Gambling advertisements disappear, but football clubs find backdoor
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29 Jan 2025 •
Reading time: 2 minutes Almost every professional football club in the Netherlands has a sponsorship contract with a gambling company. But this summer, gambling advertisements must disappear from the sport.
In Belgium, the ban has been in effect since the beginning of this year. Yet gambling companies remain visible through clever tricks.
Club Brugge changes name of sponsor
Club Brugge is the richest club in Belgium. Six years ago, the club concluded a lucrative sponsorship deal with Unibet. Before the ban, the name of the gambling company was prominently displayed on the shirts.
Since January, this has changed to U-Experts. Anyone who looks up this name online will still end up at Unibet.
Belgian clubs change names
Club Brugge is not the only one using this strategy. Standard Luik added the word ‘Daily’ after Circus. Football club Dender changed Star Casino to Star Sport TV.
Cercle Brugge replaced Golden Palace Casino with Golden Palace News. This way, gambling companies remain present in football.
Professor of sports management: ‘Gambling companies continue to circumvent’
Professor of sports management Bram Constandt from Belgium sees that gambling companies are looking for creative ways to remain visible.
“They are trying to circumvent the ban and hope that this will work.”
Constandt is one of the experts in our country when it comes to gambling-related matters. His opinion is therefore often requested in countries around us.
Gaming Authority: ‘The Netherlands can follow’
The Dutch Gaming Authority is closely monitoring these developments in Belgium.
Chairman Michel Groothuizen of the Gaming Authority thinks that Dutch clubs can choose the same route.
“Yes, actually. Gambling companies are creative in finding ways to circumvent the ban.”
According to Groothuizen, it is not the fault of the companies.
“They want to make a profit. That’s like a wolf eating a lamb. It’s up to politics to stop this.”
Clubs are missing out on millions
A lot of money is at stake for Dutch clubs. Annually, this amounts to at least 40 million euros in sponsorship income.
Without gambling companies, clubs have to look for new sources of money.