Stake wins São Paulo injunction to resume Brazil operations until 25 October

According to the court decision, Stake now holds a partial injunction from the Federal Court of São Paulo. That order lets the operator resume business in Brazil through 25 October. Under its terms, the company's website must be unblocked, and authorities may not treat the authorisation as ended while the order is in force. The decision stops short of ruling on the lawfulness of Brazil's broader betting shutdown, and Stake's bid to keep operating until its existing licence runs out is still pending.

Law firm Bichara e Motta brought the suit for Stake, seeking to pause the provisional measure's effects so the operator could keep going until 31 December 2029, the expiry date of its licence. Judge Cristiane Farias Rodrigues dos Santos, sitting in the 9th Federal Civil Court of São Paulo, approved the request only in part. As the court decision describes her reasoning, the administration had no power to move up the later termination date set by the measure. The 25 October cut-off matters because the measure itself names that day as when operators' licences lapse.

Stake's return is subject to twelve conditions. The operator must keep screening bettors and bar wagers from people excluded by law, government programmes or regulatory controls, while also stopping social-programme money from being used for gambling and keeping advertising clear of children and teenagers. It may not start new promotions or other efforts aimed at growing its user base. Withdrawals must stay open, funds sufficient to cover outstanding player balances must be held, registration and financial records must be kept, and regulator-required reports must keep being filed. Other conditions confine Stake to authorised domains and bar it from invoking the court order to lend legitimacy to clandestine operators or to third parties abusing its brand. Measures against fraud, counterfeiting, trademark misuse and unauthorised operators must also remain in place.

According to Bichara e Motta, the ruling is the first win for a fixed-odds betting operator in the litigation over the measure. The firm added that Stake's bid to keep operating until its licence's original expiry still has to go through a review on the merits.

The online gambling ban came from a provisional measure issued by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in late September. Stake's suit targets the effects of Provisional Measure 1.394/2026, yet the São Paulo ruling leaves the measure's legality undecided. Brazil's two main gambling trade bodies have gone to the Supreme Federal Court seeking to have the ban overturned. When the ruling was issued, there was no clarity on when that court would rule on the wider challenge.

The order covers Stake alone; it does not mean other operators may return on the same basis. Stake's permission currently lasts only until 25 October, unless the court amends its order. Staying active past that point hinges on how the merits of its case are resolved and on how the wider challenge to Lula's measure unfolds.