KSA chair vows to be “vigilant” over incoming sports sponsorship ban
New regulations come into effect on 1 July 2025, as Michel Groothuizen insists regulator will be putting operators under the microscope to ensure breaches don’t occur
KSA chair Michel Groothuizen has told licensed operators that the regulator will tighten its supervision around gambling ad breaches ahead of July’s changes to the existing regulations.
The incoming ban comes into effect on 1 July 2025 and will see operators prevented from sponsoring athletes, teams and sporting attire, as well as competitions.
The restriction will come into play two years after the initial non-targeted advertising ban across TV, radio and in public spaces.
As it stands, operators are also banned from targeting players aged 24 and below and using ‘role models’, such as athletes, celebrities and social media influencers, as part of marketing campaigns.
In a statement to online gambling operators ahead of the upcoming restrictions, Groothuizen asserted the regulator will be “vigilant” about protecting young adults and “vulnerable groups” from firms attempting to bend the regulations.
He said: “In other countries with a similar ban, we see that gambling providers try to circumvent the ban in creative ways.
“As far as I’m concerned, that is not the case in the Netherlands. This law was drawn up to protect young adults and other vulnerable groups.
“You do that by preventing them from being exposed to gambling advertising, regardless of who the advertising comes from. We at KSA will be very vigilant about that.”
While the chair did not expand on his “creative ways” remark, many operators in markets with sponsorship bans have shifted branding on clubs’ shirts to news portals or live score sites associated with brands. In Italy, for example, Betsson sponsors Inter Milan, but the branding on the team’s shirts is Betsson.sport – the operator’s infotainment portal.
At the time of writing, four teams in the top division of Dutch football count gambling companies as their front-of-shirt sponsor: Fortuna Sittard (Entain-owned BetCity), Almere City (OneCasino), Go Ahead Eagles (Betnation) and PEC Zwolle (Circus).
Almere will be relegated from the Eredivisie after coming bottom of the table.
Groothuizen’s comments come after the minister for legal protection Teun Struycken, who oversees gambling in the Netherlands, refused to rule out tighter restrictions amid concerns around teams finding loopholes.
But speaking to EGR earlier this year, Groothuizen said the KSA does not back the implementation of a full-scale advertising ban in the market.