Ireland’s Department of Justice has said it wants to bring in the Gambling Regulation Act’s daytime advertising ban and its prohibition on inducements “as soon as is legally and operationally feasible”, but has declined to give a timeline for either measure.

The advertising provisions of the 2024 Act “have not been commenced as yet”, a department spokesperson told the Racing Post last week. “It is not possible at this juncture to provide a timeline for the commencement of the provisions in respect of advertising,” the spokesperson added.

What is still waiting

Two of the Act’s most contested measures remain on hold. The first is a watershed banning gambling advertising on television, radio and on-demand services between 5.30am and 9pm. The second is a ban on licensees offering inducements, such as free bets and bonuses, to a person or group of people, with the minister able to set conditions through regulations.

Both need a commencement order from the minister for justice, home affairs and migration, Jim O’Callaghan. The department said work on commencing the outstanding provisions is ongoing with the Office of the Attorney General and that the minister “is supportive of their commencement” at the earliest feasible point.

It also made clear that the advertising protections are tied to licensing. They are contingent on licences being issued by the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI), the spokesperson said, because the restrictions are framed as conditions on licensed operators.

Several other obligations are already live, including a potential prison sentence of up to eight years for allowing a child to gamble and a bar on unreasonably withholding a customer’s winnings.

Licensing still in progress

The GRAI began issuing remote betting and betting intermediary licences in July, but the licensing of all operators is not yet complete. The regulator has also faced budget constraints: it told the minister earlier this year that it had been allocated €13.35m for 2026, about half the €26m it requested, and it pushed back the start of online gaming licensing as a result. The government announced a €22.5m budget for the authority for 2027 in October.

The GRAI aims to become self-financing within three years through levies on licensees and a turnover-based social impact fund.

Racing’s concerns

The watershed has been the most fiercely debated element of the Act. Racing TV has said repeatedly that a 5.30am to 9pm ban would make its Irish coverage economically unviable, because betting sponsorship and advertising underpin its broadcasts of daytime race meetings. Broadcasters and sports bodies have lobbied for carve-outs, while public health campaigners have pressed for the measures to be commenced without further delay.

For operators, the inducements ban is likely to have the greater commercial impact, given how central sign-up offers and free bets are to customer acquisition in a market dominated by a handful of large bookmakers.

The Act also gives the GRAI powers to restrict gambling advertising on social media, including requiring that adverts be shown only to people who have opted in, and to bar sponsorship aimed at children. How quickly those measures follow will depend on the same licensing timetable.

Until the minister signs the commencement orders, operators licensed by the GRAI can continue to advertise during the day and run promotional offers under existing codes. The department’s statement suggests that is unlikely to change before the regulator has its licensing regime fully in place.

The president of Brazil’s Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region (TRF-3) has suspended an injunction that briefly allowed CDA Gaming to resume operating its Casa de Apostas, Betsul and Jogo Online brands, putting the company back under the nationwide betting ban imposed by Provisional Measure 1.394.

Judge Luís Antonio Johonsom di Salvo issued the ruling on Friday 6 November at the request of the Attorney General’s Office (AGU). It keeps the ban in force for CDA until the case reaches a final judgment or the court’s presidency decides otherwise.

A short-lived reprieve

Earlier in the week, appeals judge Adriana Pileggi of the TRF-3’s third panel had granted CDA Gaming interim relief, suspending for that company alone the early cancellation of its federal betting authorisation and the blocking of its domains. A first-instance federal civil court in São Paulo had previously refused the request.

Pileggi’s decision was unusually sharp in its criticism of the government. She described the provisional measure as a “genuine confiscation” that breached good faith and the principle of non-surprise. Invoking the public interest, she wrote, does not give the administration a “magic power” to suddenly change what it agreed with a contractor, according to a translation of the ruling reported by Brazilian outlet Mercado & Consumo.

CDA had argued that MP 1.394 abruptly cancelled a fixed-term paid licence without any provision to reimburse the roughly R$30m it says it invested. Casa de Apostas went back online after the ruling, iGaming Business reported, making it briefly the only previously licensed brand operating in Brazil.

Public interest prevails

Di Salvo took the opposite view. He held that the measure must be applied uniformly across all betting companies and that keeping the injunction would create regulatory instability incompatible with managing a national public policy. The public interest must prevail, he wrote, “especially when a risk of serious harm that is difficult to repair is demonstrated”, according to the ruling as reported by O Liberal.

He also extended to CDA the reasoning he applied in October, when he suspended a similar injunction won by Stake a day after it was granted.

All eyes on the STF

The ruling leaves individual operators with little room to win relief in the lower courts while the constitutionality of MP 1.394 is decided at the top. Four challenges to the measure are before the Supreme Federal Court (STF) under Justice Luiz Fux, who held a public hearing on the case last week and said during proceedings that betting should be banned.

President Lula’s government banned all fixed-odds betting and online casino activity by emergency decree at the end of September, extinguishing the authorisations granted under the regulated market that opened in January 2025. Provisional measures lapse unless Congress converts them into law within 120 days, which makes the legislative process a second front alongside the STF.

For the operators that paid for five-year authorisations under the 2023 betting law, the core legal question is whether the state can cancel a paid licence early without compensation. That argument, central to CDA’s case, is likely to resurface at the STF and in any damages claims that follow if the ban survives.

Other licensees are pursuing similar claims in Brazil’s federal courts, but the TRF-3 presidency has now twice signalled that it will side with the government on suspension requests. CDA Gaming has not commented publicly on the latest decision.

Sportradar grew third-quarter revenue by 24% to €362.5m, with its US business expanding 47% as prediction market operators became a material source of demand for its data and content.

The Swiss sports technology group said adjusted EBITDA rose 21% to €102m in the three months to 30 September, a margin of 28.2%. Profit for the period increased 20% to €27m, despite a €6m foreign exchange loss, €4m of higher financing costs linked to additional sports rights and severance payments from cost-efficiency measures.

“Sportradar delivered another strong quarter of double-digit growth, once again demonstrating the value of our role as a key technology and content partner to the global sports ecosystem,” chief executive Carsten Koerl said.

Prediction markets in the numbers

US revenue reached €98.0m, up from €66.6m a year earlier, and accounted for 27% of group revenue against 23% in the prior-year quarter. Sportradar attributed the growth to market expansion, including prediction market growth, and customer uptake of its premium content.

The company said it had expanded its partnership with Polymarket to more than 20 leagues and competitions, including the Bundesliga, Euroleague Basketball and the tennis Grand Slams, and signed new agreements with prediction market makers and brokers. It added that affiliate marketing spend by prediction market customers had contributed to growth in its marketing and media services.

Betting Technology and Solutions revenue rose 27% to €296.7m. Within that, betting and gaming content grew 37% to €242.0m, while managed betting services slipped 3% to €54.7m as lower trading margins from unfavourable sports results offset higher turnover.

The Sports Content, Technology and Services segment grew 11% to €65.8m, with integrity services up 16% and sports performance down 8%.

Over the first nine months of the year, group revenue rose 18% to €1,086.8m and Betting Technology and Solutions revenue increased 21% to €897.9m. During the quarter Sportradar also extended its data and audiovisual betting rights agreement with Euroleague Basketball through 2031.

Cash, buybacks and Atrium

Operating cash flow rose 37% to €157m and free cash flow increased 12% to €73m. Sportradar repurchased US$157m of shares in the quarter, completing its enhanced US$250m open-market programme. Cash stood at €190m at the end of September, down from €365m at the end of 2025, and the group has no debt outstanding.

Since the start of its buyback plan, Sportradar said it had bought back 34 million shares for US$519m as of 30 October, including US$408m in 2026, against a total authorisation of US$1bn.

The results include Atrium Sports, the coaching and scouting business of Synergy Sports, which Sportradar agreed to sell to Teamworks for US$170m in October. The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to customary conditions.

Outlook unchanged

Sportradar reiterated its 2026 guidance, which excludes Atrium. It expects constant currency revenue growth of 19% to 21%, equivalent to €1,518m to €1,533m at current exchange rates, and adjusted EBITDA growth of 24% to 27%, or €360m to €368m. It said the outlook would be updated if necessary once the Atrium sale closes.

The quarter puts numbers on a shift that has been visible across the sector for months. As exchanges such as Kalshi and Polymarket list a widening range of sports contracts, the official data and content they need has become a growth line for suppliers, at the same time as the large sportsbook operators are cutting their own outlooks to fund prediction market launches. Sportradar’s next test will be whether that demand holds as federal and state regulators continue to contest how far event contracts can go.