The licenses of Pixbet and three other operators were suspended by the Brazilian gambling regulatory authority, the Secretariat of Awards and Betting (SPA). However, a federal court ruling later restored the authorization for Pixbet.
The SPA issued Normative Decree No. 787, which suspended the licenses of Tqj-Par Participacoes Societarias SA, 7MBR Ltda, Caixa Lotteries SA, and PixBet Technological Solutions, preventing them from operating in Brazil's legal online gambling market.
According to the decree, these four operators failed to comply with Article 3 of Normative Decree No. 2,104, which involves submitting technical certificates and betting systems to the regulatory authority.
From the date of issuance of the decree, the suspension period will last 90 days, during which the operators will be prohibited from offering fixed-odds betting until certification is completed and their licenses are restored.
The Brazilian Federal Court restored the license of PixBet
In a statement shared with Poder360, Pixbet expressed that it was "surprised" to receive the news of the suspension of its license, believing that it had submitted the necessary certificates and pointing out that there could be errors in the analysis or technical processing, which was the reason for the revocation of the license.
This news might also shock the top football club Flamengo, which last week launched a jersey sponsor, FlaBet, a new brand jointly launched with the team's main sponsor, PixBet. In Brazil, only authorized gambling companies can sponsor sports teams.
However, after the company submitted a "mandatory order," Federal Court Judge Anderson Santos da Silva overturned the effectiveness of the decree, and Pixbet's license was restored on Friday night.
The company claimed that it had submitted three of the four necessary certification documents in February, with the remaining document, the integration certificate, sent on April 10.
Pixbet claimed that the decree the next day was "illegal and disproportionate," and it compensated for the "reputational and economic losses" as the main sponsor of Flamengo team with 4.7 billion Brazilian reais.
Da Silva decided to allow Pixbet to "resume its economic activities," suspending the effectiveness of Normative Decree No. 787, "until the court decides otherwise."
The other three operators mentioned in Normative Decree No. 787 will continue to be prohibited from entering the legal market until they provide the remaining certification documents.
