For this public official, the biggest challenge is to fight against match-fixing in a market that has grown without regulation, which is why he says that this battle must be quick and efficient. What is the role of the National Secretariat for Sports Betting and Economic Development of Sports and what is its scope?
The Secretariat’s role is to prevent and combat match-fixing in Brazilian sports, in all sports, not just soccer. Our scope is to look at the integrity of Brazilian sports. This is our main competence, and we support the SPA, the Prize and Betting Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, in whatever they ask of us.
What are the challenges faced because of the current lack of sports betting regulation in Brazil, in addition to protecting the integrity of sports to prevent match-fixing, given the growing popularity of online betting?
The biggest challenge is to combat match-fixing in a market that has grown without regulation. We have a lot of misinformation. The initial law of 2018 did not authorize games other than sports betting. Since there was no regulation, what happened was that this segment grew without the strong hand of the State in regulating it, without any control. Now, we are seeing a lot of misinformation, a lot of fraud, but President Lula’s government has been working on this fight to face all the difficulties and bring light to a total gray market. It is a very complex market, which requires technical knowledge of the subject. It is clear then that we will work from two areas: 1) Finance, which is the part of obtaining licenses, inspection, combating money laundering, and 2) Sports, which is the part of combating the manipulation of results and preventing such manipulation from happening.
In a hearing held at the STF, you addressed the challenges brought about by the lack of regulation of online betting in Brazil, highlighting the urgency of legislation to regulate the sector and guarantee the integrity of the games. What measures could be taken in this regard? Is there an estimated timeline?
Regarding my speech at the Supreme Court, I brought to light this difference between online betting, which is available to consumers on the betting platform, at the bookmaker, and sports betting. Sports betting is a specific event available to Brazilians, unlike online gambling. With online gambling, people need to be aware that this is entertainment in which they are also putting their money at stake. People need to understand that this is not a way to supplement their income, that this is not a way to help pay the household bills. This is the biggest challenge in raising people’s awareness. Above all, the sport that receives the most bets is soccer, a great passion of Brazilians. There is educational work that we need to do, and it is with information; there is no other way. The schedule now is for us to structure an awareness program, a joint effort with the Treasury and the Communications Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, to bring this information to people. The difficulty is doing this in a market that, for six years, has been practically without regulation. We spent the entire year of 2023 building the legislative instruments to authorize this. I must leave my compliments to Secretary Regis Dudena, from the Ministry of Finance, for his exceptional work. Dudena has been a warrior in the task he has carried out as head of the Prizes and Betting Secretariat, in structuring all the thematic ordinances that will provide security so that this market can advance and that the Government has control over everything. In addition to the educational issue, our schedule includes preventing and combating the manipulation of sports results. This is in partnership with the organizations that collect this information and will forward it to us, which is much of the ordinance we recently published.
The Ministry of Sports may form partnerships with institutions specialized in sports integrity to detect, through monitoring systems, suspicious patterns and irregular behavior in sporting events in the context of sports betting. How would these partnerships work?
The partnerships with specialized integrity institutions are aimed at providing us with information from the monitoring they already do around the world. This work of identifying suspicious actions of match-fixing is crucial for the government to act. They already track this information. These are global best practices that we will quickly apply here in Brazil. It is something important to emphasize. The fight against match-fixing must be fast and efficient. When everything is structured in a systematic way, this is what Brazilian sports need to maintain their integrity. The National Secretariat for Sports Betting and Economic Development will receive this information from the integrity agencies, process it, investigate the evidence that is there, structure an administrative process that will then be forwarded to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Prizes and Betting Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Police, the Civil Police, all agencies with police powers so that those involved are punished in an exemplary manner.
What is the possible scenario in 2025 regarding the fight against illegal gambling, as well as ensuring the integrity of sports?
We are very optimistic about the scenario from 2025 onwards because, in our view, the worst is over. Structural actions are already being taken. As of January 1st, 2025, everything will begin within what the law determines and what the normative ordinances of the Ministry of Finance impose on serious companies that want to operate in Brazil. We must work quickly to investigate the information and advance everything that needs to be done to combat match-fixing. I have no doubt that in 2025 we will be able to protect the integrity of Brazilian sports well. People truly expect that. This is the work of our Secretariat, the mission given to me by Minister Andre Fufuca, and I will fulfill my task in a meticulous and determined manner.
