBC, with smaller shares also going to CBDE, CBDU, CBCP, CBEM and state sport secretariats. The law established direct transfer of the resources to sports entities without passing through a ministry.

In the first half of 2025, R$478.9m went to the Ministry of Sport, R$154.9m to the National Sport System and R$47.5m to the COB, according to SPA/MF data obtained via freedom-of-information request. Over 2025, sport received about R$1.6bn, the largest amount among all beneficiary areas. In the first half of 2026, sport again took the largest share, with R$870.15m allocated to the Ministry of Sport and to state and Federal District secretariats. Transfers from operators to the COB totalled R$95.52m in 2025.

COB president Marco La Porta said the entity had raised about R$200m from betting between 2025 and September 2026. A further R$25m was expected by the end of 2026 and R$125m to R$130m in 2027. The COB's 2026 budget of R$679m had projected R$115m from betting taxation. The COB's own calculation of the loss projects R$497m that will not be transferred between October and December 2026 and R$2.1bn for 2027, about R$2.623bn in total, less than two years before the Los Angeles Games.

The Ministry of Sport will appear with a contradiction to manage, according to the source. The National Secretariat for Sports Betting and Economic Development of Sport (SNAEDE) was created to safeguard the integrity and unpredictability of sporting events and results, and during 2025 and 2026 it built a network of agreements with international integrity entities, with the COB and with the sector associations that now contest the provisional measure at the STF. The official balance was published in Ministry of Sport Ordinance 40/2026, which states that the agreements with ANJL and IBJR include educational campaigns, exchange of information and methodologies, technical training and dissemination of good practice, and that the partnerships generate no costs for the ministry. The same applies to agreements with five integrity entities, the source states.

The source lists the regulatory framework that accompanied the secretariat's work: Ordinance 109/2024 on integrity and monitoring of competitions, Ordinance 125/2024 listing the modalities eligible for betting, Ordinance 31/2025 regulating technical supervision of sites, an interministerial ordinance with the Ministries of Finance and Justice establishing the National Policy for the Prevention and Confrontation of the Manipulation of Sports Results, two national technical meetings with state police and the Federal Police, the second already with operators taking part, and in May 2026 a Manual for the Prevention and Combat of the Manipulation of Sports Results. SNAEDE also reached 100% effectiveness in issuing technical assent opinions for betting authorisation requests within the 45-day period, according to the source.

The source states that this structure depended on a regulated market, which supplied the data, had operators obliged to report suspicious bets and financed the ministry through revenue. It adds that with the prohibition, monitoring loses its information source and bettors move to sites that report nothing to anyone. The government created a Federal Police division to repress illegal betting and result manipulation on 13 October, through MJSP Ordinance 1.325/2026, three weeks after extinguishing the market that helped identify them, according to the source.

According to the source, the hearing will be the first time the COB and the Ministry of Sport must explain to the STF, side by side, how to finance sport and protect the integrity of competitions without the resources and data of regulated betting.