The betting sites Parimatch and Betsat, sponsors of Botafogo and Vitória respectively, did not request from the Ministry of Finance, within the deadline of August 20, a license to operate from January 2025 in Brazilian territory. This may prevent the operators from continuing their sponsorship contracts and occupying spaces on the clubs' shirts next year.
According to the InfoMoney website, the two betting houses confirmed that they have not yet requested the license, risking not being able to continue their activities or advertise, as per the ordinances of the Ministry of Finance.
Betsat, sponsor of Vitória until 2026, stated that it expects to make the request, but did not explain how it will avoid leaving the space it occupies on the club's shirt empty.
In the case of Botafogo, Parimatch has a sponsorship contract until the end of 2024, which avoids the immediate risk of losing the main sponsor. After this period, the club could sign a contract with an authorized company.
Although both bets may start the year without the necessary license to maintain their current sponsorship campaigns, only Vitória, initially, would be potentially impacted by a "hiatus" on the shirt, as Botafogo's contract ends at the end of 2024.
One of the ordinances published by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance (SPA-MF) states that betting houses that are not regularized are prohibited from carrying out advertising and propaganda, which includes – in addition to commercial actions on television and the internet – advertising boards in matches and branding on team shirts.
The case of Vitória
Betsat signed at the beginning of 2024 a two-year contract to brand the shirt of Vitória, after the return of the Bahian club to the elite of Brazilian football. The house has not yet sent, however, the request for authorization to the Ministry of Finance.
Betsat states that it expects to make the request, but did not say what the alternative would be to avoid leaving the current space it occupies on the shirt of Leão da Barra empty – since the contract with the club only ends in 2026.
“Even those who are on the list have no guarantee of obtaining the license, so we believe in the speed of the process, especially when very few operators will be analyzed by the responsible regulatory bodies,” said the country manager of Betsat in Brazil, Thiago Vancellote.
“Currently we are considering many possibilities. Some of them involve getting a strategic local partner to nationalize the brand management in Brazil,” he stated.
It is still unclear how the club intends to resolve the issue, Vitória only said it is aligned with Betsat's positioning.
The case of Botafogo
Botafogo and Parimatch have a sponsorship contract until the end of 2024, whose clauses have been normally fulfilled since the signing. Initially, the club would not run the risk of its main sponsorship becoming vacant, given that the contract expires before January 2025, the club did not respond how it deals with the possibility of a renewal with the betting house.
In a statement, Parimatch responded that “the regulations recently published, a few weeks before the registration deadline, required additional adjustments that had not been previously considered.”
According to the company, this would have made it difficult to meet the August 20 deadline. “Our extensive experience in operating in regulated markets around the world gives us confidence that we will soon complete the necessary adaptations.”
“We are working to file our license application, ensuring that our operations are in full compliance as soon as possible,” said the betting house.
Possible solutions
Betting industry executives assure that the Ministry of Finance has made a commitment to regularization for the start of activities in 2025 only with the betting houses committed to the August 20 deadline. In recent years, bets have become the main sponsors of Brazilian football and already amount to more than R$ 560 million in contracts with Serie A clubs.
According to statements from football executives and bets, the main alternatives in the market for companies that did not make the request within the deadline, but want to regularize to start operating in January 2025, are in merger and acquisition processes.
According to the rules defined by the Ministry of Finance, each CNPJ can have only one authorization, but is entitled to operate with up to three different brands. This opens two business perspectives: those who obtain the grant can acquire an established brand that did not request authorization in time, while those who applied within the deadline can put themselves up for sale using adherence to the deadline as a relevant element in the negotiation.
Source: InfoMoney
