Leonardo Baptista told a little about his successful professional career. An inveterate lover of technology, the systems engineer ended up directing this passion towards another characteristic that describes him, the entrepreneur.
Upon seeing Law 13,756, which legalized sports betting in Brazil, Léo decided to found Pay4Fun to take advantage of the new wave that was arriving in the country. Given the need for sports betting houses to establish local partnerships to offer their services to the Brazilian public, there is nothing better than a specialized company.
Over these five years, Pay4Fun expanded, reaching hundreds of sports betting houses in its range of partners, and last year it obtained the much-desired license from Brazil’s Central Bank (Bacen), being the first company to operate with its seal in the Brazilian iGaming market.
Today, more than consolidated, Pay4Fun awaits, like the entire market, a thorough review of the bill approved a few days ago in the Chamber of Deputies. For Léo, the only good aspect of the Bill was the definition that payment method companies will only be able to operate in the regulated market if they have authorization from the Central Bank, as is the case with Pay4Fun.
“Now, as it stands, if it is finally put in force, ‘it’s going to be bad’, as we usually joke. There is no way to work with the tax rate for both operators and bettors. It's wrong and my hope is that a lot can happen in the Senate. The inclusion of the online casino, at least, is very good for everyone,” he analyzed.
Regarding the positive side regarding payment method companies, Witoldo Hendrich Jr., one of the podcast hosts, stated that “as much as the requirement for a company authorized by Bacen was a victory, the text as a whole is a push to the black market. A company like yours, licensed by the Central Bank, will not be able to accept an offshore company. If illegal gambling takes hold due to poor taxation, it will open the market to someone who sets up a payment method, runs it for six months and opens another.”
Léo said that there is this risk, but he sees the positive side that today these adventurers operate in the market precisely because there is no consolidated regulation. “From then on, the rigor on the payment system is so great that this mess will not be allowed by those who do not effectively comply with what was defined. The Central Bank will pick on anyone who is not complying with the law.”
For the CEO of Pay4Fun, “the regulation will not go as it is proposed. Changes will come in the Senate and we hope that they will channel bettors towards the regulated market and for companies to actually apply for licenses with the Ministry of Finance.”
Baptitsta recalled that the government took a long time to regulate the activity and that to this day “the only money that enters the Union's coffers from the gaming sector is the IOF (tax on financial operations) of 6.38% on remittances made by payment methods companies that act correctly, such as Pay4Fun.”
Regarding expansion plans, the CEO of Pay4Fun highlighted that it already has offices in Chile, Peru and the Netherlands, but has held back on all progress regarding the operation itself. “But for next year, we will be in Chile, Peru and Mexico, just to start,” he concluded.
Source: GMB
