The complete uncertainty and insecurity of the gambling sector in the country currently also reflects on influencers or digital influencers who are responsible for a huge range of decision-making in the lives of Brazilian consumers in the most diverse areas, especially in recent years.
All you have to do is access Instagram – and it is no different on other networks – and check the strength of the marketing and advertising actions that these agents are responsible for and the fruitful engagement with a loyal and specific audience that they manage to reach. It is often said that they create a real movement.
It is estimated, by the way, that influencers are already so many that they surpass doctors and lawyers – who are millions in the country.
It is no different with gaming and, especially, sports betting – currently legalized in Brazil, but subject to a regrettable omission by the Authorities that do not regulate it. The numbers only increase and with them the problems of lack of regulation also grow.
This creates a legal limbo – or the gray zone, as the lack of regulation of the matter in the betting sector has been treated – which suggests more and more concerns to influencers, who, with the increase in financial transactions and negotiations with the betting sector, also become the target of the reflections of the state’s omission in the best legislative treatment of the matter.
The concern increases when we are dealing with a sector that moves billions of reales, which, in itself, is already a cause for alarm. This adds to the fact that famous people – or known by thousands/millions of people – join this sector and promote even more apparent publicity on the subject.
From this comes the “full plate” to consumer protection entities or even to investigative bodies that still understand little about betting, much less this new ‘feat’ between betting sites and influencers! And it is a partnership that tends to grow, as it is working very well.
Furthermore, it is not new that there are several formats for hiring influential people in social media, but as a rule the formatting of activity, apart from contracts for brand ambassadors that are worked in a different way, as a rule, in the case of sports betting, forms of dissemination are used (advertising and marketing) and remuneration that comes, in practice, from the market itself and from a precariously applied importation of foreign experiences in the way of hiring, since in the country there is no adequate and specific reference on the subject.
The fact is that currently influencers (and here without going into the numbers of people who technically need to reach and 'affect' with their publications to be considered influencers) are hired, as a rule, via Affiliate Marketing, from which they promote a certain betting site operator in various ways, ranging from blogs, websites, reviews, news, videos on YouTube, twitch, email, among many other possible content formats by the influencer who must have an audience engaged with their publications for the partnership to produce results satisfying for both parties involved.
This can happen in various networks and media, without prejudice to the fact that in each of them, depending on the influencer, communication with your audience takes place in a way that obviously meets the main characteristic of what the respective target audience is looking for and respecting, of course, a logic between the published content and the interests of the bookmaker, which is, above all: the search for more access to the website and obtaining new customers who contribute money (bet) within its website.
Being an absurdly profitable market of influence for those who have a good base of followers or even followers for those who have few but loyal followers, the remuneration of influencers can happen in several ways. Here are some examples (behold, there are hybrid payment methods or other fixed rates, for example):
CPC – Cost per click – small values for the click generated from the link suggested by the influencer and reflect greater movement and access on the contracting sites by new potential bettors;
CPA – Cost per Acquisition – when the consumer – in the case of betting, therefore, the bettor – actually plays a game on the platform indicated by the influencer through its Link.
Revenue Share – the influencer is remunerated through a share in the revenue of the operation carried out, which has already been the reason for recent and (questionable) criticism in the alleged scandals of some bookmakers.
The point is that regardless of all this we have today is a country that does not look at the urgency necessary for the betting sector, notably now that some results handling scandals have come to light and, much less, deals with the relevant subject that is the care and format with digital influencers that have entered this exponential growth market should act without harming or liable for actions of their partners or, on the contrary for false information eventually provided by the partner when advertising or disclosure.
Brazil, like other countries that are more advanced and established in their legislation and measures linked to the betting market, see the example of England, on this point, must regulate the economic activity of sports betting as soon as possible so that it can, among the regulatory measures, deal with the way in which digital influencers can carry out publications linked to the disclosures of their partner betting sites, also following the guidelines of regulatory bodies in the matter (such as Conar) and other agencies that can be created to monitor the inspection of the regularity of bets in the country.
It is important to emphasize that the digital influencer currently lacks the necessary security to carry out his activity, since in an unregulated area he may suffer consequences from a misinterpretation by the police, judicial or state inspection authorities. In this sense, it is urgent, in this scenario, the need for an extremely well-done legal structure for the influencer so that he does not put everything he has achieved in check.
The regulation will bring even greater security and concern for compulsive gamblers (concern, therefore, with the promotion of responsible gambling) and may at least clarify, for example, the extent to which the influencer can be held responsible in certain disclosures, as in the case of extrapolating in the disclosure that violates the contract signed with the betting site itself or establishing a view that betting is a “livelihood” or an “investment”, a thought much criticized by some names in the sector. Today it is difficult, if not impossible, to control all of this, which is bad for everyone.
It will also be the case of establishing a greater concern aimed at making the influencer himself aware that he has an important social responsibility inherent to his 'condition' or to his social 'status' and that - especially young people - tend to follow the guidelines or ideas that they expose in their advertisements, so they need to understand the repercussions of this for their own legal and psychological security. The way in which you should act and be aware that you can and should make the bettor from your audience aware is of paramount importance and is still the object of very little concern.
Also, regulating the sector will also bring greater security by limiting the accountability parameters of the influencer who publicizes a platform that he did not know was a fraud or that did not comply with the promised offer. What contractual issues are involved? What is the consumer's right in these cases?
These are just a few questions that arise from the massive increase in this activity in Brazil, urging the immediate need to regulate the sector so that all players and stakeholders clearly know their rights and duties in this relationship.
Influencing is important; but, more important, is to seek good protection and avoid problems.
Yohann Sade
CEO of Sade & Gritz Advogados. Graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR) Postgraduate in Administrative Law – Instituto Romeu Felipe Bacellar Filho. Postgraduate in Tax Law – Brazilian Association of Constitutional Law (ABDCONST).
He has an important role in the Gambling Law sector and as an advisor for companies and entrepreneurs.
Thuan Gritz
Founding partner of Sade & Gritz Advogados. Specialist in Criminal Law – Brazilian Association of Constitutional Law (ABDCONST). Postgraduate in Tax Law – Brazilian Association of Constitutional Law (ABDCONST). Postgraduate in Electoral Law – Pontifical Catholic University/MG. Lawyer with experience in personal and business crisis management. Focus on acting for businessmen, civil servants and politicians.
