Will Club Brugge once again choose a gambling company as its new main sponsor? 

It looks like Club Brugge will once again be teaming up with a gambling company as main sponsor. Rumors suggest it will be a multi-million deal with online gambling company Betsson, but we are still waiting for official confirmation. 

Betsson is already the main sponsor of Boca Juniors 

The Swedish Betsson AB is an online gambling company that specializes in all casino games as well as sports betting and scratch cards. They are already the main sponsor of the renowned club Boca Juniors from Argentina.

They have more than 20 online gaming brands under their wing, including BetFirst, Betsafe and NordicBet. And as it looks now, they will also become the new main sponsor of Club Brugge.

Club Brugge also has experience with gambling companies, because Unibet has been the main sponsor of Club Brugge since 2019. At the time, they paid 6 million euros for two seasons. But this new agreement could be a record and exceed that amount.

Advertising ban for gambling in sports sector to be tightened 

This deal is remarkable, because from January 1st, 2028 a general advertising ban will apply to gambling and the sports world. Until the end of 2027, smaller logos, i.e. limited shirt advertising, are still allowed, but they may not be placed on the front.

Due to these stricter rules, companies and sports clubs are sometimes creative with it. U-Experts, a sub-brand of Unibet, was therefore previously featured on the shirts of Club Brugge. This sub-brand did not have any problems, because anyone who googles it will end up in a news app that contains articles and videos.

And that is why it is still possible to work with gambling companies. It seems that the government will not take any new measures. Creative deals will therefore remain possible.

Lucrative deal in sight despite stricter legislation 

Bet365, also a very well-known name and one of the largest bookmakers in the world, is currently one of the sponsors of the Champions League. This is just one of many examples where gambling companies and the football sector continue to work together.

It is therefore not immediately a surprise that Betsson is targeting Club Brugge as one of the most successful football clubs in Belgium. And with some creativity, sub-brands can continue to sponsor the sports sector.

As a football fan, you may have noticed that BetFIRST, one of Betsson’s gaming brands, adorned the shirts of Antwerp. But this collaboration is now coming to an end.

Sub-brands are also making their debut at other football clubs 

There are other football clubs that have a betting company as a sponsor, but that display a sub-brand on their jerseys, which is allowed. This is the case with La Louvière, where Golden Palace is the main sponsor, but they advertise for Golden Palace News. This website focuses entirely on Belgian sports news.

At Charleroi we see a similar story where Napoleon Games is active as the main sponsor but where Napoleon Score comes into the picture, a website where you can watch live football results.

In these situations, it is always the same company that sponsors, but where a sub-brand is invariably active in another branch, which means that they are allowed to appear on the football shirts. This is completely in line with current regulations.

The Gaming Commission launched an investigation into shirt sponsorship last season

Despite the fact that the Gaming Commission did launch an investigation, they could only conclude that everything was going according to the rules.

Stefaan Savenberg, secretary of the Gaming Commission: 

“In 2023, an appeal was filed with the Council of State against the Royal Decree on Advertising, which describes the stricter gambling legislation. However, the Council of State has not yet ruled on that case and in anticipation of that, the Tournai court has prohibited the Gaming Commission from imposing sanctions as long as there is no explicit encouragement to gamble. In concrete terms, this means that at Club Brugge, there was no link in the U-Experts app with the text ‘Here you can bet money’ or a message ‘take a chance here’. So there was no proactive encouragement to gamble. We regularly checked whether that did not change, but that was not the case. These creative solutions are therefore not punishable. The same applied to Antwerp, which played with AntwerpFirst instead of BetFirst on the jersey”.

Betsson has experience with creative solutions 

BetFirst is one of their sub-brands and that is why they launched AntwerpFirst at Antwerp to stay in line. Club Brugge will probably have a similar scenario where a sub-brand will adorn the football shirt. But no official plans are on the table at the moment and Club Brugge is keeping their lips tightly sealed.

At the Pro League, the collection of Belgian sports clubs, they expect both clubs and sponsors to always adhere to the strict legal framework. However, they are planning to launch some awareness campaigns.

They believe that professional football is one of the most important partners of the Gaming Commission to deal with gambling responsibly. Next summer, together with BAGO (Belgian Association of Gaming Operators) and the RBFA (Royal Belgian Football Association), they are organising a roadshow at the football clubs on raising awareness of young players and ethics within the sport.

Pro League: 

“We work together with the government and the sector involved in raising awareness about responsible gaming to tackle problematic gambling behavior. The legislator has allowed a certain form of publicity just to ensure that when someone wants to gamble, that person ends up on a licensed site with age verification and other protections.”

In this way, it is also entirely justifiable for Club Brugge and/or any other football club to partner with a gambling company.