Dutch regulator clamps down on football club's planned ad campaign
The Netherlands Gaming Authority hits out at plans for poster of club captain featuring front-of-shirt gambling sponsor to be displayed in public domain
The Netherlands Gaming Authority (KSA) has issued a warning to an unnamed Dutch football club over plans to place a “life-size image” of its captain in a public space.
The regulator said that due to the club holding a front-of-shirt sponsorship with a gambling firm, the advertisement would breach regulations on untargeted marketing.
The football club has since withdrawn the proposed advertising campaign following the regulator’s intervention.
The KSA said the campaign would have seen the untargeted promotion of the unnamed operator, therefore breaking the advertising regulations that have been in place since July 2023.
Those measures saw gambling advertising prohibited in public places, along with on TV, radio and in print media.
The KSA said it had informed the football club, the operator and the local government of where the club is based that progressing with the plan would constitute as a violation of the rules.
The regulator stressed that should the advertising campaign go ahead, it would impose a “preventative sanction”.
The KSA said: “Both the gambling provider and the football club were of the opinion that this involved sports sponsorship.
“The KSA has concluded that this case was not about sports sponsorship, but about untargeted advertising for online games of chance.”
The Dutch regulator added that the promotion of the betting company outside of its usual remit, ie during games played by the club, would go against the “neutral mention” framework of advertising.
The KSA continued: “This is, for example, the case with a football player who plays a match in a sponsored shirt. This was not the case in this [instance] and it therefore involved untargeted advertising for online games of chance.
“This would also possibly violate the ban on the use of role models because it involved a well-known athlete.”
A report from Dutch gambling news site CasinoNieuws has claimed the club in question, I Eredivisie outfit PEC Zwolle, who are sponsored by Circus.nl.
Elsewhere, the KSA has named former Dutch MP Michel Groothuizen as its new chair ahead of the departure of René Jansen in the summer.