Facial biometrics is a user authentication technology in online environments to mitigate fraud and is one of the requirements of the "Betting Law" (Federal Law 14,790/23), a regulation that establishes rules for betting operators in the country. About 80% of Brazilian users of these platforms consider it essential to use the tool in the sector, and 73% would use it without problems if it were mandatory, mainly to withdraw funds (36%), log in (33%), make account changes (30%), among other reasons. The data is from a Serasa Experian survey, the first and largest data tech company in Brazil. See more data in the following graphs
The study also revealed that 68% of respondents have already used facial biometrics in other situations, indicating familiarity with the technology. Regulation is known by 49% of respondents, and since the start of communications about the betting houses' obligations, 65% of them have perceived an increase in safety within the segment.
“The more layers of authentication and fraud prevention are used to protect bettors and help companies in the sector identify and ban scammers, the better the betting environment will be in Brazil. The new betting regulations are already requiring security layers to be part of the user journey to authenticate them. On our side, we help companies with the evaluation of authentication layers, combining our big data system with analytical intelligence to get the most out of the solutions and, thus, further enhance them against fraud”, explains Rocha.
Although most survey participants recognize the relevance of facial biometrics for the betting sector, the study also explored the reasons behind those who reject the functionality. Among the criticisms, "making access to applications difficult" (27%) and "allowing the emergence of fraudulent platforms that do not use biometrics" (27%) were the main ones. On the other hand, those who approve of the technology highlighted that "it will be safer to bet" (36%) and "there will be fewer frauds in this market" (30%). See the breakdown of the reasons for liking or disliking the feature in the following chart
The survey is a segment of the study on bettors' perception of safety at betting houses, conducted with over 2,000 participants in August 2024. The complete material with all the data is available for free on the Serasa Experian website.
Valida Bets: Serasa Experian's bet for safer platforms
To support the efforts of the Brazilian government, which since December of last year has been taking measures to regulate the operation of "bets" in the country, Serasa Experian – which supports any initiative aimed at increasing security and integrity in transactions between companies and consumers – launched "Valida Bets," a strategic initiative that provides anti-fraud technologies to help betting companies comply with the new regulations while also contributing to the safety of bettors. In this way, datatech assumes a strategic role in this context as an ally in fraud prevention processes and protection of Brazilians' identities, ensuring support at all stages of the journey, which includes phases such as the bettor's registration, authentication, the betting moment, and the redemption of bonuses.
Methodology
The quantitative research "Sports Betting," conducted by Serasa Experian, was carried out with 2,008 respondents, all of whom placed sports bets on websites or apps in the last 12 months. With a margin of error of 2.2% and a 95% confidence interval, the survey was conducted via online panel between August 9 and 22, 2024. The sample was balanced between female and male genders, with ages of 18 to 27 years (15%), 28 to 43 years (49%), 44 to 59 years (29%), and 60+ (7%).
