Brazilian government bars fixed-odds betting after 22 months, report says
Regulation2 min read
Finance Minister Dario Durigan said investors in Brazil would have predictability, according to the report. It says the government later barred fixed-odds betting under MP 1,394/2026, after 85 authorisations had been paid for at R$30 million each, and would not refund fees for unused periods.
The Brazilian government used provisional measure MP 1.394/2026 to ban a sector that it had itself regulated, licensed and charged fees, the report says. According to the report, the measure prohibited fixed-odds betting. Finance Minister Dario Durigan said on Thursday, after meeting President Lula and the economic team, that those who invest and produce in Brazil would not face difficulty with predictability.
The report says companies paid R$30m per authorisation, each valid for five years. It puts the number of authorisations at 85, which it says adds up to R$2.55bn paid to the federal government. The report adds that each operator had to provide a R$5m guarantee and set up a company in Brazil. Regulated operation was to begin on 1 January 2025, according to the report. The authorisations were active for 22 months, the report says.
The report says the government made clear it will not refund the authorisation fees or the portion covering the remaining period. By the report's own calculation, each operator used 22 of the 60 months it had paid for. It estimates that the remaining 38 months equal about R$19m per authorisation, or more than R$1.6bn in total, which stays with the Treasury.
The report says many of the operators that invested in Brazil are international groups listed on major stock exchanges, naming Flutter, Entain and Playtech. Bernardo Freire, a lawyer and consultant to ANJL, responded to the minister's remarks by saying the betting operators had invested billions and had their licences revoked overnight.