The Media, Entertainment, and Culture Commission of the OAB SP (Brazilian Bar Association São Paulo Section) held the event 'Digital Influencers and the Betting Market: Regulatory Challenges, Responsible Advertising'. The debate held at the headquarters of the São Paulo Order brought together jurists and professionals from the advertising and betting markets to discuss controversies and developments on the topic.
“This is a topic that has been growing in importance, as the operating companies, the so-called bets, have greatly increased their advertising investments. And this movement raises a series of questions regarding applicable norms and ethical limits within the advertising market," commented José Maurício Fittipaldi, president of the Media, Entertainment, and Culture Commission of the OAB SP.
The first panel of the day, titled “Advertising of bets and influencers: norms and limits for online betting advertising, considering Annex X of Conar and applicable legislation”, was moderated by Larissa Muller, from the Media, Entertainment, and Culture Commission of the OAB SP.
The table included Juliana Vilhena Nascimento, advertiser, director of FCB/SIX, president of the Client and Business Group and advisor to Conar (National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation); Maria Marta Dias Heringer Lisboa, from the Media, Entertainment, and Culture Commission of the OAB SP, and partner of UOL Adtech; Juliana Albuquerque, executive vice-president of Conar; and Maria Fernanda Ramirez Assad, jurist specialized in Civil Law and author of publications.
“The betting market has significantly stirred up advertising in recent years. We know it's a cyclical movement. We had, for example, this movement with the tobacco industry. And today, we can say that every advertising agency wants to have a betting company to call its own”, mentioned Juliana Vilhena Nascimento, also discussing the relevance of the topic and the government's stance on betting.
The second panel was moderated by Yhannath Silva, also a member of the Media, Entertainment, and Culture Commission of the OAB SP, in addition to being a postgraduate in Anti-Corruption Compliance from PUC MG and co-founder of IANB, and addressed regulatory and compliance issues, discussing the Brazilian and international regulatory scenario related to the betting sector, and the legal responsibilities of influencers when promoting such services.
The guests for the table were Beatriz Gimenez Costa, member of the Compliance Commission of the OAB SP and director of compliance at the betting house Reals Bet; Fernanda Meirelles de Oliveira Leite, responsible for the area of Technologies, media and telecommunications at FAS Lawyers; Luiz Felipe Santoro, MBA in Football Industries from the University of Liverpool, and president of the Commission of Law of Games, Betting and Responsible Gaming of the OAB SP, and Natalia Kuchar, corporate consultant at Google.
“We have the policies of Google Ads, which encompass not only what is allowed by law, but by rule within the platform. Sometimes, the issue may even be legal, but it is not allowed by the platform, such as the requirement of a disclaimer about responsible gaming”, clarified Natalia Kuchar, from Google.
Expert on the topic, Luiz Felipe Santoro contributed to the discussion pointing out that regulation facilitates supervision and consumer care: “The market that exists today, where the consumer is unprotected, is not the market we will see from January 1, 2025. From 2018 until now, the companies operated legally, but in an unregulated way, engaging in legal activity that did not even pay taxes”.
“So, various criticisms that could have been addressed back in 2018, when the law was approved, or even in 2019, 2020, 2021, when the companies operated without regulation, we are having now, that we have a quite robust regulation, as has already been said here”, added Santoro.
The theme of managing partnerships with influencers was highlighted in the third and last panel of the event. The mediation was done by José Maurício Fittipaldi, president of the Commission, who asked pointed questions about this relationship to the members of the table: Caio Cesar Dominguez, communicator and founding partner of the agency Loi Digital; Ana Paula Passarelli, co-founder and director of the agency Operations of Brunch; Carlos Scappini, partner and co-founder of the agency Music2Mynd; and Carol Novaes, influencer and lawyer member of the board of the OAB in the Subsection of Pinheiros.
“We are talking about an ecosystem that has a lot of people in the way. Between the creator and the betting house, there are many people participating in this ecosystem and each one delivers a value. So, about responsibility, for example, the influencer also needs to be responsible for what they publish”, commented Ana Paula Passarelli, from Brunch.
“We also have to realize that the speed with which a law or a rule is built, and the way it is communicated, is a process much slower than the speed at which the industry moves. A big theme raised at Conar is that it's not enough just to delete the post or the campaign. The provocation that remains is that the way we build legislation and regulation will also have to change. We need a higher level of speed to serve everyone, supposedly”, stated Carlos Scappini, from Music2Mynd.
Finally, Carol Novaes, influencer and lawyer, commented on the other side. “I do not advertise anything that I do not believe in. It always involves more things than it seems. It is important to take responsibility, as an influencer, so I have this caution. If I do not believe in the discourse, I do not do the advertising”, she added.
Source: GMB
