Present in the Brazilian market since 2022, the VaideBet brand has been growing rapidly and gaining prominence among betting operators. The company is now the largest sponsor of Brazilian football , having an agreement worth R$120 million per year with Corinthians .

The brand, which belongs to the BPX group, has accumulated more than 420 thousand interactions on Twitter and 1.19 million interactions on Instagram since January of this year, when it announced the partnership with Timão.

With an eye on the regulation of the Brazilian market, VaideBet is already making adjustments to adapt to the rules of the Brazilian license and intends to be first in line as soon as the period for requesting licenses is opened by the Ministry of Finance.

“When the deadline opens, we will be there at six in the morning knocking on the door to file our request,” joked the legal director of Grupo BPX, Daniel Sitônio.

In an exclusive interview with Aposta Legal Brasil , he spoke about the company’s plans, showing confidence in the Brazilian government.

How long have you been in the market? How did you decide to operate in Brazil, a market that is still unregulated?

VaideBet belongs to a group, it doesn’t just have the VaideBet brand, the group has other brands. At the end of 2021, after the amendment of Law No. 14,756, of 2018, which gave the opportunity for this international operation here in Brazil.

This law brought the possibility of fixed-odds sports betting here in Brazil, subject to regulation. And then, based on this, international companies in the market also understood the opportunity, and in the same way the group also understood and decided to start exploring, initially with the BetPix365 brand, and then with the VaideBet brand. The VaideBet brand came in the first half of 2022 and we have been operating ever since.

We are waiting for this regulation, which we really hope will arrive as soon as possible, that it will be finalized through this law from the end of last year and the decrees so that we can act within the upcoming regulation.

What do you think about the regulation of betting? Do the rules please the industry?

First of all, I would like to say that this regulation was a great goal scored by this government. It is a regulation that the sector that works responsibly has been waiting for for a long time, we have been waiting for it since 2018.

I imagine that no responsible operator, who has the desire to work responsibly, has anything to complain about the coming of a regulation.

The regulation has several aspects, it regulates the entire operation, from the taxation part to the media regulation part, the part of access by the inspection agent, to the system itself, to the platform itself.

Finally, we understand that the regulation is essential to bring security to the segment . We were eagerly awaiting this regulation, because that was what we intended, we want to work within this regulation so that we can, above all, provide the user with a guarantee.

One point we wanted to make clear is VaideBet’s concern. Every day we work with one concern, which is the user experience. All of our concerns are with the user experience and the regulations have many sections designed precisely for this purpose.

There were many concerns that high taxation could encourage an illegal market. Do you consider that taxation and licensing are sustainable?

Of course, of course. This is a very broad market, with room for everyone. We have a lot of trust in the current government, we have a lot of trust in the current government’s power of inspection, which has several ways of proceeding with this inspection of those who try to work below the regulations.

On the contrary, we believe in it. We participate in all forums, in most debates, and it is always a point of discussion how inspections will be carried out for those who do not comply with the regulations. And the government always talks about the mechanisms.

Anyway, we believe that this will not be a problem. On the contrary, the regulation is designed to bring credibility to the market and to the population. And we believe in this, not that it is intended to encourage clandestine operations.

What points of the law do you consider still need further clarification?

What is already very clearly defined is the advertising part. Now at the end of the year, Annex X was published, which came into force on January 31, and it sets out the criteria for limiting coverage, so this is a point that is already very clear.

Another point that is very clear in the legislation is the punishment for those who fail to comply with the regulations. And this includes punishments of up to R$2 billion.

What are the technical aspects in relation to what is already in place, for example, what precautions do platforms take to avoid game manipulation, what are the criteria for preventing money laundering? There is still a lack of criteria in relation to the prevention of pathological gambling.

We are waiting without much concern, because today what is already applied on the platform is what is applied in the best international modes, so we are just waiting for this so that we can understand these limits, knowing that it will not be a surprise, because it is what is already applied in other countries.

How was the process of closing the partnership with Corinthians? What does it mean to you to be the biggest sponsor of Brazilian football today?

The important thing for us is not the title of biggest sponsor, the important thing for us is to be a sponsor of a club the size of Corinthians. If we are the biggest sponsor, that doesn’t have much internal relevance, what really matters is to have a team the size of Corinthians as a partner, such passionate fans, such loyal fans.

It is a normal process, we received contacts through the intermediary about the possibility of doing this sponsorship, we had some online meetings to define some criteria, until a face-to-face meeting was necessary in which CEO José André da Rocha closed the deal, bringing this great opportunity for VaideBet to show its quality to a much larger volume of users through this contract, which places us on the scene as one of the largest in Brazil.

This year, are you also looking for partnerships with other teams?

Look, I can’t say this because this is part of the marketing department, but VaideBet is concerned about growth. I can’t tell you if there is a negotiation, but there is always a concern about expansion.

Not only in terms of football, but also with other types of contracts, image concessions, etc.

I saw that you also sponsor Gusttavo Lima. Are there any sponsorship plans beyond football?

Gusttavo Lima is our ambassador, but we also have other musicians who are part of this group of VaideBet promoters, such as João Gomes. It is indeed a plan, we are always making contracts.

But our great ambassador, the face of our work is Gusttavo Lima and I hope he stays for a long time.

What are the company’s plans regarding regulation? Have they already applied for a license?

When Ordinance No. 1,330 was issued last year, it was an ordinance that was issued before we had yet approved the basic law. So, at that time, we understood that it was not appropriate for us to express interest, because we did not yet know what the basic criteria for regulation would be in order to understand the viability of the market.

When the law came out at the end of the year, we did understand its viability, the minimum criteria were presented, and we have no concerns about not having formulated that protocol of interests back in November, because the legislation itself provides for the possibility of requesting it at any time.

There is also a forecast that the government will have to grant a six-month period for companies that are already operating in Brazil to comply with the legislation. So, we do not yet have the start date for this period, which is at least six months, and the decree may provide a longer period.

We joke that when the deadline opens we will be there at six in the morning knocking on the door to file our request.

What changes are being made?

These are technological changes. For example, the regulation states that the platform must have international certification, so we are already providing the certifications.

The regulation states that we have to provide real-time access to the government so that it can monitor, so we are already carrying out this technological operation to create this environment that the government has access to.

We have already signed a contract with a supplier to provide facial recognition, our contracts are all being reviewed to include the limitations of Annex X.

What are the company’s expectations in a market with giants that are already better known? What can be done to differentiate itself?

We are concerned about competition, this is natural in any activity, we continue to monitor the movements of our competitors. But we also understand that this is a very broad market, each one operates within a specific target audience.

What really sets us apart is that we are always concerned about our customers. If you take a large international company, it doesn’t have the same sensitivity that we have here, where we are closer to the population. So, we seek feedback from our users and always try to update our platform so that the experience becomes better and better.