What Lessons Can the CPI of Bets Bring to Companies?

The Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI) on Sports Betting is drawing significant public attention in the country, particularly due to its summons of high-profile influencers with large followings, such as Virginia Fonseca, to testify. However, it is essential to look beyond the surface and conduct a deeper analysis, as behind yet another scandal, we must evaluate issues such as ethical and leadership failures.

Although the context revolves around betting, I believe the lessons emerging from this crisis—which may have severe consequences for those involved—are highly relevant to the corporate world. The way leaders—or their absence—contribute to environments permissive of ethical misconduct raises a warning for managers and companies across all sectors.

The CPI has clearly demonstrated how the lack of oversight of these platforms, especially concerning those who promote them, can lead to loss of control and generate damages. In companies, similar failures can result in fraud, corruption, misappropriation of resources, and illegal decisions made in the name of profit. These deviations almost always reflect management that either ignores ethical risks or fails to set a proper example.

It is worth emphasizing that leadership goes beyond making strategic decisions and involves serving as a behavioral model. In the Sports Betting CPI, we observed that the absence of responsible leadership created room for questionable practices. In the corporate world, leaders who do not closely monitor processes or even condone certain irregularities end up sowing the seeds of future crises.

Companies that have faced scandals often share a common trait: leadership that ignored warnings and/or encouraged improper practices. When the top is corrupt or negligent, the rest of the organization tends to follow suit. Moreover, an excessive focus on aggressive targets can create an environment where the ends justify the means. When ethics are not prioritized, employees may seek “shortcuts” to meet goals, even if it involves reprehensible practices.

Every leader should ask themselves: “Are we rewarding performance even when it comes at the expense of integrity?” The CPI is not merely a legal matter; it serves as a warning about what happens when there is a lack of integrity culture, leaders are inattentive to details, control structures are weak or nonexistent, and no one feels accountable for the whole.

The Sports Betting CPI reminds us that punishing misconduct is not enough—it is crucial to address its root causes, which often lie in negligent, complicit, or unprepared leadership. It is up to leaders to choose whether to play fairly or not. Ultimately, a company’s reputation is built through the daily choices of its leaders and destroyed when those choices neglect the most fundamental value of all: integrity.