Brazilian regulator requests domain blocking for more than 2,000 unlicensed operators 

Brazil’s Ministry of Finance has requested the blocking of 2,040 unlicensed gambling operators in the country as the government begins to lay the foundations for the regulated sports betting and igaming market in January.

The requests were sent to Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency, Anatel, which has notified more than 20,000 telephone companies to initiate the process of removing the websites.  

Yesterday,10 October, the Brazilian gambling regulator, the SPA, finalised its list of 96 approved operators as well as 210 respective brands that are authorised to offer gambling services in the country until the end of the year.

Those operators, which include the likes of Flutter, Entain, bet365 and Betway, had all applied for a licence with the Ministry of Finance.

The SPA initially released a list of 89 operators, before added seven more businesses including Stake and Parimatch.

While operating in the probationary period until the end of the year, the SPA will also monitor the 96 businesses to ensure compliance while the regulator reviews licence applications.

Operators will have to pay a licence fee of BRL30m (£4.2m), which will then be valid for five years and allow companies to launch three skins in the market.  

Operators that didn’t apply for a sports betting and igaming licence were given a deadline of 1 October to start winding down operations, with the government warning it would start removing websites completely from 11 October onwards.  

Those websites were identified by the SPA’s “extensive monitoring” of websites and social media networks which flagged the 2,040 “suspicious” domains.

The regulator also stated operators will be responsible for making sure players can still withdraw any outstanding funds even after websites get taken down.  

Regis Dudena, SPA secretary, said the regulator will continue to monitor these blocked websites to ensure they don’t return to the market without a proper licence.  

He explained: “It is very important for bettors to understand that, for the sake of their mental and financial health, it is better to be in a regulated environment, where companies operate that are actually willing to comply with the rules.

“Collaborating with illegal companies means contributing to companies that, ultimately, will defraud the bettors themselves. That is why it is very important to understand the separation between these two groups.” 

Ministry of Finance executive secretary Dario Durigan added: “Only regular companies will remain standing. Users themselves need to be aware of this.

“We are working to publicise which sites respect Brazilian rules, will comply with the law and will protect users to some extent, and which do not. 

“In addition to taking money from sites that are not regular, bettors should place their bets responsibly and for their own pleasure on regular sites.”