Online betting beats Brazil’s retail giants on Reclame Aqui traffic in 2025

Online betting brands generated 21.2 million visits on Reclame Aqui in 2025, more than the seven most-searched companies on the platform combined. For PSPs and payment teams, the useful detail is not the headline number itself but the gap between regulated and unregulated operators: 670 betting brands are listed on the site, while the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance (SPA-MF) authorizes 188 brands across 87 licences.

1. The betting sector’s 21.2 million visits on Reclame Aqui outpaced the 20.6 million combined visits of the platform’s seven most-searched companies, a group that includes Shopee, Mercado Livre, Nubank and Caixa Econômica Federal.
2. On Reclame Aqui, a visit is not the same thing as a formal complaint. The platform counts traffic when users open a company page to check complaints, review reputation scores or look into issues reported by other consumers.
3. Edu Neves, CEO of Reclame Aqui, said this behavior often follows advertising exposure. He added that the platform becomes a reference point when users are looking into legality, because they have already been hit by offers and other promotional stimuli.
4. According to Neves, the formal complaints that do get filed are mostly transactional: unfulfilled or badly explained promotions, trouble redeeming bets and access problems on the platforms.
5. The regulated-versus-unregulated split is the number that matters operationally. Reclame Aqui lists 670 online betting companies, while SPA-MF authorizes 188 brands under 87 licences, which indicates that a large share of the companies on the platform are still operating without regulatory approval.

Neves also warned that illegal betting sites can offer better prizes because they do not carry licensing or tax costs, while still being able to manipulate their algorithms as they see fit. Separately, the debate intensified during the 2026 World Cup, with heavy betting ad exposure in match broadcasts and on social media; Brazil’s consumer protection authority opened investigations into advertising on CazéTV, and the Ministry of Finance signaled tighter rules for online games.