of the management of a Brazilian sporting team. The license fee to be set by the Ministry of Finance cannot exceed BRL30 million (payable within 30 days of the Ministry of Finance concluding its review of the application) and will cover up to three brands promoted by each operator. The license is also to be granted to a specific operator and may be reviewed upon the same undergoing a corporate transaction. It will also have to specify whether the operator is authorized to offer the fixed odds lottery in virtual or physical channels (or both). If at least the 134 operators who filed their expression of interest under the auspices of Normative Ordinance No. 1,330/2023 do indeed file applications for a federal license when available, this will generate more than BRL4 billion 3 in license fees for the Federal Government. It is important to note that the law confirmed that while certain of its tax-related provisions are also applicable to fantasy sports, the exploitation of this (skill) gaming vertical (which for the first time in Brazil was adequately defined by law) would remain otherwise unregulated and not require a license (and may distribute cash prizes). 3. Advertising, bet integrity and player protection One of the benefits of a regulated market is the introduction of adequate advertising, bet integrity and player protection requirements. These have been incorporated into the new law, at least generally, to be further regulated in the Ministry of Finance’s portarias .
Once federal licenses have been made available, only licensed operators will be permitted to continue to advertise nationwide. Advertisements should include notices discouraging gaming and warnings about health problems triggered by the same, besides observing applicable restrictions regarding times and marketing channels with a view to only targeting adults. The law also encourages autoregulation, which is why the industry has been in close contact with CONAR – the Brazilian non-governmental organization that self-regulates the advertising sector and which started 2024 by publishing its Bet Advertising Rules 4 and what a responsible gaming advertisement should look like. The law also provides authority to the Ministry of Finance to notify companies – including Internet Service Providers (ISPs) – publicizing advertisements which violate the provisions of the law that they should be excluded. Judicial intervention will be required if such companies fail to exclude such unlawful advertising, which can include the blocking of websites as has been seen in 2023. Operators will also have to implement bet security and integrity mechanisms and observe the Brazilian Data Protection Law (LGPD). In line with the findings of the above-mentioned match fixing CPI, the law also determines that operators will have to adopt match-fixing mitigation mechanisms, in addition to participating in a Brazilian or international sports integrity organization. In addition to expressly referring to the application of the Brazilian Consumer Protection Code (in effect since the 1990s
3 Equivalent to approximately USD800 million when considering a forex rate of USD1.00 = BRL5.00 4 www.conar.org.br/pdf/conar-regras-apostas-folder-web.pdf
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IMGL MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2024
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