Sportingbet applied for a Brazil sports betting and igaming licence on Thursday (25 July). The following day, Caesars Sportsbook’s licensee Big Brazil joined Sportingbet, Betano, Superbet and Rei do Pitaco in submitting its application.

In applying during the initial 90-day window of preference, Sportingbet and Big Brazil have ensured their applications will be prioritised by the ministry of finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA).

The SPA guarantees that operators who submit their applications by the 20 August deadline will have their applications processed by 1 January 2025, the anticipated launch date of the legal market.

Licences will last for five years and will cost BRL30m (£4.6m/€5.4m/$5.9m) in fees. Those who receive a licence will be able to offer gambling via three skins. Meanwhile, operators who fail to secure a licence by 1 January 2025 will face punitive measures.

Brazil applications starting to pick up

With exactly three weeks to go until the 20 August deadline, the tally of licence applications remains at just five.

However, four of those applications have come in the month of July. That follows June, which saw no licence applications at all after Kaizen Gaming-owned Betano became the first to apply on 26 May, just days after the window opened.

Despite the slow initial uptake, Aposta Ganha CCO Hugo Baungartner anticipates licence applications to accelerate as the deadline closes in.

However, the four-phase regulatory rollout is running late. Regulations on anti-money laundering, anticipated in May, were only released in mid-July. The entire regulation was expected to be clarified by the end of July. However, that’s looking highly unlikely with technical standards and how industry contributions will be allocated still to be outlined.

Despite the delayed regulatory rollout, Bichara e Motta Advogados’ head of crypto and gambling Udo Seckelmann still expects up to 60 operators to submit applications by 20 August. Baungartner, meanwhile, anticipates the figure will be between 20 and 25 applicants by the deadline.

Caesars submits proof of concept to Loterj

While it’s applied for a federal licence, Caesars has also completed a proof of concept (PoC) to the Rio de Janeiro State Lottery (Loterj) to operate sports betting and igaming in the state.

Caesars licensee Big Brazil announced its intention to achieve Loterj accreditation back in March. Big Brazil president André Feldman visited Loterj president Hazenclever Lopes Cançado to declare the company’s interest.

Having submitted the proof of concept to Loterj, Feldman spoke of his excitement at the potential of Big Brazil’s plans.

“We will introduce the Caesars Sportsbook brand into the country through the state of Rio de Janeiro,” Feldman commented.

“We prioritised Rio de Janeiro which, with a population of over 16 million inhabitants, has greater potential than several European countries with the same population as the state, such as Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Sweden, Portugal, among others.”

The Loterj licence would give Big Brazil access to the state of Rio de Janeiro. However, previous companies who have achieved Loterj accreditation have been allowed to operate nationally, with Loterj coming in for criticism for looking to grant licences for national activities.

For instance, the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR) denounced Loterj’s actions back in April, stating the lottery was acting beyond its remit.

“The acts carried out by Loterj create disorder, raise unnecessary doubts and harm the process of regulating the fixed-odds betting industry in Brazil,” the IBJR note read.