Last updated: 12 October 2026
If you planned to enter Brazil, already hold a federal authorisation there, or run affiliate traffic into the market, the ground moved under you on 25 September 2026. Most guides to the Brazil betting licence still describe a market that is open for applications. It isn’t. This guide explains what the SPA/MF licence was, what it cost and required, who holds one, and what Provisional Measure 1,394 does to all of it, so you can plan for each way the next few months could go.
The short answer: Brazil no longer issues betting licences. Provisional Measure (MP) 1,394, published on 25 September 2026, bans fixed-odds sports betting and online casino games, voids pending applications and extinguishes every authorisation granted under Law 14,790/2023 on 25 October 2026, with no refund of the R$30 million fee. Licensed sites went offline on 6 October. The ban lasts unless Congress rejects it or lets it lapse, or the Supreme Court (STF) suspends it.
Is gambling legal in Brazil right now?
As of 12 October 2026, no for fixed-odds betting and online casino. You cannot legally sports bet in Brazil today, either with a formerly licensed brand or an offshore one. MP 1,394 prohibits the operation, offer, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting in Brazil, online or physical, and it expressly reaches operators based abroad that offer bets to people in Brazil. That covers both sports betting and online games whose results come from a random number generator.
What stays legal: the federal and state lottery products authorised by other laws. The MP leaves them untouched. Land-based casinos have been banned since 1946, and bingo has been prohibited since 2004.
Two exceptions are worth knowing about:
- Stake. On 8 October a São Paulo federal judge granted Stake a partial injunction letting it operate until 25 October 2026 (or until a court decides otherwise), without bonuses or broad advertising. The judge refused Stake’s request to keep its licence to its 2029 expiry. The ruling covers Stake only, and the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) said it would appeal.
- The STF challenge. Industry groups and football clubs have asked Justice Luiz Fux to suspend the MP. As of 9 October no ruling had been published, and press reports suggested he could wait until after the 25 October presidential runoff.
What was the Brazil betting licence?
Brazil legalised fixed-odds betting in principle with Law 13,756/2018, but only regulated it with Law 14,790/2023, signed in December 2023. The law brought online casino games into scope and gave the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas, the SPA/MF) power to grant federal authorisations. Applications opened in 2024, unlicensed sites were blocked from October 2024, and the regulated market went live on 1 January 2025.
“SPA/MF licence” is shorthand. Legally it was an authorisation (autorização) to operate fixed-odds betting nationally, granted by SPA ordinance. States such as Rio de Janeiro (LOTERJ) ran their own lottery licences in parallel, which the STF limited to bettors inside each state. MP 1,394 extinguishes those state authorisations too.
How much did a Brazil betting licence cost?
The headline figure was a fixed grant fee of R$30 million (about US$5.5 million to 6 million depending on the exchange rate) for a five-year authorisation covering up to three brands. That was only part of the money you had to commit.
| Cost item | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Authorisation fee (outorga) | R$30 million | Paid once for five years, up to three brands on .bet.br domains |
| Paid-up share capital and net worth | R$30 million each | Set by SPA ordinance; separate from the fee |
| Financial reserve | R$5 million | Held to guarantee player prizes and balances |
| GGR levy (2025) | 12% | Share of gross gaming revenue paid to statutory beneficiaries |
| GGR levy (2026 onward) | 13% in 2026, 14% in 2027, 15% from 2028 | Approved by Congress in December 2025 (PLP 128/2025) |
| Player tax | 15% on net winnings | Above the first income tax band, paid by the bettor |
| Supervision fee | Monthly, by revenue band | Charged on top of the GGR levy |
Two things the cost pages you’ll find get wrong. Some still quote an 18% GGR rate from October 2025. That rate came from MP 1,303/2025, which lapsed in October 2025 after the Chamber of Deputies pulled it, so it never stuck. Congress instead passed the gradual 13% to 15% schedule, approved by the Senate 62 to 6 on 17 December 2025. And some say there is no fixed fee at all. There was.
For comparison with an offshore route, see our Curaçao gaming licence guide. The gap in upfront cost helps explain why so many offshore brands served Brazil without a local licence before 2025.
Worked example: what one licence cost before revenue
Take a single operator with three brands entering in January 2025, at roughly R$5.5 to the US dollar:
- Fee: R$30 million (about US$5.5 million), sunk on payment
- Capital and net worth: R$30 million that had to sit in the Brazilian company
- Reserve: R$5 million held against player liabilities
That is R$65 million (around US$12 million) committed before the first bet, with the R$30 million fee meant to be amortised over five years, about R$6 million a year. Under MP 1,394 the authorisation ends after 21 months of trading, and article 4 says the operator gets no full or partial refund of the fee and no compensation. Roughly three years of prepaid fee, around R$18 million per licence, is simply lost unless Congress or the courts change the outcome.
What were the requirements for a Brazil betting licence?
Here is what the SPA asked of applicants under Law 14,790 and its ordinances. It matters now for two reasons: these are the obligations that survive the licence (more on that below), and they are the likely baseline if Brazil ever reopens.
- A Brazilian company. Incorporated under Brazilian law (Ltda. or S.A.), with headquarters and management in Brazil.
- A Brazilian partner. At least 20% of share capital held by a Brazilian shareholder.
- Experience and fit-and-proper checks. A controller with proven gaming or betting experience, named directors and compliance officers, and clean background checks.
- Money. The R$30 million fee, R$30 million capital and net worth, and the R$5 million reserve.
- Technology. Platform and games certified by an SPA-recognised lab, data held in Brazil with ISO 27001-grade security, and every brand on a .bet.br domain.
- Payments. Deposits only from an account in the bettor’s own name, by Pix, TED or debit and prepaid cards. No credit cards, cash, crypto or third-party payments.
- Player protection. Age 18+, identity checks against the bettor’s CPF, self-exclusion, deposit and loss limits, and no bonuses for placing a bet.
- AML and integrity. Anti-money laundering policies, suspicious transaction reporting to COAF, and sports integrity monitoring.
- Support. Free 24/7 customer service in Portuguese.
Advisers quoted 8 to 12 months from preparation to approval, with the SPA allowing up to 150 days to review a complete file. If you want help with any of this, our licensing consultants comparison and gambling law firms comparison list firms with Brazilian practices.
Who’s licensed in Brazil?
66 companies had authorisation to operate when the market opened on 1 January 2025, according to the SPA list published that day. By September 2026 the count had reached about 85 authorisations, which Agência Brasil says brought in R$2.55 billion in fees. The SPA list dated 1 July 2026 named 87 operators. The numbers differ because they come from different dates and count companies versus authorisations in slightly different ways.
The best-known licensed groups and brands, taken from the member list of the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR) and operator disclosures, include:
| Group | Brands in Brazil | Status after MP 1,394 |
|---|---|---|
| Flutter | Betnacional, Betfair | Stopped operations; expects about US$70m less 2026 revenue |
| Kaizen Gaming | Betano | Offline from 6 October |
| bet365 | bet365 | Offline from 6 October |
| Entain | Sportingbet, Betboo | Offline; Entain kept its 2026 guidance |
| BetMGM | BetMGM Brasil | Offline from 6 October |
| Betsson Group | Betsson, Betsafe | Offline from 6 October |
| A2FBR | Betbra, Pinnacle, Betespecial and others (two licences) | Offline from 6 October |
| KTO, Novibet, BetBoom | Own brands | Offline from 6 October |
| Stake | Stake | Operating under a court injunction to 25 October |
For the full list of brands seen in the market and their licence jurisdictions, see our Brazil market index. Note that the question “who’s licensed” now has an expiry date: after 25 October, under the MP, nobody is.
What MP 1,394 does, date by date
The MP was signed by President Lula and published in an extra edition of the Diário Oficial on 25 September 2026, with immediate effect. The government cited household debt and gambling harm. Here is the timetable that the text and the government’s calendar set out:
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 25 Sep 2026 | MP in force. No new deposits, no new authorisations, pending applications dropped |
| 5 Oct, 23:59 | Last moment for players to withdraw; ads and sponsorship must be removed (10 days) |
| 6 Oct | Sites and apps offline, including app store listings; open bets voided and refunded in full |
| Within 2 days of switch-off | Operators fund refunds and send banks and the SPA each bettor’s CPF, balance and source account |
| 9 to 14 Oct | Banks refund players within seven days of receiving the list |
| From 14 Oct | Unclaimed balances move to a Caixa Econômica Federal account |
| 13 Oct | Deadline for amendments in Congress (extended from 1 October) |
| 25 Oct 2026 | All Law 14,790 authorisations extinguished (art. 4, 30 days after publication); also the presidential runoff |
The enforcement side is heavy. Operators that miss refund steps face R$200,000 a day. Platforms and app stores that keep carrying betting products face fines of up to 10% of their Brazilian group revenue, capped at R$50 million per infraction. The Ministries of Finance and Justice can order sites blocked through Anatel and CGI.br, and the Central Bank must build a system to reject real-time transfers linked to illegal betting. A separate bill sent to Congress would make operating fixed-odds betting a crime carrying four to six years in prison, but that is a proposal, not law.
What survives after the licence ends
Losing the authorisation does not end your obligations. Under articles 10 and 11 of the MP, former operators stay liable for everything from their licensed period: tax, regulatory, AML, responsible gambling and integrity duties. You must keep records for at least five years, keep reporting to the SPA through SIGAP, and keep a legal representative on file. Pending sanction cases are suspended, and archived if you complete every wind-down step on time (art. 13). In other words, a clean exit is your best protection against old cases being reopened.
What happens next: three scenarios for operators
A provisional measure has the force of law for 60 days, extendable once by 60, so up to 120 days, and the clock stops during congressional recess. It then needs Congress to convert it into law. By 7 October, 48 amendments had been filed, several exempting sports betting, some offering partial fee refunds, and others giving football clubs time to wind down sponsorships. No rapporteur had been named for the joint committee as of 9 October.
| Scenario | What it means for licences | What to do now |
|---|---|---|
| Congress converts the MP into law as written | Licences stay extinguished; Brazil becomes a closed market for fixed-odds betting | Complete the wind-down cleanly, write off the fee, redeploy to other LatAm markets |
| Congress amends it (for example, sports betting allowed, casino banned) | Some form of authorisation may return, likely with new rules and possibly a new application | Keep the Brazilian entity, team core and certifications alive; track the committee report |
| Congress rejects it or lets it lapse, or the STF suspends it | The MP loses effect from the start, though acts done while it was in force can stay governed by it unless Congress passes a decree within 60 days | Be ready to relaunch fast; expect a fight over whether extinguished authorisations revive |
Flutter put it plainly in its 28 September statement: if Congress rejects the measure, it expects to resume online betting and iGaming in Brazil. It also listed about US$539 million of goodwill tied to Flutter Brazil, which shows the size of the write-downs groups are now weighing.
Whichever way it goes, one rule holds: do not try to keep serving Brazilian players through an offshore licence. The MP applies to foreign operators by name, payment rails are being shut, and the government has said it will freeze and forfeit the balances of irregular operators. For the wider picture on that route, see is offshore sports betting legal.
What this means for affiliates and suppliers
- Affiliates: all advertising and promotion of fixed-odds betting aimed at Brazilians is banned in any medium, and the material had to come down within 10 days of 25 September. Content published before that date where betting is only incidental is exempt (art. 17). Ranking pages, review pages and CTAs pointing at Brazilian operators are exposed, and platforms must remove flagged content.
- Suppliers: platform, game, data and payment suppliers lose their Brazilian revenue for now. Payment institutions may only process wind-down and refund transactions.
- Football and media: club sponsorship deals with betting brands are caught by the advertising ban. Sixteen clubs, including Fluminense and Cruzeiro, asked the STF to suspend the MP, and Flamengo was allowed to join the case.
Bottom line
The Brazil betting licence was expensive (R$30 million plus R$35 million in capital and reserves), demanding (local company, 20% Brazilian partner, .bet.br, strict payments) and, for 21 months, the gateway to one of the world’s largest betting markets. As of today it cannot be applied for, and every existing one ends on 25 October 2026 unless the STF or Congress steps in. If you hold one, your priorities are a clean wind-down and keeping your options open. If you were planning to apply, put Brazil on hold and watch the Congress committee and the Fux ruling.
We will update this guide when Congress votes or the STF rules.
