Brazilian government could enact online gambling regulation by July 17

During the 6th edition of the National Football Conference (CONAFUT), the special advisor to the Brazilian Ministry of Finance, José Manssur, stated that his country's government is close to enacting the long-awaited regulation of sports betting.

Without giving a confirmation, he insinuated that the enactment may take place before July 17, when the parliamentary recess begins in Brazil. The government official gave this information during the panel 'Sports Betting: Regulation, Sponsorship, and Integrity in Gaming' of CONAFUT, held at the Espaço Fit in São Paulo.

Besides Manssur, Guilherme Buso (Business Manager of Genius Sports and Representative of ABRADIE), Danielle Maiolini (CSMV lawyer specializing in sports law), and Fernando Prass (former goalkeeper and current commentator) participated, with the moderation of Fernando Mello, Vice President of the Federação Paulista de Futebol (FPF) and founder of Press FC.

Among the topics discussed was the impact of the introduction of sports betting in Brazilian soccer and the problem of manipulation of results after the outbreak of Operation Maximum Penalty by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Goiás, a fact that forced all the protagonists to discuss measures to avoid any illegality.

"We listened to the clubs, the CBF, the operators and we listened to the betting associations, but we believe it is important to listen to whoever makes use of this service so that we can have total control and oversight of what we are going to regulate," Manssur said during the talk.

According to the advisor, investment, and acceptance of the use of technology and artificial intelligence will be key to regulating and alerting about possible dubious bets.

"If we forbid a user to bet on a corner kick here in Brazil, the same user will bet on an international championship. We have to have an operating system that can warn us of possible fraudulent bets in some in-game scout and compare it with the behavior of the athlete, and as soon as we notice a certain level of probability of fraud, warn the operator to remove this bet," he explained.