Flávio Bolsonaro reportedly linked to betting brand Best Bet

Recent documents show that Brazil’s presidential candidate and senator Flávio Bolsonaro was an indirect parnter for a betting house Best Bet. The Federal Police of the Brazil started the investigations to examine whether Flávio acted with Tomaz in a scheme to hide the origin of funds through betting houses. The report was announced by the Folha de S.Paulo on October 19. The rapporteur of the case in the Supreme Court is Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The court didn’t filed any charges yet to the Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro reject all the reports mentioning that he and Tomaz only had been friends and didn’t work together. Flávio described the ban as “an aggression against legal certainty,” but he didn’t promise to reinstate the permits. According to Folha on October 22, he assured Flamengo’s president Luiz Eduardo Baptista that he would work towards solving the problem for clubs and bookmakers if elected. Lawyer Tomaz declined to comment, stating that he was not aware of these documents. The Brazilian lawyer recently mentioned in the recorded €886M in betting turnover, which was the largest in Brazil in 2025, according to CNN Brasil and G1. Along with this, Brazil’s Federal Court is investigating suspected money laundering involving Tomaz, his companies and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. What papers show In January 2023, Tomaz founded Cathedral Holdings in Madeira, which started operations with an initial funding of 50,000 euros. In February, Cathedral Holdings established Rede Loto, which operates as Best Bet, a license to operate the lottery under the supervision of Cathedral Holdings. The authorization for Best Bet was received in May 2023 when Loterj issued licenses for 13 companies. The license was signed by President of Loterj Hazenclever Cançado, who was appointed to this position by Flávio Bolsonaro. In the bidding process by Tomaz’s company, Loterj was presented with a proposal to allocate 20% of its income, whereas its rival company offered 26%. The rival company was disqualified because they only used two decimal points instead of the specified three. After winning the auction, Best Bet reached an agreement with the lottery and raised its proposal to 26.455%. Beginning July 2023, Best Bet started operating countrywide and not merely in Rio. Besides Cathedral, Tomaz also opened Alcazar Holdings with a Brazilian wing Alcazar Brasil. It was revealed by the magazine that Cathedral and Alcazar were owned by the same person and managed by Mateo Scudeler and are located in the same office in the Marina Club building in Funchal. The financial statements of Cathedral show that €984,000 receivable in 2025, against €7,800 the year before. , Alcazar’s debt rose from €8,100-€824,000 during the same time. Bolsonaro’s comments According to the Federal Police, Flávio had been granted operational access as a master user of the Alcazar Holdings bank account, an offshore company co-owned by Tomaz, up until May 2025, when the request for his removal was put forth. The Folha de S.Paulo has, on October 15, reported the findings of the investigation which revealed that Cathedral had made several bookings for flights in which the senator was involved at least three times in that year. These flights were said to take place on April 11 from Lisbon to the French city of Nice, while on May 23 there would be trips from Cascais to Nice and Paris, including relatives of the senator as well. The inquiry has also mentioned Cláudio Castro, governor of Rio de Janeiro from May 2021 until March 2026, and previously a federal deputy as well as Alexandre Ramagem. Police were also quoted regarding payments made to Torre Comunicação Estratégica, which they claim was owned by Ramagem. The company claims to have rendered its services to the law office of Tomaz during Ramagem’s campaign for the Rio mayor’s office in 2024. Bolsonaro denied all the reports by the police and said that he has no connection with the news. He never held an account with the lawyer and his companies. The case is still in the investigation period by the Federal Police and is represented in the Supreme Court.