SPORTS BETTING

Brazil – Ministry of Sports will be part of sports betting and esports regulation

At a hearing at the Education, Culture and Sport Commission, the Minister of Sport, Ana Moser, outlined the  expectations and plans for the coming years announcing  that the ministry will participate in debates on the regulation of both sports betting and esports.

Moser also announced the creation of a working group to debate the situation of esports in Brazil as she detailed the Ministry’s expectations and plans for the coming years.  According to the official news service of the Brazilian Senate Agência Senado, the minister reinforced the importance of the ministry’s participation in discussions on the future provisional measure for sports betting as well.

Senator Izalci Lucas, pressed Ana Moser about the regulation of electronic sports pointing out that Moser had recently come out against classifying esports as real sports.  Esports he argued were becoming “more popular, with large sums of money and attract crowds in their competitions,” he said.

Earlier this month Moser doubled down on her claims that esports were not true sport as true sports involve movement. In an interview with Globo’s Esporte Espetacular, Ana Moser was emphatic once again in her claims referring  to  an evaluation made by the Ministry of Sport eight years ago which ruled that esports in Brazil can not be recognized as sports.

However Moser responded to the senator by saying that the government would create an interministerial working group to deal with the matter of esports as the government still “does not have a position on this.” At the same time Moser did recognise the fact that esports was “an undeniable phenomenon” and a “very strong phenomenon in economic terms as well.”