Flutter Brazil has criticized the federal government’s decision to prohibit fixed-odds betting, while Betano has already suspended deposits, new bets, and registrations as operators begin shutting down their Brazilian businesses. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Provisional Measure 1,394 on Sept. 25, ending the regulated sports betting and online casino market that had been running nationally since January 2025.
Flutter, which operates Betnacional and Betfair in Brazil, said it received the decision with surprise and great concern, pointing out that companies had paid licence fees, invested locally, hired staff, and rebuilt their businesses around rules the federal government itself set. The group wants the regulated system kept in place alongside stronger enforcement, better player protection, and action against illegal operators.
Removing licensed companies will simply push existing demand offshore, Flutter argued. A study commissioned by industry groups and cited by the company put unlicensed operators at between 38% and 44% of online wagering during the first half of 2026, down from an estimated 41% to 51% in 2025. Those figures come from research by LCA Consultores and Instituto Locomotiva rather than any government measurement.
Betano shut off deposits, betting, and new account registrations once the measure was published. The Kaizen Gaming brand told customers withdrawals would keep working normally and asked them to clear out remaining balances by 11:59pm on Oct. 5. The operator said it would keep monitoring developments around the measure, without announcing a court challenge of its own.
Football sponsorships started unravelling almost immediately, with Betano, Sportingbet, and Superbet notifying clubs that agreements could be suspended or terminated. Those relationships include Betano with Flamengo, Sportingbet with Palmeiras and Vasco, and Superbet with São Paulo and Fluminense. No club had confirmed a completed termination when the notices became public, though the new law requires gambling sponsorship and advertising to come down during the shutdown period.
Betano, Novibet, Superbet, and Esportes da Sorte also began ending their agreements with television companies. Globo, ESPN, and Band started stripping gambling advertising and sponsored segments out of their programming while hunting for replacement advertisers. Betting operators had put R$23.6 billion into Brazilian media between January 2024 and August 2026, according to Ibope and Tunad figures cited by Folha de S.Paulo.
Industry associations are preparing a legal response. The Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming said the ban breaks a regulatory framework under which authorized companies made investments, signed contracts, hired staff, and paid R$30 million for five-year licences. The National Association of Games and Lotteries intends to challenge the measure in court as well, and is weighing claims tied to licence fees and post-regulation investments.
MP 1,394 tries to head those claims off by stating that cancelling existing authorizations serves the public interest and creates no right to compensation for investments, lost profits, or unused licence fees. Brazil had 85 federally authorized operators immediately before the ban, with the Ministry of Finance publishing more than 2,000 pages of documentation covering their approvals in August.
Customers have until Oct. 5 to withdraw their balances voluntarily, after which betting websites and apps must go offline from Oct. 6. Financial institutions will handle whatever is left, and platforms that keep operating will be treated as illegal and targeted for blocking and asset seizures. Finance Minister Dario Durigan said authorities have already blocked more than 60,000 gambling pages since 2024.
Flutter has announced no legal action, and Betano’s public response has stayed focused on meeting the shutdown timetable. The visible changes so far are in advertising and football, where operators that spent heavily after regulation are pulling out of commercial agreements before their authorization formally expires. Whether any of them recover the money committed under licences the government sold for five years now depends on the court challenges the associations have promised.