Brazil's sports minister, Paulo Henrique Perna Cordeiro, has defended the government's ban on online gambling with a line that sums up Brasilia's answer to angry clubs: "football always lived without the bets". His ministry is now arranging a meeting with club representatives for next week to address the fallout from the provisional decree that outlawed fixed-odds betting sites and apps, published on Friday (25). A provisional decree is a presidential measure that takes effect immediately, before Congress votes on it.
According to G1, the meeting is being organized by the minister himself, who said the government wants to hear the clubs and work out how it can help limit the damage. InfoMoney reports that a commission of club executives will be summoned, that the first goal is a diagnosis of the losses, and that no form of compensation has been decided yet. The minister has already been talking to clubs to ease tensions, the outlet adds.
Clubs push back and count the losses
Brazil's biggest teams did not take the ban well. Flamengo, in a post that drew criticism from its own fans, said:
"You cannot create a rule, get companies and institutions to take on commitments based on it, and then change the entire regulatory framework overnight."
Fluminense called for an "adequate transition period" and, according to InfoMoney, has already received a letter from Superbet, its partner through the end of 2029, raising the possibility of terminating the contract. Even before the ban was confirmed, betting companies had sent clubs notices about possible cancellations.
In 2025, the betting companies paid R$ 1.143 billion in sponsorship to Brazil's 20 highest-revenue clubs, according to a Sports Value survey cited by G1. Flamengo is the most exposed: it collects R$ 268.5 million per season, a deal InfoMoney attributes to Betano, and the club says it has no "plan B" to plug the hole in its budget. Fluminense follows, at R$ 52 million per season according to G1; InfoMoney puts the Superbet agreement at R$ 58 million a year.
The cut hurts because it hits the piece that holds the rest of the budget together: a bookmaker's master sponsorship often covers a large share of the wage bill, and the loss lands mid-season, with budgets already built on that income.
Deadlines and the election calendar
The companies must go offline by October 6, when websites and apps will be blocked, and bettors have until October 5 to withdraw their remaining balances. The same deadline applies to removing advertising materials and sponsorship branding. The government has also sent Congress a bill to criminalize running, operating or advertising fixed-odds betting, with prison terms of 4 to 6 years plus fines, applied even to operators licensed abroad. The timing is tight: the first round of Brazil's presidential election falls on October 4, and InfoMoney reports that the government is trying to contain the clubs' anger just days before the vote.