Brazil signs Macolin Convention to combat match-fixing

Brazil will join the Macolin Convention on Friday, October 31, in Strasbourg, France, adding a legally binding international treaty on match-fixing to its sports-betting enforcement toolkit. For payments and betting operators, the relevant part is simple: this gives regulators more structure for spotting suspicious wagering patterns and coordinating investigations.

1. The signing takes place at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, and will be carried out by Brazil’s ambassador to the country, Ricardo Neiva Tavares.
2. Brazil is becoming the 51st signatory to the convention, which entered into force in 2019. The treaty sets out information-sharing between authorities and sports bodies, international alerts, and cooperation in investigations into organized fraud rings tied to competition manipulation.
3. The convention also strengthens Brazil’s regulatory framework for fixed-odds sports betting by establishing global standards for sports integrity and the monitoring of suspicious betting patterns. For PSPs and acquirers servicing sportsbooks, that means more pressure on transaction surveillance, reporting, and anomaly detection.
4. The accession request was submitted last year by Brazil’s ministries of Sport, Finance, Justice, and Foreign Affairs, and the process has now been completed. According to ge.globo.com, the move comes as Brazil has become a target for match-fixers, while the Federal Police investigates fraud schemes in basketball games in major domestic tournaments.
5. Brazil has also appeared on the exporting side of the problem. In 2024, Brazilians were identified as having manipulated football matches in Finland, according to ge.globo.com, and last year investigations pointed to manipulation in domestic basketball tournaments, with suspected involvement of a Serbian group.

For high-risk payment providers, the practical takeaway is that Brazil is treating sports-betting integrity as a cross-border enforcement issue, not just a local compliance headache. That usually means more data requests, more scrutiny of betting flows, and less room for sloppy monitoring.