As well as betting on the outcome of a match, online bookmakers offer various other options. In the so-called secondary market, it is possible to place bets on events such as the number of yellow and red cards, shots, corners and penalty kicks.

According to Kajuru, Lula is considering issuing a decree banning this type of betting from 1 January next year. The senator believes that the measure is important to prevent manipulation in football matches.

- Banning bets on yellow cards, red cards, throw-ins, corner kicks, penalties and leaving bets exclusively on the outcome of football matches is the only thing that could curb this daily scandal of football manipulation - defended Kajuru, who chairs the CPI.

The rapporteur of the parliamentary commission of enquiry, Senator Romário (PL-RJ) emphasised that ‘it's much easier’ to manipulate an isolated event, which depends on just one athlete, than a match, which involves several players. He questioned the panellists on the subject.

For André Pereira Cardoso Gelfi, president of the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gambling (IBJR), including prohibitions in market regulations could open up space for illegal operators or cause Brazilian punters to start investing in other countries.

- When you prevent this modality from being available in the regulated market, the manipulator goes to the parallel market. In other words, the moment you switch off the specific modalities we're talking about here (card, corner), you're pushing this dynamic of manipulation into the informal sector.

Quick block

The National Secretary for Sports Betting and Sports Economic Development, Giovanni Rocco Neto, said that the government has published 17 ordinances establishing rules and conditions for authorising the commercial exploitation of lottery modalities and fixed odds betting. He highlighted an ordinance published on Tuesday by the Ministry of Sport (to which the secretariat is linked) that aims to curb the manipulation of results.

Ordinance 109 ‘regulates the measures to promote the integrity of sports results and the mechanisms for monitoring competitions, with a view to preventing and combating the manipulation of results in the context of sports betting’.

- It is the flagship of the fight against match-fixing, which is the secretariat's remit. To combat match-fixing, you have to be quick, you have to be agile. And you have to have a system where you receive the information with the alerts that is also efficient.

The secretary defended the need for faster action to block illegal websites:

- With regard to social networks, we are very concerned, especially about some lives that are taking place without any control, leading people down the path of scams. If you type in ‘Tigrinho ao vivo’ now, it's frightening; 90 per cent are sites that have no request for regulation, that have nothing - said the representative of the Ministry of Sport.

Other points that could be subject to change, according to the senators, are the possibility of creating a regulatory agency for the sector and the definition of stricter advertising rules. For Romário, a regulatory body could be a way forward in the fight against illegal websites.

Senate Agency