Dutch Gaming Authority Intensifies Supervision of Advertising Rules for Sports Sponsorship

The Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) will tighten its supervision of the ban on sports sponsorship that will come into effect on 1 July of this year this summer. The supervisor announced this in an information letter to Dutch providers of online gambling.

On 1 July 2023, the ban on non-targeted advertising for online gambling came into effect. This put an end to advertising in public places and in buildings accessible to the public. Because long-term contracts are often concluded for sports sponsorship, a transitional arrangement applied to this form of advertising until July 2025. This will expire this summer. Sponsorship of athletes, teams of athletes, but also, for example, of clubs, competitions, shirts and other (promotional) material will no longer be permitted from that moment on.

The KSA will be extra vigilant this summer for violations of the advertising ban and will take immediate enforcement action. In the run-up to the ban, the supervisor is also in talks with industry associations about the impact of the ban and any questions that may still be relevant to the industry.

Michel Groothuizen, chairman of the board of the Gaming Authority, 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.”