A breakthrough in Brazil’s sports betting impasse may be imminent, with one legal expert suggesting recent match-fixing incidents may have accelerated progress.

The Ministry of Justice is to send in a proposal to the government to regulate sports betting, potentially bringing a process that first began in December 2018 to a successful conclusion. Many had feared the path to regulated sports betting had been blocked by former president Jair Bolsonaro failing to ratify regulations late last year, meaning the government had failed to regulate within the four-year window set out by the 2018 legislation.

This is the latest twist in a more than four-year saga since the country’s legislature voted to legalise both land-based and online sports betting in 2018.