iGB op-ed: Daniel O’Boyle argues that Brazil’s latest crackdown on sponsorship punishes operators that believed they had a clear pathway to launching before the winter.
Five matches into the season, the Premier League – and European club football in general – is well and truly back.
But the big moment of anticipation in the football world this year is still to come, when those domestic leagues will, of course, stop this winter, for the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
However excited those in Europe may be, surely no nation can match Brazil in its enthusiasm for the World Cup.
So naturally, the event has long been the circled date on the calendar for the launch of regulated sports betting in Brazil.
Operators had surely hoped that the months in the build-up to the event would be a time to prepare to get their licensed operations up and running, putting the finishing touches in place to take bets on the World Cup.
But instead, it might be close to the exact opposite.
With the opening match n..