Kaizen Gaming has warned that prohibition is not protection as operators in Brazil continue to fight against President Lula Da Silva’s betting ban.
Like every other operator, Kaizen’s Betano brand went offline overnight on 5 October to comply with Provisional Measure No. 1,394/26, which was published on 25 September and prohibits online betting and gaming.
The Brazilian football team Flamengo, sponsored by Betano, carried this message on their shirts in their most recent matches against Santos and Fluminense in protest of the ban, which could hit football teams financially to the tune of R$1.1bn (approximately £166.7m), as over half of Brazil’s 20 top-flight sides have sponsorship deals with the sector.
Writing on LinkedIn, Kaizen Gaming said: “The regulated market in Brazil opened less than two years ago. Regulation brought self-exclusion, betting limits and protections for Bolsa Família beneficiaries. A ban doesn’t make demand disappear, as international experience has shown. It risks pushing bettors back to illegal operators, with no protections and no contribution to the country.
“The effect reaches well beyond betting companies, to small and medium businesses in technology, telecommunications, media, services and education, and to the wider sports economy, affecting thousands of people.”
Kaizen promises job security until Brazil ultimatum
Kaizen has also promised job security until a final decision is made on the ban’s validity, as it emphasised that ‘the measure is not final’.
National Congress must validate the measure before it is officially brought into law. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is awaiting the result of the ongoing election before deciding whether operators can go back online until Congress makes a decision.
The Brazilian trade body ANJL estimates that 3,500 jobs have already been lost since the publication of the measure. Earlier this week, KTO Group laid off 240 employees as it ended its operations in the country on 8 October.
ANJL previously stated that the measure was illegal, and questioned the statistics used by President Lula to link the opening of the online gaming market at the beginning of 2025 to a rise in indebtedness and gambling addiction in Brazil.
Hope for sports betting?
As the debate on prohibition continues, members of Brazil’s Parliament have submitted 79 suggestions for the measure to Congress.
In particular, politicians have called for sports betting to be spared from the final ban, citing its financial contribution to Brazilian sport and other public policies through tax revenues.
However, those in favour still want further restrictions on betting activity. Marcos Braz, a member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, has suggested betting be limited to final results, scores, and collective match statistics and exclude individual events such as cards and corner kicks.
Braz also called for a transition period for sponsorship visibility through football teams to mitigate the financial impact to clubs.
Though this sentiment will provide some optimism for operators, the financial implications of pausing activity until the political process plays out raise the question of how many companies will be able to survive and return if the market reopens.
