The hearing will examine conflicting estimates on the scale of piracy in Brazil’s regulated betting sector
Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies will hold a public hearing to examine the impact of illegal online betting platforms and the level of piracy still present in the country’s newly regulated betting market.
The debate has been convened by the external committee dealing with piracy and the “Brasil Legal” agenda. It is scheduled to take place in Brasília, in plenary room 8.
The hearing was requested by Deputy Julio Lopes and aims to clarify conflicting estimates on the size of Brazil’s illegal online betting market.
For Brazil’s regulated betting sector, the issue is central. The federal framework for fixed-odds betting has moved authorised operators into a licensed environment, but the degree to which customers have migrated away from illegal platforms remains disputed.
Divergent Figures
At a public hearing held in March, representatives of the Federal Government and industry entities presented different views on the scale of the illegal market.
The government cited estimates indicating that up to 70% of online sports betting may already be taking place within the legal market.
Industry associations, however, have argued that piracy still accounts for around half of the market.
That gap is significant for policymakers, regulators and licensed operators.
If most activity has already migrated to authorised platforms, enforcement policy may focus on consolidating compliance, strengthening monitoring and improving consumer awareness.
If illegal platforms still account for roughly half the market, Brazil’s regulated system faces a larger competitive and fiscal leakage problem.
Deputy Lopes has argued that the debate needs to be deepened to provide a more accurate diagnosis of the size of piracy in the Brazilian bets sector.
He also said a clearer diagnosis is important for improving public policy and inspection measures.
The new hearing is expected to bring together experts and representatives from the public and private sectors.
The discussion will address the methodologies used in market estimates and the measures needed to combat illegal platforms.
That methodological focus matters. Measuring illegal online betting is difficult because unauthorised operators are often offshore, digitally agile and outside standard reporting channels.
Different methodologies may produce sharply different results depending on whether they track traffic, payment flows, player surveys, advertising visibility, blocking data, market share estimates or tax-linked operator reporting.
For licensed operators, the accuracy of those estimates has direct commercial relevance.
Illegal platforms can operate without Brazilian authorisation, without contributing tax and regulatory payments, and without applying the same responsible gambling, advertising and consumer protection standards required of licensed companies.
That creates uneven competition inside a market that has only recently moved into federal regulation.
It also affects public revenue. The regulated betting framework is built around licensing, taxation and supervision. Illegal platforms weaken that model if they continue to capture significant customer activity.
The debate also has implications for enforcement priorities.
A larger illegal market would support stronger action against offshore platforms, payment intermediaries, illegal advertising channels and unauthorised affiliates.
A smaller illegal share would still require enforcement, but with greater emphasis on maintaining regulatory integrity and preventing backsliding as the licensed market matures.
Brazilian authorities have already made illegal betting a recurring policy issue since the regulated market opened.
The challenge now is to define how much of the activity has moved into the licensed perimeter and which tools are most effective against operators that remain outside it.
The hearing requested by Lopes therefore goes beyond a statistical dispute.
It will help frame how Brazil assesses the success of its regulated betting transition and where additional controls may be needed.
For operators, suppliers and affiliates active in Brazil, the outcome of that discussion will be closely watched.
The country’s betting market has scale, but legal-market growth depends on confidence that licensed operators are not competing against a large parallel illegal sector with lower costs and fewer obligations.
The public hearing gives lawmakers another forum to test the evidence, compare methodologies and push for a more precise understanding of the illegal betting landscape.
That clarity will be important as Brazil continues to refine enforcement, advertising controls, player protection rules and the wider regulatory architecture around bets.
