Brazil’s Lula promotes popular betting ban within days of tight election

For 38-year-old Leandro Valdivia, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ’s pre-election crackdown on fixed-odds betting came too late to save his marriage or $26,000 from his bank account. Still, he has anxiously checked the news since the government’s ban was announced on Friday, fearing a judge will strike it down.

Brazil’s betting market is in turmoil since Lula, nine days before the first round of presidential elections, signed an order to ban all platforms. In a tightly contested election, that prohibition is one of the few measures of his that even supporters of rival Flávio Bolsonaro support. And that could be decisive ahead of Sunday’s tight vote.

Brazil’s government said on Monday it had removed 506 websites that allegedly continued to offer the service. Lula’s decision ends the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of betting. It will need congressional approval within 120 days to remain in effect — and no objections from any judge in the nation.

Valdivia, a healthcare professional who talks to dozens of online gamblers each week to help them leave the addiction, started placing bets during the 2022 World Cup. He used to gamble about 100 Brazilian reais ($20) in each game and did make a profit. He led himself to believe he understood what made volleyball tick, and that could someday earn him a fortune. 

But two years later each of Valdivia’s gambles jumped to 10,000 reais ($2,000), and he was not winning any of it back. He was constantly lying to his partner about losing money. He had to give away his small media company and stopped talking to his friends. After he divorced, his cousins intervened; they installed an app to ban betting from his mobile and computer. Since last year, he is in recovery.

“This is an addiction that doesn’t give you bad breath. You don’t talk funny, you don’t smell. Nobody finds it strange if you stay on your phone all day,” Valdivia, who still has debts of 30,000 Brazilian reais ($5,700), said in a phone interview.

“It is hard for our judges and for congress to keep this in place. But maybe this ban stays long enough for us to feel the impact in the economy and in people’s mental health,” said Valdivia, who plans to vote for Lula.

Brazil has one of the world’s biggest online betting markets, which made more than $4 billion in revenues in 2025, according to an institute that represents most of the platforms operating in the South American nation. The country’s central bank argues it is even more; about 30 billion reais ($5.7 billion) spent on bets each month. That figure included spending by beneficiaries of the cash-transfer federal welfare program Bolsa Familia (Family Grant), which was blocked from those platforms last year.

Creomar de Souza, a political analyst with Dharma Political Risk and Strategy, a consultancy firm based in Brasilia, said despite Lula’s criticism to betting companies, it is clear he picked an electoral moment to do it. He argues many polls have shown that more than 70% of Brazilians favor banning all betting platforms.

“The ban doesn’t hurt Lula at all, we need some more time to see whether it does help him in the election as voters digest,” said de Souza, who added Brazil’s president himself pushed for the regulation of betting companies only two years ago.

“If Congress tosses this order, it doesn’t hurt Lula either. He can take some advantage and make pressure, cast himself as an anti-system candidate in an election that should be close.”

One staffer of Brazil’s government told The Associated Press that Lula did consider a partial ban, but changed course after top division soccer clubs said in a joint statement last week that removing those platforms would mean the end of “futebol,” the nation’s biggest passion. All 20 clubs in Brazil’s Serie A are sponsored by sports betting platforms. The staffer spoke under condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak publicly.

Few Brazilians have publicly antagonized the move due to evident hazards brought by online betting to the country’s economy and mental health. Even presidential hopeful Flávio Bolsonaro avoided criticizing the merits of the decision. But betting companies are preparing to challenge the move in different courts, as a group and individually. 

Matheus Puppe, an expert in Brazil’s digital law, said he expects Lula’s order to be struck down soon due to several issues in totally banning a sector from the economy without a transition. If a court doesn’t do it, he says, congress might just not vote on it and let the order expire.

“It was abrupt, the government did not return the license fee paid by the platforms, it did not care for the workers of those companies,” Puppe said. “There are many grounds to question this.”

“But it will be hard to see any judge doing it before Sunday,” he added.

Valdivia agrees the risks for the order are high. He argues it is needed since few addicts choose to stop without some help from family and friends.

Puppe said banning legal platforms “will only make people look for the illegal ones.”

Still, the ban makes it much harder for those who are not tech savvy to continue placing their bets, which changes the size of the market dramatically.

“I remember when I realized my then partner knew what was happening to me. We were cycling in Buenos Aires, we saw an ad about the risks of online betting and she just hopped off and gave me a hug,” Valdivia recalls.

“I am recovering. But I could be speaking to you with my partner still with me, we’d have a child by now, and I would have spent that money in a house for us by the beach. That I will never recover.”

UK Gambling Yield Reaches €17.5bn as Commission Publishes Third Year of New Data Series

The Gambling Commission has released its Industry Statistics annual report for the financial year April 2025 to March 2026, alongside updated datasets from the third year of its Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). The figures indicate that gross gambling yield (GGY) – the amount retained by licensed operators after winnings are paid out – reached approximately €17.5bn across Great Britain, cementing online gambling’s position as the largest combined sector by yield.

Key Figures from the Annual Report

The annual publication consolidates quarterly data released throughout the year. Quarterly GGY during the 2025/26 financial year held broadly steady, standing at £4.3bn in the second quarter and rising to £4.5bn in both the third and fourth quarters. The report provides an overview of GGY generated by licensed operators from Great Britain gambling customers across each customer-facing gambling sector.

The data also reflects structural changes to the Commission’s reporting framework. Following revisions introduced in July 2024 to the way operators submit regulatory returns, quarterly publications now incorporate lotteries and National Lottery data, offering a more complete picture of the regulated market. This has improved comparability across the revised reporting series.

Third Year of the GSGB

The release coincides with the publication of the third annual report from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, conducted on the Commission’s behalf by NatCen. The 2025 edition collected responses from 20,775 adults aged 18 and over using a push-to-web methodology, with a companion trends report comparing 2025 estimates against previous survey years.

The GSGB was designed as a single, comprehensive population survey covering gambling participation, behaviours, attitudes, and consequences across Great Britain. Data from earlier waves showed that 2.7% of adults scored eight or above on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), a figure equivalent to approximately 1.4 million people. The Commission has also issued guidance on the appropriate use of GSGB statistics, encouraging analysts to reference confidence intervals when reporting survey estimates.

Context: A Changing Regulatory and Fiscal Landscape

The latest data arrives during a period of significant adjustment for the sector. Remote Gaming Duty increased from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026, materially altering the tax burden on online operators. Separately, new compliance rules took effect on 29 July 2026 requiring the immediate removal of non-compliant gaming machines, supported by £26m in government funding directed at tackling illegal gambling.

These developments form part of a broader framework shaped by the statutory levy and wider regulatory reform, with operators facing heightened expectations around anti-money laundering governance, data quality, and player protection.

‘Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like’: female athletes lead backlash against viral advert

The US actor Sydney Sweeney is facing a backlash from female Olympians and other athletes, who have accused her of demeaning and sexualising women’s sports by appearing in a controversial advert for a sports prediction company.

In the viral commercial for Novig, which was viewed more than 22 million times in the first two days of its release, Sweeney’s nude body is covered by footballs, basketballs, and other sports equipment, as she tells users they can bet on “just sports”. After saying “sports” nine times, she appears topless on a pool table, before saying: “You can’t trade this, I just look good here.”

Sydney Sweeney’s prediction ad is cynical, unhealthy and reveals plenty about modern sports

The advert has led to a storm of protest led by the British sprinter Amy Hunt, who won four European Championship gold medals last month. After finishing fourth in the 200m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship on Sunday evening, Hunt said: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like: 21.4. Muscles. Hard work, blood, sweat, tears. This is a beautiful evening.”

That was a reference to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden’s winning time of 21.47 seconds, the fourth-fastest women’s 200m, and Hunt went on to reveal the painful realities she and other sports stars faced. “When you’re a woman in sport, it’s not pretty,” she said. “It’s not glamorous. It’s not sexy all the time, definitely.

“There’s some low moments. Even turning up to this championship, my period started yesterday, so that’s not really ideal, and that’s not ever what you try to really plan for.”

The British Olympic cycling gold medallist Sophie Capewell was also deeply critical of the advert. “Imagine a world where sexualised representation isn’t the most popular way of seeing women in sport,” Capewell said on social media.

In Australia, there was also widespread fury with the four-time Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus leading the charge. “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” she wrote. “Not only is it a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity.

“How do we live in a world where monetising a woman’s body and sexualising women’s sport is still a thing?”

Hundreds of athletes took inspiration from the American gymnast Gracie Kramer, who posted footage of her competing under the message “this is what a woman in sport looks like” on an Instagram post that was liked more than a million times.

Sweeney appeared to respond to the criticism by posting a series of images of prominent female and male athletes posing naked for magazine shoots, including Serena Williams and the footballer Megan Rapinoe and the basketball player Sue Bird.

The public relationship consultant Mark Borkowski, who has worked with everyone from Mikhail Gorbachev to Diego Maradona, said he felt the advert was “cynical soft porn”, but that the controversy would benefit Novig “given the number of eyeballs on it”.

Borkowski said: “Sex still sells. And the outrage, the culture war argument gets you one thing: enormous reach.”

He also questioned whether Sweeney, who has starred in several successful TV series and films including Euphoria, The White Lotus and The Housemaid, may one day regret her decision.

“Sweeney will make a lot of money over a short span of time,” Borkowski said. “But often it is about how your brand sustains over the years, not in the first flourish. And this sort of promotion can come back to haunt people.”

The advert has been defended by Jacob Fortinsky, the founder and chief executive of Novig, which launched last month. “Sydney is great at captivating audiences and being the centre of attention,” he said. “In some sense, it forces us into the national discourse.”

Fortinsky also pushed back against criticisms of the adult nature of the content, pointing out that Novig is restricted to users aged 21 and older. He added that Sweeney had approached the company about an equity partnership and helped to craft its message.

This is not the first time an advert featuring Sweeney has attracted controversy. Last year American Eagle’s “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign used a play on “jeans” and “genes”, including references to the blue-eyed actor’s inherited traits, sparked a culture war, with some saying it invoked eugenics.

Several months after the controversy erupted, Sweeney said she had been unaware of it as she had been filming Euphoria. “Anyone who knows me knows that I’m always trying to bring people together,” she said. “I’m against hate and divisiveness.”