Regulator warns Belgian football clubs for flouting gambling sponsorship ban
The clubs are accused of flouting the ban on gambling sponsorship.
Belgium.- The Belgian gambling regulator Kansspelcommissie has ordered sports clubs to respect the country’s new ban on gambling sponsorship. It has issued specific warnings to the Pro League’s Club Brugge KV and RSC Anderlecht, Belgium’s biggest football clubs, for alleged breaches of the ban.
The regulator said it had placed the clubs “under scrutiny” and may impose heavy fines if it decides they deliberately undermined the new rules by enlarging the logos of gambling sponsors. Club Brugge is sponsored by Unitbet and Anderlecht by Napoleon Sports.
Both deny the accusation and say they have complied with the wording of the ban, which came into effect on January 1. The rules state that gambling logos must not be displayed on the front of shirts but can still appear on the back of shirts if they are not larger than 75 cm². However, it appears that the clubs attempted to define logo size by measuring each individual letters, ignoring any blank space in the design. The regulator says that was clearly not the intention of the law.
Communications director Marjolein De Paepe said: “For the size calculation, only the total space occupied by the sponsor’s name will be taken into account, not the surface area of each individual character. The clubs concerned have been informed and are required to strictly adhere to this rule. In case of further violations, the Gambling Commission may impose administrative sanctions on license holders by issuing a warning, temporarily suspending or permanently revoking their licence.”
The new warning comes after the regulator said it was investigating the use of loopholes in the ban on gambling sponsorship. Several major sports clubs are now promoting gambling sponsors indirectly by displaying the logos of foundations or operator-backed news portals instead of the betting brands themselves.
Meanwhile, a similar ban on gambling sponsorship will be imposed in the Netherlands from July 1. Michel Groothuizen, chairman of Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has been watching the results of Belgium’s ban and has warned that the Dutch regulator will not tolerate the use of creative loopholes.
