Football and gambling are inseparable. In the English Premier League, often regarded as the best domestic championship in the world, nine out of 20 teams in the 2018–2019 season had casino or betting companies as their prime shirt sponsor. Plus, even if their logo is not brandished all across players’ chests, every major European club has its own “official gambling partner”—sometimes more than one. Such is not the case in Brazil, where gambling on football has been outlawed since 1946.
For better or for worse, betting is a part of the culture of sport around large parts of the world, especially in Australia, parts of southeast Asia, and northern Europe. In the British Isles, with bookmakers seemingly on every street corner, pubs on the weekend are full of punters glued to their phones, attentively following matches from Spain, Switzerland, Holland, or what have you, hoping their ten-team accumulator bet will come good.
While in its very early stages, that reality could be where Brazil is headed. Despite the 1946 ruling outlawing betting and all games of chance—which, in Brazil, are revealingly called