Sports sponsorship in the Netherlands: The Ksa corrects course

The Ksa is drastically strengthening its collaboration with sports federations and professional clubs to tackle persistent grey areas.

The Dutch gambling authority (Ksa) continues its work on advertising regulation. It has drastically strengthened its collaboration with sports federations and professional clubs to fight more efficiently against persistent grey areas, particularly during international matches. The regulator now imposes absolute vigilance regarding jerseys and advertising hoardings, tracking down the slightest appearance of illegal operators, from live broadcasts to video highlights.

The Ksa has officially notified all stakeholders in Dutch professional sports of a change regarding the monitoring of gambling advertisements. Since the entry into force of the ban on untargeted advertising, the regulator has noted that while license holders generally respect the framework, points of friction are multiplying during European clashes involving foreign teams.

Collaboration forced by the complexity of the field

The core of the battle now lies in prevention. The Ksa no longer settles for mere monitoring; it has sent formal letters to all sports federations to remind them of their criminal and ethical responsibilities.

The objective is twofold:

• to eradicate the promotion of illegal offerings,
• and to clarify ambiguous situations.

The regulator has indeed identified a specific pain point: many foreign clubs display sponsors on their jerseys that are legal in their home country but prohibited in the Netherlands. To avoid sanctions, the regulatory authority has set up a support channel to help sports organizations interpret these strict rules before kickoff.

The good pupils: Olympiacos and AZ Alkmaar

The impact of this enforcement policy is already bearing fruit, as evidenced by several recent matches cited as examples by the authority. Technical compliance has become a major issue for the legal departments of clubs.

• The case of Volleyball (Olympiacos Piraeus): During their trip to Apeldoorn to face Draisma Dynamo in the CEV Cup, the Greeks played by the rules by wearing jerseys free of any foreign gambling operator logo, strictly complying with local legislation.
• Ingenuity during AZ – Jagiellonia Białystok: This football match on December 18 perfectly illustrates the expected respect for the rules. The Polish club, usually sponsored by a gambling operator, modified its jersey. Instead of the usual sponsor, the logo of a live score site was displayed. The regulator validated this practice because the logo and name differed sufficiently from the gambling operator’s brand, and above all, the score site contained no outbound links or references to a betting offer.

Other clubs opted for maximum security by playing with blank jerseys or displaying only the logo of their charitable foundation.

The technological trap of international matches

Despite these efforts, the Ksa had to take action, sending warning letters following the Ajax – Internazionale and Go Ahead Eagles – Stuttgart fixtures. It was during the latter match that the technical complexity of the regulation proved most tricky.

During the Go Ahead Eagles match against Stuttgart, a banner promoting an unauthorized gambling operator was physically present in the stadium. It was tolerated by the Ksa on the condition that it would not be visible during the broadcast.

The broadcaster respected this condition and had correctly used virtual advertising technology to mask the illegal sponsor during the live broadcast on Dutch soil. However, during the broadcast of the match highlights, the raw footage was used, and the sponsor was visible.

This technical error was enough to trigger a reaction from the regulator. The Ksa reiterated that the ban applies to any dissemination of content, including short formats and replays.

Towards zero tolerance

The excuse of technical complexity or inadvertence during video editing will no longer be accepted by the Ksa. It demands constant vigilance, from the signing of sponsorship contracts to the final editing of match highlights.

The protection of Dutch consumers against illegal offerings takes precedence over international advertising contracts and the vagaries of television production.