Caixa Loterias, a company created by Caixa Economica Federal (CEF) to manage the lottery network in Brazil, which includes traditional Mega-Sena bets and other products, requested authorization from the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday (20) this week to operate in the sports betting market.
One of the bank's objectives in creating the subsidiary was to gain agility in the face of competition from the ‘Bets’, as operators of sports betting are called in Brazil.
“This partnership underscores our commitment to delivering top-tier certification services in compliance with the rigorous requirements set forth in the SPA/MF regulations. As a trusted leader in the gaming industry, BMM Testlabs is proud to support Caixa Loterias in their expansion into the sports betting market,” said Susana Campañá Castaño, VP ONLINE sales Europe & LATAM.
Last April, BMM Testlabs announced that the company has been approved to test and certify land-based games, online games, and betting systems for fixed-odds betting by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance in Brazil for the country’s lottery operators.
This landmark approval reinforced BMM’s capabilities to test and certify any gaming product, for every technical standard adopted by any gaming regulator, in Latin America and every other regulated gaming market around the world.
In addition to this federal accreditation, BMM has already been authorized to perform compliance testing and certification in the three Brazilian states that have recently regulated iGaming and sports betting — Rio de Janeiro, Paraiba, and Paraná.
These three states are all in the process of granting operators’ licenses, which will allow operators to provide fixed-odds sports betting, casino games, and games of skill.
As part of its commitment to the Brazilian market, BMM is establishing a local laboratory from which the Company will provide its full suite of compliance services and solutions, including pre-compliance testing, customized security audits, geolocation testing, and software quality assurance (SQA).
“As a relevant player in the Brazilian lottery market, Caixa is constantly working on developing new products and gaming businesses. Therefore, it filed a request with the Ministry of Finance for authorization to operate fixed-odds sports betting on behalf of Caixa Loterias. The documents required by current regulations were submitted,” the company assured.
In the first half of the year, Caixa collected R$12.3 billion (US$ 2.25bn) from lottery games. In the same period last year, the collection was R$10.34 billion (US$ 1.85bn).
The company expects that the collection from sports betting will be around 50% of what Loterias Caixa obtains from traditional games, initially. As the operation matures, the trend is that the amount may increase.
Despite having more than 13,000 physical points throughout Brazil, Loterias Caixa will operate in the betting segment as other companies do, that is, through digital channels.
The “Bets Law” was sanctioned at the beginning of the year by President Lula. In addition to the 15% Personal Income Tax (IRPF) on the net profit from prizes, the operators will have to pay R$30 million (US$ 5.45m) in concession fees.
The law also states that the Ministry of Finance is responsible for authorizing and operating the “Bets”.
Source: GMB
