The Carioca 2021 Championship now has an innovative alternative for broadcasting the matches. The games in this edition will be displayed on sports betting platforms. The goal is to ensure that the fans can follow the plays and make their guesses on favorite teams simultaneously.
This model is innovative in the national territory and is being carried out in a partnership between the Rio de Janeiro Football Federation (FERJ) and the leading sports data company, Sportradar.
Transmission in bookmakers was a way to break with the traditional model
The initiative also had the support of sports marketing company Sportsview, hired to help design new forms of transmission. This year, the state competition is shown on open TV by Record TV, in the subscription system, by application, team channels and on betting platforms.
“In our desire, the fact of expanding the borders even more to embrace more football lovers in Rio already settled. With the unilateral termination by TV Globo of the contract that was in force until 2024, we broke with the traditional model by expanding the platforms,” interview with Estadão Ferj’s marketing director, Leonardo Ferraz.
Ferraz continued: “Obviously, model breaks cause difficulty and teaching initially. We believe that this first year is the kick-start of a new era”.
Since the end of 2018, the practice of fixed-odds sports betting in the country has become legal. However, the regulatory process is still in progress and is expected to be completed by July this year. Therefore, there is a lot of caution in this agreement between Carioca 2021 and Sportradar to ensure sporting integrity at all stages of the process.
In bookmakers, the fan can watch the match with the same narration of the system by subscription. The responsible marketing company stated that the objective is to present the Carioca Championship to the market and reach a standard similar to European, North American and Asian, where the transmission of championships in bookmakers is usual.
Regulatory process for betting in Brazil
Even though these platforms are legal in the country, the sector does not yet have a regulation in place. The lawyer specialized in sports law and partner at Corrêa da Veiga Advogados, Luciano Andrade Pinheiro, declared that this legal limitation prevents both the advancement of the national market and the collection of taxes by the government.
“Brazilians are betting on sites that are based outside the country, which is very bad for the government, which fails to collect,” said the lawyer for A Tribuna.
Still according to Pinheiro, the unprecedented model of exhibition should not be viewed in a problematic way by society and sports fans. “Streaming inside bookmakers is just a way of attracting audiences to them. It is good to remember that the bookmaker is a victim of match-fixing,” he concluded.