January 17 – Several Belgian top flight clubs are exploiting loopholes in the country’s new gambling legislation to promote betting operators, prompting the Belgian gaming commission has opened an investigation.
The local legislator introduced a ban on gambling ads in sports except on the sleeves and backs of shirts. However, Club Brugge and Standard Liège are among the clubs with their own interpretation of the law.
Brugge have been playing with U-Experts, a Unibet brand, as their main shirt sponsor. Against Racing Genk in the Belgian cup, Brugge also played with Unibet on their shirt back, but the branding seemed to be in excess of the allowed 75cm2 space for sponsorship.
Standard has said it will play with ‘Circus Daily’ on the front of their shirt. U-Experts and Circus Daily are wafer-thin ‘news sites’ that lead to Unibet and Circus.
Antwerp will swap BetFirst with AntwerpFirst, the club’s foundation supported by the betting operator. Charleroi also use U-Experts and Cercle Brugge have ‘Golden Palace News’.
“The law is clear and states that the brand name of the gambling company may no longer be on the front of the shirt,” Bram Constandt, professor of sports management at Ghent University, told Insideworldfootball.
“The outgoing Minister of Justice also recently confirmed this in parliament. However, there are clubs that simply add the word ‘News’ or ‘Daily’ to the brand name. That is a clear violation of the law.”
The clubs and the Pro League claim they are not in breach of the legislation, but the Belgian Gaming Commission has opened an investigation into the practice, on a case-by-case basis. The commission can suspend betting licenses and impose fines. In the past, Belgian football stakeholders argued that the drop in revenue because of the ban would have dire financial consequences for the clubs.
“Gambling companies and certain football clubs are signalling that they don’t really care about the legislation,” said Constandt.
“They are supported by very limited enforcement for the time being. It seems that all means are good for some clubs to perpetuate their great dependence on the income of the gambling industry, even though scientific research increasingly shows that this sponsorship is an important driver of gambling damage – not least among vulnerable groups such as minors and gambling addicts in recovery.”
Club Brugge and Standard did not reply to a request for comment.
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