Regulatory Radar | Fixed-Odds Betting – Ed. 09

Week of July 20 to 24, 2026

It was a busy week at the federal level. The Secretariat of Prizes and Betting opened a public consultation to review the authorization rules, the market gained its first official figures for 2026, and advertising returned to center stage, with an administrative fine and a court-ordered suspension in the same week. Across states and municipalities, advertising restrictions keep advancing, and sports integrity is back on the radar with the World Cup. Here is what deserves your attention.

Public consultation to review the authorization rules

The Secretariat of Prizes and Betting opened a public consultation to improve the rules for authorization to operate in the country. The goal is to draw on lessons from the first licensing cycle and refine the procedure. Any individual or company may submit contributions through the Brasil Participativo portal. The window runs from July 27 to September 9.

What this means: This is a concrete window to influence the next licensing rules. It is worth preparing technical contributions now. Operators, suppliers, and investors have a chance here to shape the framework that will apply to everyone in the next cycle.

Ministry of Finance to open up the authorization files

Through an ordinance published this week, the Ministry of Finance created a task force to prepare the release of the administrative authorization files of the platforms. A group of civil servants has a set period to review the files, protect confidential and personal data, and then make them public. There are more than 25,000 documents. The measure follows the Federal Court of Accounts flagging coordination failures among the bodies that oversee the sector.

What this means: More transparency means more public scrutiny over who was authorized and how. It is advisable to review what your authorization file contains, already thinking about how that information will look once disclosed.

The first official figures for 2026 enter the debate

The Secretariat released official data on the regulated market for the first quarter. Around 15.2 million Brazilians placed bets between January and March, and licensed platforms held nearly 98 million active accounts at the end of the period. The sector generated tax revenue in the billions of reais for the quarter.

What this means: These figures give the regulated market concrete arguments in the public debate: scale, formalization, and tax revenue. They serve as a basis for institutional positioning and to counter, with numbers, much of the narrative against the sector.

SPA imposes a multimillion-real fine for advertising involving minors

The Secretariat of Prizes and Betting imposed a multimillion-real fine on an operator for advertisements featuring the participation of children and adolescents, run in partnership with an influencer. The key point: the Secretariat held that the operator is responsible for the entire advertising chain, even when the content is produced by a partner. An appeal is available.

What this means: Responsibility for advertising does not shift to the influencer or affiliate; it lies with the operator. Time to review influencer contracts and internal advertising controls, especially where there is any risk of reaching a youth audience.

Federal District court orders betting advertising suspended within 48 hours

The Federal District court ordered the suspension, within 48 hours and subject to a fine, of a betting advertising campaign run by a high-reach individual. The decision bars ads that promise guaranteed profit, present betting as a source of income, or downplay the risks, and it requires advertising to be clearly identified, including when embedded in personal or everyday content.

What this means: Blending betting with personal content, without clear identification, has become risky ground, now with a very short takedown deadline. It is worth reviewing campaigns with high-audience creators and having a rapid-response plan for any court orders.

The Supreme Court moves toward the Betting Law judgment

The Federal Supreme Court is expected to rule in the second half of the year on the action challenging the validity of the Betting Law. There are signs the case will reach the full bench as early as September. Sensitive points are at stake, such as access by social-program beneficiaries, advertising limits, and the possibility of restricting bets on the individual performance of athletes.

What this means: This is the sector’s most important judgment of the year. The outcome could reshape rules on advertising, bettor eligibility, and permitted markets. It is worth mapping, from now, your business’s exposure to each scenario.

Advertising: capitals advance with decrees and jurisdiction goes to the Supreme Court

Local restrictions on betting advertising gained ground in July. Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte moved to ban betting ads in public spaces by decree, and Cuiabá followed the same path. São Paulo has a bill advancing in the City Council, with the mayor already pledging to sign it. The underlying debate is always the same: regulating betting is a federal competence, which calls local rules into question. The best barometer is the Rio Grande do Sul advertising law, now challenged before the Supreme Court, where the federal government has requested its suspension.

What this means: The map of where you can advertise is changing city by city. It is advisable to review outdoor media and sponsorship contracts in the affected markets and to follow the Rio Grande do Sul case, which should set how far states and municipalities can go. The sector association has already signaled it will take the decrees to court.

World Cup: international monitoring issues seven integrity alerts

An international sports-monitoring network, working in coordination with FIFA’s integrity task force, issued seven possible-manipulation alerts across the 104 matches of the World Cup. All are at the mildest level of the scale and stem from indicators, such as unexplained swings in odds and rumors, rather than confirmed cases. FIFA itself stated it had not identified any suspicious betting activity in the tournament. Total betting volume for the competition was estimated at around US$240 billion, roughly double the previous World Cup.

What this means: Sports integrity is back at the center of the debate, with particular attention to prediction markets and to bets on specific plays and player participation. It is worth reinforcing channels to detect and report suspicious betting and reviewing exposure to markets more prone to manipulation.

Looking to the week ahead

• Public consultation on authorization: opens July 27 and runs to September 9, through the Brasil Participativo portal.
• SPA fine: the deadline runs for an administrative appeal against the Secretariat’s decision on advertising involving minors.
• Federal District court order: monitor compliance, within the 48-hour deadline, with the advertising-suspension order and any further developments.
• Supreme Court: there are signs the merits of the Betting Law will be docketed for September.
• Municipal decrees: watch for possible legal challenges to the Rio, Belo Horizonte, and Cuiabá rules by the sector association.

Nossa equipe está à disposição para discutir os impactos de qualquer um destes temas no seu negócio.

Este material tem caráter exclusivamente informativo e não constitui aconselhamento jurídico. As análises refletem o entendimento da equipe na data de publicação e podem ser revistas conforme evolução normativa ou jurisprudencial. Para orientação específica sobre situações concretas, consulte um advogado da equipe. © Souto, Correa Advogados — Prática de Regulação de Apostas.