IBJR launches campaign in Brazil to counter sports betting misinformation

The Instituto Brasileiro de Jogo Responsável (IBJR) has launched “Aposto que você não sabia” to push regulated-market data into the public debate on sports betting. For PSPs, the point is not the slogan; it is the policy fight behind it, because Brazil’s post-ban market has split into regulated and illegal channels, with the payment flow sitting in the middle.

1. The campaign uses Brazilian football club uniforms and pitch-side advertising boards to distribute facts about the regulated market. It is anchored on www.apostoquevocenaosabia.com, a portal maintained by IBJR for data centralization and fact-checking about the sector.
2. IBJR says the campaign is meant to address misinformation after the prohibition of fixed-odds betting in Brazil. Carlos Lima, IBJR’s chief executive, said the ban did not make demand disappear; instead, it opened space for the illegal market and removed protections for bettors. He added that much of the data and research cited in public debate does not distinguish between regulated and illegal operators.
3. The first axis of the campaign argues that prohibition does not eliminate demand, only redirects it to clandestine operators. A study by LCA Consultoria Econômica, commissioned by IBJR, estimates that the illegal market represented up to 44% of the betting market in 2026, with annual revenue of up to R$ 43,3 bilhões. The same consultancy estimates unpaid potential tax revenue from that segment at R$ 12 bilhões per year. A study by Instituto Locomotiva, also commissioned by IBJR, found that 50% of bettors reported practices associated with the use of irregular platforms.
4. The second axis focuses on the growth of illegal betting after the prohibition. A survey released by ANJL (Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias) in October 2026 identified more than 30 thousand active illegal betting links in the country. According to the sector’s description, clandestine operators use clones of well-known brands with fake authorization seals, hard-to-trace domains, payment intermediaries via Pix, and shell companies to carry out financial fraud.
5. IBJR also cites 2025 data from SPA (Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas), part of the Ministry of Finance, showing 1,255 notifications related to people with signs of transfers to unauthorized companies. For payment providers, that number matters because it points to the operational problem underneath the political one: when regulated rails disappear, unauthorized ones do not.

The campaign’s third axis says the regulated model had bettor protections that no longer applied after the ban: identity verification with CPF, ID document and facial recognition, a ban on deposits by credit card and cryptocurrencies, and deposit limits. That is the practical gap operators and payment partners have to plan for when a market swings from regulated to underground.