This year's Copa Libertadores final, contested between Botafogo and Atlético-MG at Monumental de Núñez in Buenos Aires, ended with a 3x1 victory for the team from Rio, and was heavily dominated by betting houses - both on and off the field. The two finalists, for example, are sponsored by bets: Parimatch (Botafogo) and Betano (Atlético-MG). Conmebol, which organizes the continental tournament, has a partnership with Sportingbet.
"The betting segment is the main sponsor of Brazilian football across various platforms. Companies have been making multimillion-dollar investments in purchasing assets, as well as in activation funds. As the Libertadores final approached, it was possible to notice an intensification of activations by some market players", analyzes Fábio Wolff, managing partner of Wolff Sports and a specialist in sports marketing, who is involved in capturing contracts between brands and sports professionals.
"In some matches in Brazilian football, those watching can come into contact with more than ten different brands in the betting segment, and to be more didactic, we can see brands in the broadcast, in the arena, on the uniforms, on the backdrops, on the carpets, on the substitution boards, on the stretcher car, and on the advertising boards", corroborates Renê Salviano, CEO of Heatmap and a specialist in sports marketing, who is also involved in capturing contracts between brands and sports professionals.
“We know that football is the most betted sport, however, the amounts in some cases are up to five times (5x) what it cost just two years ago".
Some of these companies also took the opportunity to activate their brands in the week leading up to the decision. Sportingbet had a stand inside the traditional Fanzone promoted by Conmebol, which took place inside Vial Costero until Friday (29). Meanwhile, Betano promoted an advertising activation called Grito de Galo, with ads on open TV, cable channels, digital channels, and out-of-home media, exploring the emotions experienced by the Atlético-MG fans during football matches.
"With two bets as master sponsors on the shirts of both finalists, and also of the Copa Libertadores, this decision represents very well the panorama of bets as supporters of clubs and entities in the South American scene. In Brazil, it would be no different, and today we have betting companies as the main financiers of national football for some time now. This movement is only set to consolidate even further with the regulation of the industry in the country", analyzes João Fraga, CEO of techfin Paag, a specialist in the betting sector.
Off the field, the fans who followed the continental final also became familiar with more betting advertisements. TV Globo, which holds the exclusivity of the broadcast on open TV, and ESPN, which broadcasts the competition on cable TV, have sponsorship from Sportingbet.
“The sponsorships carried out by sports betting companies play a relevant role in the sports scene, as long as they are conducted responsibly, especially due to the significant financial impact they bring to this great cultural passion of Brazilians. It is a natural movement and resembles the protagonism that, in other times, was exercised by brands from sectors such as physical and digital banks, as well as companies from the electronics sector, which also stood out as master sponsors of football clubs”, states Leonardo Henrique Bessa, partner at Betlaw and board member of the Brazilian Institute of Consumers and consultant to the Federal Council of the OAB.
"This data only highlights the importance of the sponsorship of betting companies for sports and football, as was very clear in the public hearing that the Supreme held on November 12, where 30 clubs signed a manifesto explaining the serious financial problem that the prohibition of advertising could cause", adds José Francisco Manssur, partner at CSMV Lawyers, who served as a special advisor to the Executive Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, and was at the forefront of drafting the rules for the fixed quota betting sector in Brazil.
Source: GMB
