iGaming Daily

00:00
Player protection is always a key priority for regulators and governments everywhere in the world and with Brazil having enforced its new legal framework only this year, this topic has certainly taken over the agenda. With the eyes of the country and the world on the gaming segment, Brazil is set to apply new guidelines and rules for it, which is what we will discuss today. Welcome to iGaming Daily. I'm Fernando Nott, Media Manager.

00:27
for SBC and your host for today and to discuss everything related to Brazil. Who better than the SBC Noticias Brazil team, Elisa Marcante, business journalist for SBC Noticias Brazil. How are you today? Hi, Fer. Thank you. I'm really good. And you? I'm very good. Very happy to have you back on the podcast. been a while since you were last in On Eye Gaming Daily. And to join us and discuss this

00:56
player protection measures. Also Ana Maria Menezes, business journalist for SBC News Brasil. Ana, how are you? Hello, Fer. Oh, good. I'm very glad to be here with the Latam team once again. It's always very nice to be with you all. We have a lot to discuss about Brazil because it's been a while since we last covered anything going on there. And there's a lot going on in Brazil because, of course, the new regulatory framework that was enforced on January 1st.

01:22
has changed the game for the country and the industry in Brazil which is said to become the at least the third largest market in the world but with the new regulatory framework like I said came along a lot of uh new legal regulations and guidelines and rules and proposals to amend and a very despite being very new legislation some proposals to amend it already

01:51
So we will cover that all. But first, are you heading to G2E? Optimo is hosting an exclusive sweepstakes industry breakfast. Get market insights and hear from some of the top names in the industry. Find out more on this can't miss event in the description of this episode. Thank you very much Optimo for presenting iGaming Daily. But now let's start with the episode and

02:21
I want to go in chronological order first. So a few days ago, the government published their regulation to protect the underage population. What does this new rules or what do these new rules say, Ana? Okay, so the first thing that we have clear out of the way is the fact that the whole iGame industry is very focused on only plus 18 players. So after getting out of the way, only regulated operators.

02:48
used this as of like a guideline because it's the law. And what was created was what they're calling the digital statute of children and adolescents. And this new institute just gives the National Data Protection Authority some more power to monitor or even block online content or apps that could harm kids, underage uh kids basically. And so like fake apps, which is something that is

03:18
happening sometimes here in Brazil as well. So fake apps in app stores or gaming platforms. So the focus is just making sure that the underage users cannot access content that is meant for adults. And this applies to also ah iGaming platforms. So these other platforms will need to respect the age ratings, confirm the identity. And this is very similar to what we have in the iGaming industry as well. So we have the KYC processes.

03:46
and all of that. So this is just applying what is already regulated to us in a broader scope, which is also protecting the operators as well from having miners entering the market and even their own platforms by, you know, just sort of like trying to find a breach or something to get on that. how does this, of course, it sounds great in paper.

04:12
But how does this actually change or how does this actually impact the landscape of the gaming industry in Brazil? OK, so I talked to João Pedro Ferraz Teixeira. He's a lawyer. He's specialized in data privacy and also cyber law. And he said that that was the busiest when we talked. That was the busiest day ever in Brazil for the data privacy laws, which is he says something from a guy that is a specialist. Who is a specialist,

04:41
ah But he said that this is a real milestone ah because the way that impacts us, and we can talk here about specifically eSports, is that not having miners in those environments that are meant to be 18 plus also filters them so they cannot uh achieve the high gaming platforms as well. So if we're talking about eSports uh events, as an example, for example, such as Call of Duty, the age,

05:10
is 18 plus. If you have minors reaching those platforms, then you also have them reaching those tournaments, as an example, that are also meant for people who are over 18, because that's the age they can play the game. So it's sort of like a chain reaction. And for us, what we really benefit is that it makes us a safer environment for the operators as well, for the children and

05:38
not only children but of course adolescents as well teenagers and in general it's just a general reaction and we're being we're being put in a safer environment if i'm being 100 % honest well that's definitely a good news if you want to read more about it please go ahead and subscribe to the newsletter of svcnoticesbrazil go to svcnoticesbrazil.com and look this story up of course we will leave some useful links in the description of this episode but

06:08
Let's move on because we only have so much time. in a more recent development, the Supreme Court of Brazil issued a ruling that may be a bit of a game changer as well for the gaming industry, didn't it, Alisa? Yes, exactly. That's right. So STF made an important ruling on Brazil's betting law, number 14,700.

06:36
709th of 2023. And recently, STF just reached a majority decision and struck down to parts of the law. Their main concern was that the law was affecting state gaming license and of course the state revenue. So they were uh arguing about the rule that allowed only

07:04
one single group or a company to hold one license per state. And also the restriction that state lottery advertising could only target residents of that state. So according to the governors of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, Acre and the federal district, these rules made the state concessions less competitive.

07:33
when compared to the federal ones. And same question as with the previous topic. So how does this impact and what does this mean for the gaming market? So with the Supreme Court's decision, these provisions are now unconstitutional. So it changed the landscape for the states and how they want to manage and expand their own waterways.

08:03
Also, the Supreme Court Minister, Fuchs, uh he's the reporter of the case. He explained that the challenge parts of the betting law limit states, especially the smaller ones. So they are attracting companies for the licensing, but they force them to work with less prepared providers. And also he noted that...

08:33
the restrictions have no basis and end up weakening state revenue in favor of the federal government. speaking of the Supreme Court, there's been some changes in it recently, Oh, yeah. We sort of have a big change. We have a new president of the Supreme Court. His name is Edson Fakim. He's not new to the gaming industry at all. And he took over on the 29th. And this has been sort of

09:03
a hot topic in Brazil at the moment uh because we have a lot of cases going on, an important case for the country. But talking specifically about our market, for the betting and the lottery market, the big question is how his leadership can affect and change the whole industry. And I talked to Caio Loureiro, he's a lawyer from Tozini Freira Advogados, and he mentioned that according to Faquim's profile, we may not see a lot of changes.

09:33
So he's known for being more discreet and more cautious. He's more of a consensus builder than someone who actually seeks the spotlight, which is, it a good thing for us? Is it a bad thing for us? We're going to see on the way. But in past rule is on lotteries and gambling. He avoided ideological positions and he also voted on strictly technical grounds. ah That's how he positioned himself. ah We talked a lot about.

10:01
the changes that could come with him being there. His political views as well, since we know ah everyone has a political view, also does a minister. And we talked a lot about that during the interview. And you guys can check all that on SBC Notícias Brasil. The whole interview is there. It was very interesting and it's a great way to understand how changing one single piece in politics can also affect the whole scheme of the Brazilian politics as we know it.

10:28
Make sure you are subscribed to SBC Noticias Brazil's newsletter so go check it out SBCNoticias.com slash VR uh find the newsletter option click on it you can subscribe not only to SBC Noticias Brazil but also to all the media outlets from the SBC media network but there's a lot more to cover on Brazil but we will do so right after this very quick commercial break

10:54
And we are back with more iGaming Daily. I didn't say we are on TikTok yet. So if you have TikTok on your phone, make sure you download, not download, make sure you follow iGaming Daily podcast on TikTok where you will find snippets with the highlights of this podcast. So make sure you follow us not only on TikTok, but also on all your preferred podcasting platforms.

11:21
back to Brazil where uh match fixing has been an issue for some time, not only after the regulation, but before as well with Operation Maximum Penalty or Operacion Penalidad G Maxima, is it? uh Okay, I'm getting some claps there. So I say at least understandably, okay, I guess.

11:45
But yeah, the Ministry of Finance has backed the bill to prohibit all side bets like yellow cards or corners within a game. uh this is of course some direction uh many jurisdictions decide to take to prevent match fixing. But how close is Brazil to enforcing a measure like this? And what is the general vision about it? So Brazil is uh considering a law that makes sports betting safer.

12:13
and the government supports a bill that would ban bets on individual events, focusing instead on general outcomes like match winners and final scores. The government representatives noted this could reduce match manipulation and protect both players and operators. The law markers emphasize that the goal is a safer, more credible betting market.

12:41
and also warn that two strict rules could push bettors to the illegal market. So we have these two things now. They want to make bets safer, like a safer place to bet, but still we have to be careful not to send the players to the black market. yeah. What was the general perception about it? How did the industry or how did the society in general uh

13:08
receive this proposal? they support it? Do they say, hey, maybe not so strict? What's it like? I believe we have both sides. We have people who are saying that the government's right because they have... How can I say it? Sorry. um I believe that we have people on both sides.

13:38
saying that the government's right and also trying to be careful not to expand the illegal market here because we already have a big illegal market in Brazil. And um while we want to protect players, operators, and make a safer uh environment to bet, we still have to be careful because we have a lot of people who doesn't understand how the industry works.

14:08
And if we make it too hard for them to play, bet, they probably go to the illegal brands because it's easier there. So I believe we have both sides here, very strong, but we have to see how it goes because we never know. It's Brazil, right? Right. And I think it's actually a very logical way to go in terms of what's been happening in Brazil because

14:36
Let's remind our audience, we've talked about this over and over again on the podcast, but Bruno Henrique and Lucas Paqueta both are under investigation. I think Paqueta case was already closed, but they were investigated for um actually getting booked on purpose to affect the betting market.

15:06
Yeah, and also even as a compliment to what Elisa mentioned, we had this just in for us actually on the 30th, uh the Sergipe Federation of Football actually said that the players are getting uh sort of harassed into accepting a match fixing uh propositions. So this is very serious. And again, we're talking usually about players who are not in the first leagues and affecting mostly

15:36
not only first leagues but not also in the mainstream of football in Brazil, meaning São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro that are usually the most famous ones as we know it. So Sergipe is in the northeast of Brazil. We're talking about players who are more prone to accepting this uh for salary reasons, for again professional reasons as well. And so we do have this also counting as a way of prohibiting all these side bets.

16:05
not because we want to, but because players are being harassed into also taking part in this. So I think that's important to also consider. Yeah, definitely. Of course, any restriction you enforce will only be actually applied to the regulated market. So if players do decide they still want to do the side beds, the prop beds, yellow cars, corners, all that stuff, they may decide to go to the unregulated market. So it's a very delicate

16:35
situation in Brazil. But speaking of match fixing, week on the week of this recording, the government is promoting a congress to fight it. Yeah. Yeah, we are having the first national technical meeting on combating sports result manipulation in Brasilia, hosted by the Ministry of Sports. So from September 29th, 29, sorry, from September 29 to October 1st, we are having this event.

17:04
and which brings together federal and state police, public security officials and experts to uh strain the sports integrity and share best practice, coordinate actions against betting related fraud and topics related to that. So the meeting...

17:33
We will also highlight the recently launched platform, Apita Cidadão, uh which allows everyone to report anonymously. They also have real-time monitoring and AI driving alerts to help prevent sports fraud. And in addition, they will also release a manual to guide preventative and investigative efforts, also to strengthen

18:03
technical knowledge and collaborative across the country. That's right. It's great to see that the government and all the stakeholders are taking part in um a congress to join, to push joint efforts and um improve the industry. So it's definitely good to see.

18:31
But of course, this is the first time you both are on iGamingDaily after the SBC Summit and Ana, you were in Lisbon for the event which had Brazil featured not only in the conference panels but also all over the floor, the show floor, people, lot of Brazilian people there, Brazilian operators, Brazilian providers, Brazilian affiliates, Brazilian journalists like yourself, Brazilian Brazilians, Brazilian footballers even.

19:01
uh So what do you think were the key things debated about Brazil, about the Brazilian market and what were the main takeaways from SBC Summit related to Brazil, of course? So first of all, we had a full day of Brazil and Latam, so it was the first day, it was very nice. I enjoyed watching the panels.

19:25
But what I got uh mostly out of the whole SBC summit in terms of the panels per se was the fact uh that we are focusing right now on learning from the mistakes that we made or the good things also that happened in the first semester of the regulated market. So we had a lot of time to understand what we could have done better and then improve this moving forward. And not only that, we also need to do some changes in terms of AI.

19:54
in terms of Google search, this was also a focus and I heard a lot of key players mentioning that key players in the market. So I heard them saying, okay, now that Google has changed a little bit, not a little bit actually, a lot of how AI is being used to do the search part. And this is how a lot of operators get uh their new context, even with affiliates. So the changes in uh AI in search,

20:23
also affect the whole industry. So we heard a lot about that as well. And we had panels covering that at SBC Summit this year. We're also going to have that in SBC at SBC Summit Rio next year. So even with a more focus on Brazil, so you guys should definitely, definitely attend the event. We're going to have a much more focused content and we're going to be over a year into the whole IE market being regulated in Brazil.

20:52
So definitely something to keep an eye on. And besides that, for just to really sum this up, because this is something that got me very excited. I saw Kaká playing live right in front of me. That was the most insane thing. I swear I would never imagine that that would happen to me in this lifetime when he was playing as a kid. So that was honestly insane. Insane to me. Yeah, it was great watching all these legends play at the Legends Charity Game.

21:20
uh in Lisbon but like you said make sure you save the date for SBC Summit Rio next year March 3rd to March 5th which will be of course a major event for the Brazilian gaming industry because a lot is happening and a lot will happen between now and then so make sure you are in Rio for SBC Summit Rio because uh like all the important stuff goes down there so yeah

21:48
uh That will be all for today. Thank you very much, Elisa Marcanti and Ana Maria Menezes. Thank you very much, James Ross for producing this episode. I'm Fernando Nott and to our listeners out there, we'll see you in the next one.