Best online sportsbook Brazil is, for the moment, a question with no product behind it. Two weeks ago this page would have ranked bet365, BetMGM, and Stake against each other the way its Canada, UK, and Mexico siblings rank their own licensed markets. That market doesn't exist right now. A federal decree banned fixed-odds betting outright, and every authorized sportsbook in the country, familiar US names included, went dark on October 6, 2026.

What Changed on October 6, 2026

Medida Provisória 1.394, published September 25, 2026 and signed by President Lula, prohibits “a exploração, a oferta, a intermediação e a publicidade” of fixed-odds betting lotteries nationwide — sports wagering and online casino games together, the same combined product Law 14.790/2023 had legalized less than two years earlier. The decree set a hard deadline: bettors could withdraw balances until 11:59 p.m. on October 5, and every licensed site and app had to be offline the next day. By the most recent count, 187 of the 188 previously authorized platforms had complied; the Ministry of Justice was already moving to force the one holdout down as well.

The MP 1.394 timeline, in order

  • Sept 25, 2026: decree published, new deposits and signups banned immediately
  • Oct 5, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: deadline for bettors to withdraw remaining balances
  • Oct 6, 2026: sites and apps required offline — 187 of 188 complied
  • Oct 9–14, 2026: banks process refunds of remaining balances by CPF
  • Oct 25, 2026: all federal betting authorizations extinguished, no fee refund
  • ~Nov 23, 2026: Congress's deadline to vote the decree into law, extendable once

The Brands This Site Reviews Were Actually Licensed — Until Last Week

This wasn't a gray-zone market that one ban finally caught up to. bet365 ran bet365.bet.br under SPA/MF license 0021/2024 through HS do Brasil Ltda. BetMGM ran betmgm.bet.br under license 0036/2024 through Boa Lion S.A., its joint venture with Grupo Globo. Stake ran stake.bet.br under license 0079/2024 through Stake Brazil Ltda. All three were genuine federal authorizations under Law 14.790/2023, not offshore workarounds — the same kind of license this site documented on Brazil's best-online-casino page just days before the decree made it moot. FanDuel doesn't operate under its own name in Brazil, but its parent, Flutter Entertainment, owns 56% of NSX Group, the operator behind Betnacional, after a roughly R$2 billion deal that closed May 14, 2025. Betnacional stopped accepting new signups, deposits, and wagers on September 26, 2026, the day after the decree, and its site now displays a block notice citing MP 1.394 by number.

Caesars never fully cleared the bar it was aiming for: licensee BIG Brazil Tecnologia filed for a federal betting authorization in 2024 and ran caesarsports.com.br while the application was under review, backed by state-level certification from Rio de Janeiro's lottery. No source checked for this page ever confirmed BIG Brazil received the final federal grant — so Caesars' Brazilian standing was already the least certain of this group even before the ban made the question irrelevant.

DraftKings, Kalshi, and Polymarket Never Had a Foothold Here

DraftKings is on record expressing interest in the Brazilian market back in 2024, alongside several other US operators, but nothing found while researching this page confirms it ever secured an SPA authorization at any point. Kalshi and Polymarket were shut out on a separate and earlier track: a Conselho Monetário Nacional resolution effective May 4, 2026 banned derivative contracts tied to sports, political, or entertainment events outright, and Brazil's SPA had already signaled it would treat prediction-market products as fixed-odds betting under Law 14.790/2023 regardless. Neither one was a legal Brazilian option before October's broader ban made the point moot for everyone else too.

Bovada and BetOnline.ag Aren't Part of This Story

It's worth separating these two from everything above, because they aren't reacting to the same news. Bovada dropped Mexico and the rest of Latin America as a market in 2018 and has run as a US-only brand ever since — there was no Brazilian signup path to lose. BetOnline.ag holds only a Panama Gaming Control Board license, something the SPA never recognized even while the licensed market was open, so its standing hasn't changed either. Neither is a workaround now that bet365, BetMGM, and Stake are dark — both were already outside the framework the ban just erased.

Is This Permanent?

Not decided yet. Betting-industry associations filed two constitutional actions at the Supreme Federal Tribunal (ADIs 8024 and 8027) asking for the decree to be suspended before the damage becomes irreversible; as of this page's research, Justice Luiz Fux hadn't ruled. The federal government's own attorneys are defending the ban in full and want the Attorney General's office heard first. Separately, Brazil's constitution gives Congress roughly 120 days from publication — split into two 60-day windows, so a vote is due by about November 23, 2026 unless extended once more — to convert the decree into permanent law. If Congress doesn't act, the ban lapses on its own and the licensed market could, in theory, come back.

So the honest ranking for “best online sportsbook Brazil” this week is: none of them, pending a Supreme Court ruling and a congressional vote that hasn't happened yet. bet365, BetMGM, Stake, and Betnacional were real, licensed products a few days ago and may be again depending on how Brasília rules. Bovada and BetOnline.ag were never the answer either way. None of this was ever a way to make money — this week, for Brazilian bettors, it isn't even a product that exists.

The short list

  1. 1. bet365 — Was licensed, now dark — same as everyone else

    Ran under SPA/MF license 0021/2024 (Ordinance 250, Feb 7, 2025) via HS do Brasil Ltda on bet365.bet.br. The license was not revoked for cause — MP 1.394 extinguishes every federal betting authorization nationwide on October 25, 2026, bet365's included.

  2. 2. BetMGM — Joint-venture license, same forced shutdown

    Operated betmgm.bet.br under SPA/MF license 0036/2024 through Boa Lion S.A., the MGM Resorts–Grupo Globo joint venture. Listed among the operators suspended by MP 1.394 along with the rest of the authorized market.

  3. 3. FanDuel — FanDuel's parent owns the one named in the shutdown reports

    Flutter Entertainment, FanDuel's 100% owner, bought 56% of NSX Group — operator of Betnacional — for roughly R$2 billion in May 2025. Betnacional stopped signups, deposits, and bets on September 26, 2026 and now shows an MP 1.394 block notice.

  4. 4. Stake.com — Licensed via Stake Brazil Ltda, grounded the same week

    Ran stake.bet.br under SPA/MF license 0079/2024 (Ordinance 263, Feb 7, 2025). MP 1.394's text covers every authorized platform without naming exceptions — there is no reported carve-out for Stake's license.

  5. 5. Caesars Sportsbook — The shakiest license of the group, now moot either way

    Licensee BIG Brazil Tecnologia filed for federal authorization in 2024 and ran caesarsports.com.br provisionally; no source found confirms a final SPA grant ever followed. The ban ends the question before it was answered.

  6. 6. Bovada — Not part of this story — it left Latin America in 2018

    Never licensed in Brazil, never trying to be. Bovada dropped Mexico and the rest of Latin America as a market in 2018 and has operated as a US-only brand since, unaffected by a ban on a market it already exited.

The honest verdict

There is no best online sportsbook in Brazil right now, and that is the honest, literal answer as of October 8, 2026. Medida Provisória 1.394, published September 25, 2026, prohibits "a exploração, a oferta, a intermediação e a publicidade" of fixed-odds betting — sports wagering and online casino games alike — across the entire country. Bettors had until 11:59 p.m. on October 5 to withdraw balances; sites and apps were required to go dark the next day, and by the most recent count only one of the 188 previously authorized platforms was still reachable, with the Ministry of Justice already moving to force it offline too. bet365 (SPA/MF license 0021/2024), BetMGM (license 0036/2024, run through the Boa Lion joint venture with Grupo Globo), and Stake (license 0079/2024, via Stake Brazil Ltda) were three of this site's reviewed brands inside that licensed tier before the ban; so was Betnacional, the NSX Group platform that FanDuel's parent, Flutter Entertainment, bought 56% of for roughly R$2 billion in a deal completed May 14, 2025 — Betnacional stopped taking new signups, deposits, and bets on September 26, 2026, the day after the decree, and its site now shows a block notice citing the MP by number. Caesars Sportsbook's path into Brazil ran through a licensee, BIG Brazil Tecnologia, which filed for federal authorization in 2024 and operated provisionally on caesarsports.com.br while the application was reviewed — no source checked for this page ever confirmed a final federal grant, so its standing was already the shakiest of the group even before the ban made it moot. DraftKings never got further than publicly expressed interest in the Brazilian market back in 2024; it is not confirmed to have held a license at any point. Bovada isn't affected by any of this the way the others are, because it was never in the licensed market to begin with — it dropped Latin America outright in 2018 and has run as a US-only brand since, with no Brazilian signup path regardless of what Brasília decides next. Kalshi and Polymarket were shut out even earlier: a Conselho Monetário Nacional resolution effective May 4, 2026 banned derivative contracts on sports, political, and entertainment events outright, and Brazil's regulator already treated prediction-market products as fixed-odds betting subject to the same law anyway. The ban itself is not settled — betting-industry associations filed two actions at the Supreme Federal Tribunal asking for it to be suspended, the federal government is defending it in full, and Congress has until roughly November 23, 2026, extendable once by the same period, to vote the decree into permanent law or let it lapse. Nothing here was ever presented as a way to make money, and that is truer this week than most — right now it's not a house-edge-but-legal question, it's a question of whether there's a product to open at all.

Questions this list actually answers

What is the best online sportsbook in Brazil right now?

None of them — that's the literal answer on October 8, 2026. A decree published September 25, 2026 banned fixed-odds sports betting nationwide, and every one of the roughly 188 federally licensed platforms, including bet365, BetMGM, Stake, and Betnacional (part of FanDuel's parent Flutter), went dark on October 6. There is no licensed sportsbook currently accepting Brazilian bettors.

Is online sports betting legal in Brazil?

As of this week, no. Law 14.790/2023 had legalized and regulated fixed-odds sports betting since January 1, 2025 under the Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas. Medida Provisória 1.394, published September 25, 2026, reversed that: it bans the activity nationwide, and federal betting authorizations are set to be extinguished entirely on October 25, 2026. Congress must vote the decree into law within roughly 120 days of publication or it lapses automatically.

Is bet365 still available in Brazil?

No. bet365 operated a licensed Brazilian sportsbook and casino, bet365.bet.br, under SPA/MF license 0021/2024 since February 2025. That changed with Medida Provisória 1.394 — bet365's license is one of roughly 188 the decree extinguishes nationwide, and this page found no report of any individual exemption.

What happens to my money if I had a balance on a licensed Brazilian betting site?

It isn't lost. Platforms had to let bettors withdraw until 11:59 p.m. on October 5, 2026, and the Ministério da Fazenda reported roughly R$1.325 billion still sitting across about 26.5 million accounts after that deadline passed. Operators were required to report remaining balances by CPF to the banks, with refunds processing October 9–14, and Caixa Econômica Federal authorized to step in from October 14 if a bank can't return the funds directly.

Can I still use Bovada or BetOnline.ag for sports betting in Brazil?

Bovada, no — it dropped Latin America as a market in 2018 and has run as a US-only brand since, with no Brazilian signup path regardless of this week's ban. BetOnline.ag never held Brazilian recognition either; it operates on a Panama Gaming Control Board license the SPA never accepted. Neither was a legal answer to this query before October 2026, and neither is a safer workaround now that the licensed market itself is shut down.

Is the Brazilian sports betting ban permanent?

Not settled yet. Industry associations filed two actions (ADIs 8024 and 8027) at the Supreme Federal Tribunal asking for the decree to be suspended, and as of this page's research, Justice Luiz Fux had not ruled. The federal government (AGU) is defending the measure in full. Separately, Congress has a constitutional deadline — roughly November 23, 2026, extendable once by an equal period — to convert the decree into permanent law; if it doesn't, the ban lapses on its own.