The government of Brazil has confirmed the inclusion of sports betting in its privatisations plans with a resolution published Friday in the official state gazette.

This paves the way for the government to ultimately offer sports betting concessions to private operators in a similar manner to the recently privatised operation of the Lotex instant lottery.

The Brazilian government authorised retail and online fixed-odds sports betting in 2018, with the ministry of finance given a period of four years in which to develop enabling regulations. This was followed by a public consultation in 2019 into the best model for regulating sports betting and the most appropriate use of proceeds.

The inclusion of sports betting in the National Privatisation Plan will see the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) launch a market study to identify the best privatisation model to help stimulate the economy and generate jobs, with the government noting that it will consider adopting a concession model similar to the recent successful Lotex auction, which was won by a consortium of IGT and Scientific Games.

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