The Dutch gambling authority, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has reported no issues with the enforcement of the freshly imposed sports sponsorship ban.
On the first day of July, sports clubs across the Netherlands found a completely revamped sector when it comes to its financial sustainability and structure.
A ban on gambling companies sponsoring teams meant that every single sports team had to find another source of financial backing. These included a number of Eredivisie football clubs that had similar front-of-shirt and sleeve sponsorships.
Both teams and gambling firms were made equally responsible to ensure that no gambling-related promotions will appear on sports apparel starting 1 July.
And everyone played their part accordingly, as per the KSA. Only a few “minor violations” were found by the supervisory authority in the first week of the ban’s enforcement..
These included the sale of fan merchandise on a sports club’s website that still had the logo of a gambling company. The parties in question were sent a warning letter by the KSA, to which they replied that they’ll fix the breaches within the same week.
The sponsorship ban is part of a wider reform of the Dutch Gambling Act. Back in 2023, the government officially prohibited untargeted advertisements for online gambling to better protect vulnerable groups.
As a result, no more ads could be seen in public and on buildings with public access. Sports adverts were also placed on the chopping block, but since these deals usually last for long periods of time, a transition period was given until this July. Individual athletes also can no longer be used as brand ambassadors.
It will be interesting to see if a similar situation to Belgium will develop. Authorities there also prohibited the advertising of gambling-branded content within sports, but with one important clarification – only companies that directly offer gambling are banned.
This led to an interesting case. For example, a team which had a deal with Entain PLC – a company that operates gambling services directly – transitioned to a new partnership with Entain Foundation, which is the operator’s philanthropic entity that acts as a charity.
