Brazil: Rio de Janeiro Lottery to launch sports betting bidding process in 120 days

The State Lottery of Rio de Janeiro (Loterj) continues to advance in the opening of regional gaming and betting. The lottery revealed that the bidding notice that will open the process to officialize the sports betting market will be published within 120 days.

According to what was reported by the Brazilian portal BNL Data, Loterj's president, Hazenclever Cançado, shared during ICE VOX in London, more specifically at Brazil's "World Regulatory Briefing," that Loterj is finalizing the Reference Term (RFI), a state information document on sports betting and online lottery, to start the bidding process. Once this text is published, Loterj will focus on selecting the sports betting operating company while initiating a bidding process for the online lottery.

According to what was announced in London, the RFI will be ready to be published in the last days of February and will establish that the operating license will be governed under the model of "open accreditation with multi-operators, so that the market will regulate itself."

"We have not yet defined the values of the fixed concession, but the parameters are from 4 to 8 million reais (between $766.500 and $1,533,000, respectively) for a license for five years for online and land-based fixed odds betting operations," Cançado detailed.

In addition, one of the requirements included in the public notice will oblige the operator to use only the payment system enabled by Loterj, from Pixs Cobrança e Serviços em Tecnologia S.A.

The electronic platform will enable a simplified payment method for lottery tickets and other products in Rio de Janeiro through Loterj.

The contract will enable the lottery to have its own payment system, which will also allow the State Government to use the payment system in the future.

In parallel, Loterj is working in partnerships with Anatel, the Central Bank, and telephone operators, among other companies, to ensure the blocking of international betting platforms, which offer their services in Rio de Janeiro without permission or paying taxes, according to news site BNL Data.

In this sense, the company must also demonstrate that its operating systems will be limited only to Rio de Janeiro. "This will be a challenge for state lotteries. There will be an imposition so that, in the accreditation, the operator can demonstrate that it has control over the sales being restricted to the limits of the state, as foreseen in the federal legislation," said Cançado. "There are examples of this already working, such as the case of Intralot do Brasil, which operates the Keno Minas of Loteria Mineira."

In conclusion, Loterj's president pointed out that they plan to expand the gaming market once the initial offerings are launched. And he said: "We are preparing to launch new betting modalities, focusing on online and real-time betting and modernizing our operations. We want the best operators to come to Rio to provide security to players."