00:00Watch any Brazilian football match and you'll probably find a betting house.
00:05Now imagine that they all disappear overnight.
00:09Keep imagining, but now in Colombia.
00:11What would happen to professional football if betting shops suddenly ceased to exist?
00:17In a tournament like ours, where betting pays out money to numerous teams
00:22And they also give their name to the league, the tournament, the cup, the super league, the league
00:26female,
00:27What would happen?
00:28Well, that just happened in Brazil.
00:31Some of you probably saw the news, but for those who didn't, here's the context.
00:35President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signs a provisional measure prohibiting the operation,
00:40the intermediation and advertising of sports betting and online games.
00:44New deposits were suspended, and if the measure goes ahead,
00:48The platforms must go off the air from October 6th.
00:52For now the decision has immediate effect, but it still needs to go through Congress.
00:57And the moment is not insignificant.
00:59Lula made the decision on September 25, just a few days before the presidential elections.
01:05The opposition has indicated that there is an electoral calculation behind the measure.
01:10The government maintains that it is responding to household debt and a growing public health problem.
01:16The truth is that the decision caused a huge stir.
01:20To understand why we need to look at the numbers.
01:22In 2025, the regulated betting market in Brazil moved more than 220 billion reais, about 42,500
01:30millions of dollars.
01:31And the first division clubs alone received around 1.03 billion reais in sponsorships from housing companies.
01:37bets.
01:37Nearly $200 million, 66% more than the previous year.
01:42That money represented 7.2% of all his income and was equivalent to approximately one-third of what
01:49that those same teams received for television rights.
01:52Furthermore, all 20 clubs in the Brasileirão had some sponsorship from a betting company, and 18 of them carried it.
01:59as the main sponsor.
02:01That happens in the football that has dominated South America in recent years.
02:05Brazilian clubs won 7 consecutive Libertadores Cups between 2019 and 2025, waiting to see what happens in 2026.
02:14Flamengo and Palmeiras, two symbols of that growth, together exceeded 3.3 billion reais invested in signings since
02:212019.
02:23About $640 million.
02:25It wasn't solely thanks to the betting.
02:28Behind it all are television, player sales, ticket sales, awards, and much larger commercial structures.
02:35In 2025, Serie A clubs generated a record revenue of 14.3 billion reais, around 2.76 billion.
02:43millions of dollars.
02:44But within that new economy, betting houses found a gigantic space.
02:49How did we get here?
02:51For a betting company, football offers something that few other products can offer.
02:56Millions of people watching at the same time and a possibility of permanent consumption.
03:02Bets are no longer just on who wins; they're now on the next goal, corners, cards, or whatever.
03:08that can happen during a game.
03:09The bet, the parlay, ceased to be merely advertising surrounding the show and began to become part of the way
03:17in which a portion of the public consumes that spectacle.
03:20And that's a global phenomenon.
03:22Just look at what happened in the last World Cup.
03:24It was estimated that around $60 billion in legal bets were placed during the tournament worldwide.
03:30the planet, around 70% more than in Qatar 2022.
03:34And that's just a glimpse into an industry that already generates more than $120 billion annually
03:40year.
03:41Sports betting ceased to be a marginal business centered around football and became a closely global industry
03:50linked to show business.
03:51It is precisely this expansion that is leading different countries to wonder how far this relationship should go.
03:59The answers are very different.
04:01Italy has banned advertising of gambling sponsorships since 2019.
04:05In Spain, a betting company cannot lend its name to a team, a stadium, or a competition, nor
04:11appear on the t-shirts.
04:13England took a middle path.
04:16Starting this season, Premier League clubs voluntarily removed betting companies from the front of their shirts.
04:23although they may maintain other business relationships.
04:26France, on the other hand, maintains the legal market, but has strengthened controls on advertising.
04:32And during the World Cup I ask to reduce the commercial pressure on the fans.
04:36And let's go back to Colombia.
04:38Betplay has the rights to name all Di Mayor competitions until 2019.
04:44The official contract figure was made public, but when it was renewed, a deal close to [amount missing] was reported.
04:51261 billion pesos for six years, about 43.5 billion annually.
04:56And that's just the agreement with Di Mayor.
04:59Betting companies also directly sponsor numerous clubs and occupy a large part of the advertising surrounding football.
05:08However, its economic importance goes far beyond sports.
05:12To put the business into perspective, users deposited 5.5 trillion pesos in Betplay during 2025 alone.
05:20That same year the platform paid 745 billion pesos in VAT.
05:25In addition, Betplay and Superastro jointly contributed approximately 348 billion in monopoly revenues earmarked for the health system.
05:34And the market continued to grow.
05:36Between August 2026 and 2026, online gaming operators contributed approximately 474 billion pesos to
05:43exploitation rights to finance the subsidized health system.
05:47A growth of more than 84% compared to the same period of the previous year, driven especially by sports betting
05:55during the World Cup.
05:56In other words, in Colombia, betting no longer just finances jerseys and championships, it has also become a source
06:04important source of tax revenue and state resources.
06:07That's where the dilemma arises.
06:09Betting generates revenue for clubs, competitions, and the state.
06:14But there is also a public health problem.
06:17In France, for example, the regulator estimates that 15.3% of those who place sports bets
06:25problematic gambling.
06:26In Brazil, the government maintains that gambling had an impact of 62.5 billion reais in 2025.
06:34about family budgets
06:36and estimates the social cost associated with problem gambling in the tens of billions.
06:41Furthermore, there is the risk that an activity designed for entertainment could end up jeopardizing money intended for expenses.
06:50basics of a family.
06:52There's the integrity of the sport, because the bigger the market, the greater the need to control match-fixing and betting.
06:59of footballers or the use of insider information.
07:02And then there's the illegal market. Banning regulated betting shops doesn't necessarily mean people will stop gambling.
07:09It's possible that some of it will end up on clandestine platforms.
07:13This is precisely one of the arguments that companies have used to challenge Brazil's decision in court.
07:19The Brazilians have just opened a Pandora's box, and they did it in the middle of an election campaign.
07:24His decision not only sparked discussion about what to do about gambling addiction.
07:28It forced football to ask itself how much it depends on an industry that grew at an extraordinary speed.
07:34In Colombia, we don't seem to be close to a similar ban.
07:38But just look at our jerseys, our stadiums, and even the names of our championships.
07:44to understand that the phenomenon has also revolutionized our market and is shaping it.
07:49Betting is now part of the football economy.
07:53The discussion that's coming is how far we want to go.
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