The clubs opposed these measures, arguing that they harm the finances of the sport.
Belgium.- Football clubs have quickly found a way to circumvent the new restrictions imposed by the Belgian Gambling Commission (Kansspelcommissie) on betting sponsorships. Kansspelcommissie has launched an investigation, as several top-tier clubs appear to be exploiting legal loopholes to continue promoting betting brands in a less direct manner.
The new measures imposed by Kansspelcommissie this month prohibit sports clubs from directly displaying betting brand sponsors, as well as displaying their logos on the front of the shirts or in a size larger than 75 cm². The clubs opposed these measures, arguing that they would harm the finances of the sport. However, sports teams can still form partnerships with betting brands indirectly, for example, through broadcasting platforms, news and statistics websites, foundations, and support groups.
See also: How the increase in betting ads affects the Premier League
The clubs in Belgium's top football division, the Jupiler Pro League, have quickly found ways to exploit this situation. For example, Club Brugge and Charleroi can no longer display the Unibet logo on the front of their shirts, so they now display the logo of Unibet's sports news app, U-Expert, which in turn has links to the betting site.
Meanwhile, the shirts of Standard de Liege now display the logo of Circus Daily, a news site that promotes the Circus betting site; Cercle Brugge is promoting Golden Palace News, the news site of the Golden Palace Sports casino; and Antwerp is promoting AntwerpFirst, a foundation supported by BetFirst.
Clubs in the UK and the Netherlands will be watching as Kansspelcommissie conducts its investigation. In the Netherlands, the betting sponsorship ban will come into effect from July. Meanwhile, English Premier League clubs have agreed to a voluntary ban on betting sponsorships on the front of shirts starting from the 2026-27 season.
In the case of this last measure, the voluntary nature of the ban suggests that clubs will have few restrictions in finding ways to circumvent the limitation, which was self-imposed but somewhat reluctantly. Moreover, clubs will still be able to promote betting brands directly through logos on the sleeves and other places.
In the wake of the ban in some countries on advertising betting services, several clubs playing in the Champions League were forced to change sponsors and remove logos from their uniforms.
Aston Villa, Stuttgart, and Dinamo Zagreb removed the logos of their betting sponsors from their shirts.
Since Spanish legislation prohibits the advertising of betting operators, Stuttgart removed the Winamax logo during their match against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu,
