At least three state banks in Brazil plan to start exploring lotteries amid the betting market boom in the country with bets. BRB (Federal District), Banestes (Espírito Santo), and Banese (Sergipe) are in the process of creating specific subsidiaries to operate in the area.
With the growth of sports betting sites and Caixa's dominance in lotteries, state financial institutions rely on regional appeal and capillarity to win customers. Of the five existing state banks, only Banrisul (Rio Grande do Sul) and Banpará (Pará) do not have projects in this regard.
The plans come from a decision by the Supreme Federal Court (STF), which determined in 2020 that the Union did not have a monopoly on lottery explorations and settled an old discussion with some states. Since then, state governments have been preparing to explore the service, and some of those that still have banks are placing the lottery under these institutions.
The market is large. Caixa had a record collection with lotteries last year, of R$ 25.6 billion. Also in 2024, the subsidiary Caixa Loterias became operational and concentrated the gaming activities, resuming even the "scratch card", which had been interrupted almost nine years ago.
In the Federal District, in 2023 BRB even announced an agreement with the Portuguese SCML for the exploration of lotteries, but the deal was not signed due to questions about the legality of the tender. Now, the process of choosing a partner has been resumed, with the hiring of BTG Pactual to analyze the possibilities. The expectation is to finalize it still in this semester.
According to Diogo Oliveira, director of wholesale and government of BRB, the projection is to collect almost R$ 100 million per year with the lottery exploration.
BRB has a digital bank in partnership with Flamengo, but by law can only sell lotteries in the Federal District. “With geolocation, we can know if the customer is within the borders of the DF and offer or not this service”.
In Espírito Santo, Genial is conducting the process for choosing a partner for Banestes, which should be finalized by March. The bank does not disclose the expected collection with lotteries. “Of course, there is a growth curve in the first two, three years, but the expectation is that it will be a significant source of revenue”, says Silvio Grillo, director of investor relations and finance.
According to president of Banestes Loteria, Ricardo Pessanha, the idea is to distribute the product through the bank's network of correspondents, called BanesFácil, which has almost 400 points, in addition to digital channels. “I believe there is a high 'cross-sell' [cross-selling] by placing lotteries in this channel of banking correspondents. They can stop having a basically transactional character to also be a relational point”, he states.
Banestes will operate a bet and does not rule out the possibility of having physical video lottery machines, bringing to the real world modalities that work like the "little tiger game" from cell phones. “The law does not allow cloth casino [physical], animal game, and bingo, the rest in theory can. Today a huge part of the bets and 'little tiger' operates clandestinely, and we want to bring to light what was previously done in hidden environments. Of course, it will depend on the partner we choose, but what is within legality we will study”, says Pessanha.
In Sergipe, Banese chose a consortium formed by Culloden/TSA to have a minority participation in the subsidiary that will explore the lottery. It was created last month and the expectation is that the products will be launched still in the first semester.
“The operation of lotteries demands robust distribution channels, efficient payment solutions [such as wallets, acquiring, Pix, 'cash-in' and 'cash-out'] and a diversified customer base. Banese, through its conglomerate, holds the largest capillarity of service in Sergipe, in addition to offering all the financial solutions necessary to support a lottery operation”, says the bank in a response sent to Valor.
According to Banese, studies estimated that the lottery market in Sergipe was about R$ 120 million in 2019, still without the recent increase in bets. “The new subsidiary of Banese aims to consolidate as the leader of the lottery sector in Sergipe within the first five years of operation. The goal is to achieve 50% of market share of the lottery market in the state during this period”.
The CEO of the lottery unit of Caixa, Luciola Aor Vasconcelos, says she does not fear competition with state lotteries. “For us, it's quite calm, we operate throughout the national territory. But it does not mean that we are not looking at the competitive market”.
The executive also states that, although there is a diversity of games - numerical prognosis (traditional lottery), instant (scratch card) and fixed quota (like the bets) -, the modalities do not compete with each other. “One cannibalizes the other a little, but it's little, they are not competitors among themselves. The world of bets is set, but it does not affect our performance”.
The banks say they are concerned with financial education to avoid indebting gamblers and claim they will have measures to combat addiction to games. This is the case even for Caixa, which will also operate a bet. “We sell entertainment, dreams, but we have a very big concern with the social issue. In the betting market, we will have an even greater concern with these aspects”, says Vasconcelos.
Unlike state banks, which must have partners to operate their lotteries and bets, Caixa intends to act independently.
Source: Valor
