Betting houses that wish to regulate themselves in the Brazilian market must register their application to operate in the fixed-odds market in the Betting Management System (Sigap). The application will be subject to prior examination by the Prizes and Betting Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, but the entire administrative procedure may also go through two other federal agencies.

On Wednesday (22), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Sports and the Attorney General’s Office published an interministerial ordinance that defines the attributions and procedures of the three bodies in the process of regulating betting houses in Brazil.

The regulatory application will undergo different analyses:

• initially, it must be registered with Sigap, for examination by the Prizes and Bets Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance;
• It will then be submitted electronically to the Ministry of Sports , which will have up to 45 days to respond;
• If there is a discrepancy between the prior examination by the Prizes and Betting Secretariat and the statement by the Ministry of Sports, it will be up to the Attorney General of the Union to decide on the authorization request .

According to the rules already published by the Ministry of Finance , betting houses that want to obtain federal authorization must pay R$30 million to operate in the fixed-odds market.

The grant may include up to three brands, over a period of five years. The deadline for regulating companies currently operating in the Brazilian market is December 31.

Companies that do not have an active license will be subject to penalties. The fee must be paid within 30 days after approval.

Procedures to ensure the integrity of sporting events

The interministerial ordinance also establishes how federal bodies should behave to guarantee the integrity of sporting events that can receive fixed-odds bets.

The document determines that this mission will be the responsibility of the Prizes and Betting Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Sports.

If there is suspicion of fraud or evidence of facts that undermine the integrity and unpredictability of sporting events, the Ministry of Sports must contact the Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance.

The Prizes and Betting Secretariat will be responsible for applying the penalties provided for in article 41 of Law No. 4,790 of 2023 .

Possible sanctions include warnings, fines of R$2 billion per violation, partial or total suspension of activities, cancellation of authorization, prohibition of obtaining new authorization and operating for up to 10 years.

The Ministry of Sports will be responsible for “defining and maintaining up-to-date, publicly accessible, lists of sports and sports entities that can be the subject of bets on real sports-themed events”.

The ordinance signed by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, by the Minister of Sports, André Luiz Carvalho Ribeiro, and by the Attorney General of the Union, Jorge Rodrigo Araujo Messias, will come into force on June 3.