Brazil’s betting ban removes TV’s biggest advertiser after R$ 2.12 billion in 18 months

Brazil’s Provisional Measure 1.394/2026 banned fixed-odds betting operations and their advertising, and in doing so pulled the biggest buyer of TV inventory out of the market. For PSPs and media-dependent merchants, the point is simple: when one sector is responsible for this much spend, a regulatory switch can hit ad-funded distribution, contract renewals, and cash-flow planning all at once.

1. According to Tunad’s media intelligence survey, published on Wednesday (21), betting operators spent R$ 2.12 billion on free-to-air and pay TV between January 2025 and June 2026. In 2026 alone, from January to August, they put R$ 542.4 million into free-to-air linear TV and led the advertiser rankings in five of those eight months.
2. The dependency on television was unusually concentrated. The ten largest betting companies accounted for 94.2% of all betting-sector TV investment in the period, and the top two alone represented 40%. Among the ten leaders, 93.1% of TV spending went to free-to-air television.
3. The pattern was already visible in 2025. Tunad’s earlier report said betting operators spent more than R$ 1.44 billion on TV, radio, and streaming that year, with 85% of the total going to free-to-air TV. BetMGM, Betano, and Betnacional together made up 62% of TV and radio spend.
4. The market was slowing before the ban. After the World Cup, betting investment in TV fell 34.5%, from R$ 234.2 million to R$ 153.5 million, in comparable 39-day windows. The MP, signed on September 25, took the rest to zero, and broadcasters had until October 5 to remove already contracted advertising from the air.
5. The immediate question is who, if anyone, fills the slots. Tunad says no category automatically replaces the volume left by betting, and broadcasters will likely resell the inventory, but not at the same price. CEO Cesar Sponchiado said there is no timetable for that replenishment. Categories that were already growing before the ban included digital platforms (+54%), medicines (+50%), streaming (+32%), and telecoms (+20%), but Tunad says that movement predates the MP and is not direct substitution.

Contracts started breaking almost immediately after the measure was signed. Betano, Novibet, Superbet, and Esportes da Sorte were among the operators that announced the end of commercial agreements with broadcasters, while Globo, Band, and ESPN suspended scheduled inserts. That put at risk betting exclusivity around Globo’s Copa do Brasil and Brasileirão inventory, as well as sports-program naming rights at Band, including Jogo Aberto and Os Donos da Bola.