Less than two years into the existence of its licensed Betting market, Brazil’s government is already making significant changes to regulations, the most recent of these being an overhaul of advertising and marketing requirements.
In an exclusive article for SBC News and SBC Noticias Brasil, Brazil gaming law experts from São Paulo law firm TozziniFreire Advogados explain exactly what each ordinance means for the nation’s betting marketers and advertisers…
The Brazilian sports betting market has entered a new regulatory phase. Two ordinances issued in July 2026 have significantly reshaped the rules governing fixed-odds betting advertising, directly affecting advertising agencies, digital influencers, and brands that commission or disseminate betting campaigns. The new obligations do not apply solely to betting operators but extend across the entire commercial communications chain.
This article explores the practical implications of the new rules for advertising agencies, digital influencers, and brands involved in creating or disseminating betting advertising.
The new ordinances
Ordinance SPA/MF No. 1,964/2026, in force since 17 July, introduced the requirement that all betting advertisements include standardized warnings regarding the risks associated with gambling. These warnings must appear horizontally, in a clear and legible manner, and occupy at least 10% of the advertisement.
Interministerial Ordinance No. 73/2026, effective since 10 July, is even broader in scope. It regulates betting advertising across all media, formats, and channels and establishes a comprehensive framework of prohibited practices, transparency obligations, and enforcement mechanisms.
The regulation applies to any individual or legal entity that creates, promotes, sponsors, publishes, broadcasts, distributes, boosts, or otherwise disseminates betting advertisements. This includes advertising agencies, production companies, digital platforms, influencers, affiliates, and any other participant involved in the creation or distribution of betting campaigns.
Prior verification as a condition for engagement
The Interministerial Ordinance expressly establishes prior verification as a prerequisite for entering into advertising arrangements.
Before publishing or promoting any betting advertisement, every participant in the advertising chain must verify that the advertiser is a duly authorized betting operator and that the advertised operator appears on the official list maintained by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas – SPA).
This is not merely a recommendation or best practice; it is a regulatory requirement. The verification must be carried out before the campaign goes live and must cover the operator’s corporate name, trademark, and electronic addresses. In addition, the advertising intermediary must obtain and retain the advertiser’s corporate name, taxpayer identification number (CNPJ), and authorization number. This information must also be displayed on the interface associated with the advertisement.
For advertising agencies, this means reviewing internal approval processes and implementing specific documentation procedures for betting campaigns. For influencers, it means that accepting a partnership with a betting operator without first confirming its authorization status may itself constitute a regulatory violation.
What can no longer be done in betting campaigns
The Interministerial Ordinance establishes an extensive list of prohibited practices that directly affects the creative development of betting campaigns.
The first category of restrictions concerns the way betting outcomes are presented to the public. Displaying winning bets, including their monetary value, is prohibited. Likewise, betting may no longer be portrayed as a sign of personal, social, or financial success, including through the use of celebrities or public figures. In practical terms, this affects content associating an influencer’s image with gambling winnings or using the influencer’s lifestyle to implicitly suggest that betting leads to financial rewards.
A second important category concerns conversion techniques. Calls to action creating a sense of urgency are prohibited, including promotional mechanics encouraging immediate betting activity. In practice, countdown timers, limited-time bonus offers, and statements such as “last chance to claim your bonus” may now constitute regulatory violations. For performance marketing teams, this requires reconsidering conversion strategies that have historically relied on urgency-based marketing techniques.
Finally, the Ordinance prohibits portraying betting as a source of income, an investment opportunity, an alternative to employment, or a solution to financial problems. It also prohibits misleading statements regarding the likelihood of winning or suggestions that a bettor’s skill or experience influences outcomes. Collectively, these restrictions significantly narrow the creative latitude available for betting campaigns and require agencies and brands to reassess existing marketing materials.
Additional compliance considerations
The protection of children and adolescents in digital environments is not new. Brazil’s Digital Child and Adolescent Statute (Digital ECA) and Decree No. 12,880/2026 already impose obligations on digital platforms and app stores in this regard. What the Interministerial Ordinance does is operationalize those obligations specifically in the context of betting advertising by requiring social media platforms to block betting advertisements from accounts belonging to minors.
For brands and agencies, the key point is that the Ordinance prohibits advertising on locations, programs, or platforms predominantly accessed by individuals under the age of 18. It is therefore insufficient merely to avoid targeting minors; advertisers must also avoid predominantly reaching them. This requires a careful assessment of each distribution channel during campaign planning.
Affiliate marketing programs also require close attention. The Ordinance expressly prohibits any hyperlink, promotional code, affiliate link, or similar mechanism directing users to an unauthorized betting operator. All links, codes, and redirects used in campaigns must point exclusively to operators listed on the official register. For brands operating affiliate networks, this requires auditing both affiliates and the marketing materials they distribute on the brand’s behalf.
The new formatting requirements also deserve attention. The mandatory warning occupying at least 10% of the advertisement presents practical challenges for compact formats such as banners, stories, reels, and sponsored social media posts. Agencies will need to incorporate this requirement from the earliest stages of campaign design, adjusting layouts and visual hierarchy to accommodate the warning without compromising compliance.
Enforcement and penalties
Violations will be investigated independently by both the National Consumer Secretariat (Secretaria Nacional do Consumidor) and the SPA.
Under the Interministerial Ordinance, sanctions may include the suspension or cancellation of the offender’s registration in the National Registry of Advertising Distribution Agents (Cadastro Nacional de Agentes de Veiculação de Publicidade – Midiacad).
Separately, under Law No. 14,790/2023, which governs the operation of fixed-odds betting in Brazil, operators may be subject to fines of up to 20% of their revenue, suspension of their operating authorization for up to 180 days, and permanent revocation of their authorization in cases of repeated serious violations.
Next steps for the advertising industry
The new ordinances require a fundamental shift in the approach adopted by all participants involved in betting marketing and advertising. Recommended immediate actions include:
- Implementing a mandatory verification process to confirm the advertiser’s authorization before any engagement or campaign launch;
- Documenting and retaining operators’ identification and authorization records;
- Reviewing existing marketing materials to eliminate urgency-based messaging, displays of winnings, profit claims, and associations between betting and personal success;
- Adapting layouts to accommodate the mandatory warnings in the prescribed format;
- Assessing the demographic profile of advertising channels to avoid predominant exposure to minors; and
- Reviewing affiliate agreements to ensure that all links and promotional codes direct users exclusively to authorized operators.
The Brazilian regulatory framework for betting has reached a new level of maturity, and with it, the compliance risks faced by those involved in betting advertising have evolved.
The new ordinances explicitly allocate responsibility across the entire advertising chain, requiring agencies, influencers, brands, and other market participants to review their practices and implement comprehensive compliance measures.
