Several Dutch professional football clubs could face huge financial losses in 2025 as a result of a prohibition on gambling ads and sponsorships, which will take effect on July 1st.
According to the AD, 33 of the country’s 34 professional clubs employed gambling sponsorships over the last four years.
Bas Raemakers of Eredivisie CV, the organization that represents the interests of the Netherlands’ top clubs, stated that they have calculated that clubs will lose an average of 40 million euros ($41.1 million) in direct damage as a result of sponsorship cancellations and 30 million euros ($30.8 million) in indirect damage as a result of the loss of advertising from media partners.
Gambling sponsorships have been authorized since 2021, and Dutch professional football clubs frequently exploited them during the Coronavirus pandemic to stay afloat when football was halted, according to the NL Times. Roda JC was the only club that refused to accept gambling sponsorships, citing “moral grounds.”
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Three months after the market began, the Tweede Kamer, the lower chamber of the Dutch Parliament, voted to ban gambling sponsorships in football. It was determined that no new partnerships could be signed beginning in July 2023, and that all gambling sponsorships must be removed from football by July 2025.
The decision to prohibit gambling sponsorships was reached following a large increase in gambling in the Netherlands. According to the Netherlands’ gambling regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit, the average amount spent on gambling per month in 2023 nearly doubled from 2021. Almost 500,000 people bet each month, losing an average of €1,000 every six months.
Problem gambling is also increasing. Stichting Informatievoorziening Zorg (IVZ), the Healthcare Information Provision Foundation, stated that gambling addiction increased by more than 24% in 2023 compared to the previous year. Many believe that the opening of the gambling sector in 2021 will play a significant role in this.
“Everyone was warned that things would go wrong with the number of advertisements,” claimed one of the ban’s initiators, SP MP Michiel van Nispen. “This is only about making money. The warnings were simply ignored. I realize that you want to keep the money away from criminals. However, you must proceed with extreme caution. And it quickly got out of hand.”
Professional football teams in the Netherlands complained that gambling sponsorships were immediately outlawed without an alternative plan in place. “Immediately after it was announced that the online gambling market was legalized, we sat down with the entire sector to devise a plan to regulate this ourselves,” said Bas Raemakers of the Eredivisie CV.
Thomas Peeters, a football economist and researcher, stated that the restriction will primarily affect smaller clubs. “If you look at the distribution of wealth in the Netherlands, Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, and possibly AZ receive a significant portion of the TV rights. “That pie is divided less fairly than in other competitions,” he explained. “This will only lead to an increase in the financial dominance of the big three clubs.”
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