iGaming Daily

00:00
Welcome to the new age as Imagine Dragons would say because we are close to finally getting the new form of the Brazilian regulated sports betting and iGaming market. Welcome to iGaming Daily. I'm your host for today, Senior Business Journalist for SBC Noticias, Fernando Nott, and I'm joined today again by Relationships Manager, Isadora Marcanti. Issa, how are you today? Hi, fair. I'm really excited.

00:29
and happy for 2025 to be honest. Yeah, I can't wait really, it's only hours away. And also with us is Ricardo Assis, Editor for SBC Noticias Brasil. Ricardo, how are you? Hey Fer, very nice to be here again and we have a lot of ground to cover in this episode I think. We could talk like for five or six hours if they let us. Yeah, definitely because it's been a long year, it's been definitely a long year with a lot.

00:59
going on, but an even bigger year awaits because we have the regulated market coming into force on January 1st. Actually we had a debate previously because some say the market is already going. But I mean, you know what I mean. I'm talking about the new form of the Brazilian market that will be in force on January 1st with the new licenses coming into place.

01:25
and we will cover that but we will also cover what has happened on the past year but we will also thank someone or some some people that have been with us throughout the year which is OptiMove the number one CRM marketing solution for the iGaming market and sponsor of iGamingDaily. As a special offer OptiMove are offering new clients a free first month when they buy OptiMove. For more information and claim the free month go to OptiMove.com slash svc

01:53
You will find the links in the podcast episode description so you can go check that out. OptiMove. So 2024 is in the books. Christmas is in the books. Did you have a nice Christmas? Yes, I did. How was your Christmas, Icaro? It was great. It was amazing. It was so much happened that I can't even start talking about. So much food. We love food. I love Christmas food. We were talking about Yorkshire puddings and

02:23
whatever with our producer, Aneja McDonald. And yeah, I think we're gonna have to go to the UK next year to try that sweet, sweet and savory British Christmas food. But let's come back. Let's come back to South America. Let's go to Brazil where in December, but in 2023 Lula da Silva enacted the high gaming sports betting law. And as pretty much as this podcast, no? As the year was dying.

02:52
He signed the bill, now as the year is dying, we are remembering it. But he enacted the iGaming and SportsBank law and triggered probably one of the craziest years everyone was honking and going crazy, going insane about what was coming ahead, because it has already passed. So what was your perception of the year at the beginning? How did the industry receive this news?

03:21
looking back from where we are right now, do you think we are at the place that the industry expected we would be? We had a very happy year. We are in 2024 actually. Nobody was expecting the bill to sign into law on the 30th of December last year. Last year, no, because we were already in 2025. So 2023, we weren't expecting that. So when the law 14.790 came,

03:51
We were just like, yay, finally, next year we're going to actually like start the process of actually having a regulated market, which was what we did actually throughout the whole year in 2024. So the market was very happy. We were also very anxious as well, like, because we didn't know which law ordinances were going to be published. Obviously, we had like a schedule of...

04:18
all the possible ordinances. We saw them all being published, but we saw new ones as well. But we didn't know what to expect in January. So January, February were like two months where that we were very happy, apprehensive, anxious, excited for what the year was going to bring to us. Yeah. And I think the industry was also getting ready to collaborate with the government as

04:47
posted the self-regulation code for advertising already before 2024. So they already showed they wanted to collaborate with the government and with the regulation. And late in January, the government created also the betting secretariat. And back then, it was Simone Aparecida Bissencini, sorry if I butchered her name. She was acting as provisional secretary.

05:15
for some time because of course this government body was new. Then we entered February where probably one of the biggest news there or one of the most shocking was when Jose Manzur left actually the government. He was a key actor for the development of the regulation, for the bill coming into place and everything.

05:43
But finally, we got really sad when he left. Yeah, yeah. But he's always with us. He's always in SPC events. Always. He was the other day at the SPC Digital Brazil. He participated. So it's a big shout out to him. He's still very active in the industry, which is great. Yeah, he's definitely very active. But who was also active in February was Lula, who criticized, actually, the industry for the first time. Only a month and a half, maybe, after he actually enacted.

06:10
the iGaming build and this was only the first time he criticized the iGaming, the betting industry but we'll get to that later today, later in this episode. But what happened in February also was like you said, is that the SBA started issuing ordinances with the first being the certification labs ordinance, which is probably the thing to start building up like because you need the labs.

06:39
to be certified or to be licensed to certify the further companies that come along the way. So that's February 4th, Brazil. And in March, we had SBC Summit Rio 2024. Isa, we got to meet the industry face to face. Ricardo, unfortunately, you weren't with the company yet, but you will be next year on February 25th to 27th, when we will have the...

07:07
SBC Summit Rio 25. So we'll do it even bigger than 24 was, but 24 was a blast, Isa. It was. 2024 was great. It was our first event in the Brazilian market. We knew kind of what to expect, but of course, like since we never have done like an event in Brazil, we didn't know exactly what to expect. To see that we were predicting 3000 people and we had 4000 people all together at Windsor Baja in Baja da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro.

07:36
uh... was insane like the amount of people interested in brazil not only brazilians but people from all other countries in Latin America, people from the US, people from Europe, people from Canada, people from everywhere was really good so it was so good like you said we are going even bigger next year we are five times bigger next year so if we were expecting three thousand people right now we're gonna have fifteen thousand people in Rio Centro between twenty to the twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh of February

08:06
So this is insane for us. Brazil is such a... Not only because it's a new market in terms of regulation, not in terms of activity, because people bet since always, but in terms of regulation, it is a very... It's a newborn market. And we have so much ground to explore and it's a very big country. People love football here. We don't love football. We are crazy over football.

08:34
So it's a religion. It is. It is a religion. So combining sports and betting for a market like Brazil is beautiful. Like you can offer entertainment for a match made in heaven. Exactly. Yeah, I agree. You are full of cliches and sentences today. I love that. Sorry. No, I love that. He was on point. I love that because they're very on point. So it is a match made in heaven, actually. I would say it's the best market to be on the 20,000.

09:04
2025 and I'm sorry I talk too much because I'm too excited. Rio gets us too excited. It's probably a reflection of the expectations around the industry. Rio going from what it was in 24 and to what it will be in 25. And yeah, already our second biggest event in the second edition. So great, great expectations for the residual market and of course, for SVC Savitrio 2025, but speaking of football in March, Romario also announced the CPI on match fixing, which would

09:33
extend along all across the year. Like it was a very big topic, match fixing in Brazil. And of course the CPI citing people to go and give their testimony before the senators that were actually investigating match fixing. A CPI that didn't actually go anywhere.

10:01
So yeah, it wasn't really that productive even though we had a lot of news. Yeah, because here in Brazil we had this problem with match fixing in the lower divisions for a time now. It's something that happens in the lower divisions of the state championships. But this CPI wasn't aiming at these problems, was aiming more at problems of the top divisions. And in top divisions this does not happen a lot.

10:29
John Texter, who is the president of Botafogo that we're going to talk later today, has said that the Seria, the first division championship in Brazil, had manipulation because his team lost in the end, but he didn't have any proofs about it. So it was something that I think Botafogo was set to win this championship and they got in a bad run in the end and they end up losing it.

10:59
and he without any proofs started saying that it was fixed, it was made to Palmeiras to win the championship. It's like he was trying to find an excuse, right? Like to blame someone for the result. For sure. Yeah. And this year, Botafogo won the Brazil Lirao and Libertadores. And this year he said that he doesn't have anything to say because it's all clear.

11:26
It didn't happen this year. Wow. It's kind of bullshit to be honest. Sean Texor is a particular fellow. He actually says he discovered Thiago Almoda who won the World Cup in 2022, even though he wasn't a key player for the Argentinian team. Thiago Almoda won, wasn't the team that won the World Cup. And John Texor said, I discovered him because a Twitter user messaged me and said, Hey, you should check out.

11:56
Diagolmada and he said, yes, I will do. And it's like, what are you talking about? But yeah, the CPI actually was triggered by cases in the lower divisions like Ricardo Seyde, Operacion Pena Maxima. But also in March, the Loterchi issue started, like federal government warned Loterchi about licenses for, actually warned them to stop issuing licenses without enforcing the

12:24
proper geolocalization blockages, which is actually a topic that we are still discussing to this day. But then in April, like we said, John Texter did his act before the Senate, before Botafogo won it all and none of it mattered anymore. And also the CBF, Brazilian Association of Football, created or issued its code of advertising for betting.

12:53
telling all teams to only strike deals with licensed companies, which was, I think, a very important step for creating a safe environment and a responsible environment for the industry. And probably the most important thing that happened in April was that the government appointed Reggie Zudena at the SPA. He has been running the betting regulator ever since. So that was a big...

13:22
big deal in April, but then in May we were still talking about match fixing and football because the the FA from the United Kingdom formally accused Paqueta of breaking their betting rules for betting on some games and also this triggered investigations around Luis Enrique, who allegedly did something similar in Spain and Bruno Enrique in Flamengo as well.

13:51
was like amid the whole discussion. So this has been a very, very hot topic in Brazil all across the year. But in May also Betano became the first company to apply for a license. So we were already starting to see the industry developing finally and going into this last stretch that we have seen that we are actually ending today.

14:20
on December 31st and entering into this new era of January 1st from January 1st, 2025. Then in June, a Senate commission approved the land-based casino bill and sent it to the casino floor, but later in the year it will be postponed. Right, Ricardo? Yeah, it's going to be voted in 2025, mostly because of the pressure that a lot of sectors are doing in the government because of the...

14:49
some situations regarding badding, mostly the things that you said regarding Paquetá, Luís Henrique and Bruno Henrique. And this situation is putting a lot of pressure in the government and they are postponing some projects. This one is going to be voted next year. And Lula said if the Senate approve it, he is going to sanction it. So we have to wait and see, like you say.

15:13
Yeah, hashtag, wait and see. But fast forward to August, on August the 20th, it was the deadline to submit license applications and get approved within 2024. And so many companies submitted licenses, over 100 applications submitted. And all of a sudden, between August and September, Twitter gets banned in Brazil. That was a wild few weeks, right? What do you remember of the Twitter ban in Brazil?

15:43
Everything. It was chaotic. It was horrible. It was like a political decision, actually. It wasn't based on actually any law, to be honest, because the main point was that our government, actually, our Supreme Court was blocking profiles that were against the current government, which is insane because as far as we all know.

16:12
We are a democracy and you cannot ban people from having social media only because they like criticize what you are doing as a government. Receiving the news that Twitter was getting banned because Twitter actually ex was saying that they weren't going to block anyone after Elon Musk bought it. They were, he was like all the company actually was like allowing people that were blocked to be.

16:41
to have their accounts back live, I better stop talking. It's really, really, it's not a cruise for me, seriously. I don't know what Ricardo thinks, but... Yeah, because I think the STF, that was a decision by Alexandre de Morais, they said that Twitter wasn't complying with the determinations that they made.

17:08
we can discuss the merit. I actually think the STF is not right in this thing. They were breaking the constitution. Yeah, for sure. I actually think they are wrong with it. But the justification was that the Twitter wasn't complying with the law. But this is a problem because here in Brazil, the Supreme Court loves to run things like it's their country. They love to make their own rules and it shouldn't work this way.

17:35
Yeah, but luckily for Twitter users, the platform got reinstated after a while. And then in October, more companies started submitting license applications, over 200 total brands involved in the process. The finance ministry actually said it would block over 2,000 illegal sites after that. And some companies actually started going to the justice system in order to get an extension to operate.

18:04
From October, all companies that hadn't applied for licenses would get blocked. So most companies that couldn't get their submissions in by that time actually went to court and got a ruling that said that they could operate until today, December 31st. And Lula spoke against betting again, actually twice. In September, he spoke against betting in the UN. And he said that he would overturn.

18:34
legislation if things don't go like what they expect. After a while, we would understand that he was talking about externalities around gambling, like problem gambling and that stuff. So he said he would overturn legislation. I don't think it's going to happen. Also, the welfare money use debate began in October. And in November, all this kind of like move the step

19:04
proposing a ban on prop bets, like every bet apart from the results of games, would be banned in case this proposition... And later Lula backed him. Lula said that he agrees with him and Lula and Alchmin and Adad said that they agree with him that this should be banned. So we have to wait and see what they are planning to do. But this is kind of insane because a ban on the prop market is going to...

19:33
to put the illegal market in advantage in Brazil. It's going to send a lot of people to it. And then another one came into force with the STF banning welfare money from betting. Then the government would say they don't have the capacity to do that. Yes, it's impossible to do it because when the money... It's like blocking illegal websites, it's impossible. You cannot do that. Yeah, in this case, because most people in the Bolsa Familia have a job or have other sources of money income.

20:02
So when the money goes to their account, it gets mixed with other sources. So it's impossible to put a ban on this money, but it can't surpass a certain amount. And when it surpasses this amount, you get half of the benefit. And the STF actually banned welfare money from betting, but then after, the government said they were unable to actually enforce the prohibition. Yeah.

20:30
So the government said that 99% of the people that receive the money from Bolsa Familia and other social programs receive money from other sources of income in the same account. So it's impossible to track which one comes from which. So it's not something that they can enforce it. So yeah, let's see what happens from here because the TCU had already said again that they have to

21:00
can't do anything. They don't have the technical capabilities to do anything in this regard. Yeah, we have recorded some episodes on this topic, so you should go back and check what we discussed there. Also in November, Supervet was the first to pay the licensing fee, actually kind of like break the champagne. You know, when you break the champagne bottle against the boat, you know, the Supervet was like Alex Fonseca was there like with the first

21:28
money to the government around licensing fees. And in December, like we said before, the Senate postponed the land-based casino bill. The syntax was probably one of the most relevant topics. We also recorded an episode with Ricardo and Barbara Teles. Amazing episode. So you should, yeah, I love that episode. You should go check it out. It was really good. And so we reached the final with the honk and

21:56
the final moments of 2024. What are your resolution guys for 2025? Like your industry resolutions? I just hope the government does stop attacking the industry because these last few months have been crazy because they did a schedule that was good. And when we got closer and closer and closer to the regulation starting, they started to throw some things that are going to really hurt.

22:25
the industry if they go through. So I just hope that they have more common sense in this regard because this is the start of the industry. If we start with the wrong foot, we're going to end up killing it. My resolution is actually related to SPC Summit Real. I cannot wait for this event. It's my first real event, let's put it that way, as a relationships manager. So v And I just, I would like to add to everybody who's listening that I'm learning Italian at the moment. I just downloaded Duolingo last week. I'm learning Italian.

23:18
That's not learning Italian. I am like, I already know how to. You're learning words of Italian. No, I'm learning a lot. Lucy, if you're listening to me, Luz Brackpoole, if you're listening to me, she knows that we can do it because she does Duolingo as well. So, I mean, it's awesome. I know already how to say out like a cross sound, please. You know, like I won't start. I know how to say, Buongiorno, Buonasera, Io sono Isadora.

23:44
Oh, I'm great. I'm nailing it. Next year I'm going to be fluent in Italian. That's beautiful. And also regarding the the SBC Summit Reel, we had like a really good indicative of what we're going to get with the SBC Digital Brazil that broke a lot of records. We saw it was the biggest digital event of SBC until date. So we're really, really happy. And this is a really good indicative of...

24:11
what the SBC Summit Rio is going to be. And SBC Noticias Brasil is going through. It's great. It's very nice to see. Make sure you subscribe to SBC Noticias Brasil newsletter to keep up to date with all that's going to happen from January 1, 2025 on. And be sure to be in SBC Summit Rio 25 between the 25th and the 27th of February in Rio Centro, Rio de Janeiro. And let's just hope the industry develops in a safe way.

24:40
and profitable way for everyone. And yeah, that has been 2024. Guys, thank you very much, and A.M. McDonald for producing this episode. Isadora, Ricardo, thank you very much for an amazing year in iGaming Daily. I'm Fernando Nott. And to our listeners, happy new year.