Atlético-MG, Botafogo, Corinthians, Coritiba, Flamengo, Grêmio, Red Bull Bragantino, São Paulo, Santos, Sport and Vasco sold spaces such as sleeves, shoulders, and front bar, in addition to shorts.
At Corinthians, the Galera.bet betting house logo is on the sleeve of the shirt, while in Fortaleza, EsporteNet is a master sponsor and appears centered on the uniform. Sportsbet.io logo is located at the top of Flamengo's jersey, next to the collar. Bookmaker Betsul is placed in the shorts of the Atlético-MG players.
According to Fábio Wolff, from the sports marketing agency Wolff Sports, these sponsors invest from R$ 100,000 to R$ 15 million for arena and / or uniform properties. "Many bookmakers are watching the regulatory process and have not yet made investments for strategic reasons," he says.
Still, it is a visible change of scenery in relation to the 2019 Brazilian Championship, when six companies were present in nine uniforms.
In general, they offer to clubs, in addition to a fixed amount, variable according to the participation of fans in the volume of bets. In return, they collect data to form a customer portfolio. In November, before the elimination of Flamengo before Racing (ARG) in the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores, Sportbet.io, partner of the Rio team, launched the promotion "Black Friday do Mengão" promising to pay up to R$ 100 to anyone who had success in betting R$ 10 in the red-black team classification.
“Betting companies now have two objectives, that of brand exposure, making them better known, and that of capturing leads [information from followers] to generate business,” says Wolff.
Experts heard by Folha believe that the regulation process should boost these sponsorships.
Lawyer Pedro Trengrouse, a professor at FGV and certified in gambling regulation by the University of Nevada, USA, says that there are more than 500 betting sites based abroad (Central American countries, Africa, Asia, and Europe) offering services in competitions played in Brazil.
“The central reasons for regulation are to protect the popular economy and to guarantee the integrity of the sport, establishing permanent monitoring of the bets. This is what will purify this market in Brazil and will bring the main operators, which only invest in the regulated market,” says Trengrouse.
According to Hans Schleier, marketing director at Casa de Apostas, the brands are in the moment to present themselves to the Brazilian market.
Casa de Apostas, headquartered in Curaçao, occupies the main space of the jerseys of Bahia and Vitória, a member of the Brazilian B Series, and also displays its logo on the shoulder of the Botafogo and Santos uniforms.
"Many clubs already had master sponsorship deals, and negotiations are more complex for that," says Schleier. “There is no advantage in an unregulated market. Only disadvantages, both for companies and bettors.”
The legalization of online betting was sanctioned by ex-president Michel Temer on December 12, 2018. Since then, the Ministry of Economy has had a two-year term, extendable for two more (until December 2022), to promote regulation.
The undersecretary of Prizes and Draws of the Ministry of Economy, Waldir Eustáquio Marques Júnior, tells Folha that this process will only be concluded in July next year.
"The Brazilian state was not used to this activity, we needed to understand the subject, which strongly affects the integrity of the sport," says Marques Júnior. "The regulation will be concise on three points: prevention of money laundering, monitoring for manipulation of results and security of information."
The agency even drew up a draft in mid-2019, after receiving more than 1,800 suggestions in public consultation, and was expected to complete the process by the beginning of this second semester.
The initial text stated that the operator would need to be a legal entity, pay R$ 3 million to obtain the license fee and indicate a reserve of R$ 6 million available to the government as a guarantee for prizes payments.
The draft did not include the model for monitoring matches, which, according to experts heard by Folha in September 2019, justified the fear given the risks of manipulating results and money laundering.
After two public consultations, the Attorney General's Office of the National Treasury (PGFN), which acts as a legal adviser to the Ministry of Economy, proposed that the authorization model be replaced by the public concession one. Only in this way, the PGFN understands, will the government be able to punish operators who carry out irregularities.
“The legislation [passed in December 2018] does not provide for penalties for the regulator. PGFN pointed out that, in the authorization model, the possible penalty is forfeiture of the right, which would be very severe, without giving the chance of warning and fines. We are back to square one,” says Marques Júnior.
Then, there was a third public consultation, in March this year. In August, after the decree of President Jair Bolsonaro, the BNDES, which is responsible for the process of concession and privatization of assets of the Federal Government's Partnership for Investments Program (PPI), was appointed to conduct the regulation.
In a note, the BNDES stated that, together with the Ministry of Economy, it conducts "negotiations for the beginning of studies that will guide this process of privatization of the sports betting sector."
The government does not inform an estimate of the financial movement of the business, but Marques Júnior believes that it should be between R$ 4 billion and R$ 10 billion. Of this amount, the government should raise around 30% with tax.
BETTING COMPANIES ON TIMES' JERSEYS
Master Sponsorship
Bahia – Casa de Apostas
Ceará - Estadium.bet
Fortaleza - EsporteNet
Goiás - Marjosports
Other spaces (sleeves, shoulders, front hem and shorts)
Atlético-MG, Coritiba, Grêmio and São Paulo - Betsul
Botafogo and Santos - Casa de Apostas
Corinthians and Sport - Galera.bet
Flamengo - Sportsbet.io
Red Bull Bragantino and Vasco - NetBet
Source: Folha
