Yogonet Brazil regains its online status after improper blocking by Brazilian authorities

Last Thursday, October 10, the Yogonet team was surprised to see the company's name among the betting sites considered 'irregular' by the Brazilian authorities, which were to be blocked at the request of the Brazilian Ministry of Finance.

The reason for the surprise is obvious: Yogonet is not, nor has it ever been a sportsbook. The portal has never been used for sports betting or online casino games, nor has it promoted deposit or withdrawal operations of any kind.

In its 22-year history, the company has been dedicated to being a B2B news site that specializes in covering the legal gambling market, publishing relevant news, and always working in defense of regulation, responsible gambling, integrity, and good practices in the sector.

However, without heeding this, on Friday 11, the site was already down in most parts of Brazil, as a result of the blocking due to an unintentional error by the Government. Fortunately, it only remained offline during the weekend, and by Monday's edition, the site was back online.  

That same day, the legal team advising Yogonet in Brazil contacted the Ministry of Finance's Secretary of Prizes and Gambling (SPA), which quickly recognized the error and informed the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), so that it could proceed with the unblocking of the website.

Now that the error has been resolved and the site is back online nationwide, those of us who make Yogonet want to thank all those who have expressed their support in this situation. In particular, we would like to thank our colleagues for their concern and help in finding a quick solution to the blockage: Carlos Cardama and Gildo Mazza (Games Magazine Brasil), who were the first to contact us to alert us about this news; Magnho José, editor of BNLData, for his support and commitment in assisting us and solving this problem; Alessandro Valente (BiS SiGMA), for pronouncing himself in favor of our trajectory and seriousness of work; Flávio Figueiredo (iGaming Brasil), for the significant publication that they made public on their website and for helping us to resolve the issue and, in particular, to the lawyer Luiz Felipe Maia, who advised us very quickly and managed to help us, with incredible speed and efficiency, to resolve the misunderstanding through a claim to the SPA.  

Other industry media, executives, and readers got in touch expressing their solidarity and concern, a testament to the work that Yogonet Brazil has been doing in the coverage of the Brazilian, Latin American, and international gaming market. Many thanks to all of them. We also thank the SPA team for the speed in correcting the error.

However, we want to draw your attention to this situation with a single objective: that the Brazilian authorities have greater and better control of their tasks. This error may seem small, and fortunately, it was quickly corrected, but it calls into question the control of legal betting in Brazil by the regulators, a subject that today deserves great attention and extreme care.

It is necessary to prevent this industry from being tainted by irregularities in the eyes of the public, either by the action of illegal operators (who should not be operating in Brazil) or by a regulatory body that is not effective enough to take the necessary care that the sector requires.

The best way to support the market is for all of us to act as professionals. We must avoid mass media actions against the sector, or questioning the jobs generated, the resources contributed to the State, and the controls carried out by legal gambling operators at an international level.

Gaming is a topic that demands the utmost seriousness and rigor from everyone: operators, regulators, media, and suppliers... and that is what we intend to do at Yogonet.

As a media outlet, Yogonet reinforces its commitment to offering quality content to executives, entrepreneurs, regulators, and other stakeholders in the gaming industry. We will continue to move forward, strengthened by the support network and recognition of our readers and colleagues. To all of them, thank you again.