SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Brazil’s upcoming sports betting and online casino launch has unsurprisingly been one of the hottest topics of 2024, largely due to the amount of time that the industry has had to wait for the country’s Government to enact a bill that has been swirling around for four years.
Now President Lula has penned that bill, onlookers are dissecting the specifics of the bill and regulations which will govern the market in Latin America’s biggest country.
One of the more noteworthy developments has been the marketing guidelines that have been offered in Brazil, which have been rubber stamped in CONAR’s “Five Principles”.
Leadstar Media is one such company which is navigating the principles, as an affiliate business which will be servicing regulated operators in Brazil.
Ahead of SBC Summit Rio, the editor of Leadstar Media’s SiteDeApostas.com, Felipe Pereira, speaks to SBC News to dissect the marketing guidelines in Brazil and explains how, if at all, they will impact the affiliate business model.
SBC News: How restrictive are the marketing guidelines in Brazil compared to other jurisdictions?
Felipe Pereiera: From what we’ve seen so far, the Brazilian regulation seems to resemble the US model rather than what we’ve seen in Europe recently.
For us as affiliates mainly focused on SEO it’s not as strict as in some other markets. We do have to display the license number, full disclosure of T&C’s, responsible gambling message and make it clear it’s an ad, amongst other things. What’s new for us is that we also have to display the tax rate the players have to pay on winnings, something we haven’t seen in any other market we are active in.
One thing to note is that we usually see in many markets additional restrictions being added along the way. When a market first regulates it’s a bit of a trial and error process, and things might change along the way. So we’ll see what happens in Brazil going forward.
SBC: Are there any parts of the regulations and guidelines that cause any particular pain points for affiliates or could impact the business model?
FP: There’s several forms of affiliation, and while there has been talk about banning influencers from advertising betting for example, this will not impact our business model. We work with SEO and from what we understand there’s nothing stopping us from keeping doing that.
However, there’s been some ambiguous wording around banning bonuses, which might have us reconsider what type of keywords and players we target. It’s still a bit unclear for us what this will look like in practice though.
Most of the guidelines and restrictions target the operators rather than us. We get information from our partners on how we are allowed to advertise and represent their brands. Obviously we will listen to what they tell us and make sure we are following the rules.
In addition, if there are restrictions on marketing and sponsorships for example this might impact search traffic as search behaviour is largely driven by advertisement. For example if a brand is seen on TV during a football game people watching will know the brand exists and that it’s possible to bet on the game. This will lead to an increase in people actively searching for tether the activity of sports betting or the brand itself. So from that perspective it can impact our business if the marketing guidelines are very strict.
SBC: What can affiliates do to maximise the opportunity that the Brazil market offers?
FP: We want to make sure to have the best products in the market for the purpose they serve. Part of this includes having deals in place with the best bookmakers that are licensed in the market. So that is one of our main focuses at the moment, figuring out who is going for the license and who might leave the market.
We also need to be compliant and ready to adapt our products to any changes. Brazil is a fairly mature market at this point and the competition is fierce already, so there’s not the early mover advantage you can see in other markets that regulate.
SBC: Brazil’s marketing guidelines highlight the need to ensure responsible play and make clear the warnings of gambling harm. How will Leadstar Media make Brazil’s players aware of those risks and will it differ from other regions?
FP: We will have responsible gambling messages on our site and make sure we are following all the guidelines that we need to be compliant with the regulations. It won’t differ that much from other regions we are operating in at the moment. This is something we are used to and that becomes more and more common. Our products are already built with this in mind and it shouldn’t be a huge challenge for us to adapt to this.
