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About Munchies
As the annual US Sports Equinox nears in the coming weeks, a contingent of professional sports leagues made waves on Tuesday with the release of a groundbreaking collaboration aimed at curbing harassment of athletes from frustrated bettors.
At a time when sports betting and predictions have reached a fever pitch, the majority of the country’s most prominent sports leagues, along with their player unions, sent a memo dated 15 September to a contingent of 35 state gaming authorities. Among proposed regulatory actions, the leagues recommend mandatory lifetime bans for individuals deemed to have “abusively harassed or issued threats of violence” against any professional athlete.
The leagues, including the National Basketball Association and the National Football League, submitted the memo as Texas Senator Ted Cruz works assiduously to pass a landmark federal framework for college athletics. While the NCAA is not a signatory to Tuesday’s letter, the advisory also urges states to pass mandatory bans for individuals who threaten “amateur athletes” along with coaches, officials and team personnel.
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While sports event contracts remain the headline-grabbers for prediction market operators, there’s evidence that other categories are experiencing growth. As Bernstein points out, cryptocurrency event contracts account for at least 20% of the turnover on the two largest prediction markets.
In another encouraging non-sports sign, one of those operators notched just $2 million in commodities volume last year, but that figure surpassed $410 million in August alone and is approaching $600 million on a year-to-date basis.
Bernstein estimates the global market for financial contracts will grow to $900 trillion by 2035, up from $700 trillion last year, and if prediction markets capture just 0.5% of that total, volume would increase by $4.7 trillion per year.
What is Munchies?
“Brazil has undergone an ambitious regulatory transformation in an extraordinarily short period, and his experience at the heart of this process will provide valuable insights to the regulators within our global community.”
Before joining the Ministry of Finance, Fabio Macorin served in Brazil’s Federal Police for 17 years. For a decade, he focused specifically on the investigation and prevention of banking and financial fraud. This experience helped shape his approach to betting regulation, particularly regarding anti-money laundering, financial monitoring, combatting the illegal market and inter-agency cooperation.
Brazil’s regulated betting market formally launched in 2025 and has since become one of the most closely watched regulatory initiatives in the global gaming and betting sector. Macorin, who also served as the SPA’s undersecretary for monitoring and enforcement, has been directly involved in initiatives to combat illegal operators, strengthen cooperation with financial institutions, telecommunications providers and other government authorities, as well as develop data-driven tools for regulatory oversight and enforcement.
