The government has published in recent days the draft proposal for the decree regulating sports betting in Brazil. The Ministry of Economy has opened a public consultation aimed at improving the text of the decree.
Article 1° provides for the regulation of the decree:
Art. 1° It is regulated, under the terms of this Decree, the lottery modality called Fixed-Odd Betting, to be exploited exclusively in a competitive environment, in all the national territory, after authorization of the Ministry of Economy or organ that succees it.
§1º The fixed-odd betting lottery modality consists of a betting system with payment of prizes related to real sporting events, in which it is defined, at the moment of making each bet, how much the player can win in case of success of the prognosis.
In this article it is clear that the exploration of the activity is about real sporting events. And the sporting event, especially the high-performance event involving professionals, is costly and it is absolutely reasonable that betting resources can contribute to the improvement of the event. The logic is to think that the resource can make the sporting event even more attractive, and thus the appeal of betting will be even greater.
However, Article 3° of the decree cites:
Art. 3º. The proceeds from the revenue from the commercial operation of the fixed-odd betting lottery will be allocated as follows:
In physical environment:
(…)
e) 0.65% (sixty-five hundredths percent), for sports entities of the football modality that assigne the rights of use of their denominations, brands, emblems, hymns, symbols and other similar signs for disclosure and execution of the lottery.
In virtual environment:
e) 0.7% (seven tenths percent), for sports entities of the football modality that assigne the rights to use their denominations, brands, emblems, anthems, symbols and other similar signs for disclosure and execution of the lottery.
We quickly observed that the percentage for owners of the sports product is very small. The sporting event is logically essential for sports betting, however, this is not represented in the numbers above.
Knowing that this is a draft of the decree proposal, we believe that the sports movement needs to participate in this "game", betting that the situation can improve. The organizing institutions and participants of the events, so far, were only in the crowd, but it was time to present their letters.
The die is cast!
Luiz Marcondes
PhD in Sport from INEFC and University of Lleida - Spain; Master in Sports Law from the University of Lleida - Spain; postgraduate in Civil Law from UNIFIA / SP; coordinator and professor of the Postgraduate Course in Sports Law at the Ibero-American Institute of Sport Law (IIDD); President of the Ibero-American Institute of Sport Law (IIDD); effective member of the National Academy of Sports Law (ANDD); member of INEFC Sports Law Alumni; author of the book “Economic rights of football players”, published by Juruá publisher; lawyer registered at OAB / SP. He writes in the column ‘Direito da bola’ (Right of the ball) every Friday.
