Belgium sounds alarm over “omnipresent” football betting ads

Belgium’s gambling operators are likely facing further advertising restrictions following a government survey that found gambling promos were “omnipresent” in professional football.

On Friday, the Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC) released a voluminous report (viewable here, in Dutch) on gambling advertising during the 2019 playoffs of the Jupiler Pro League, the top tier of Belgian football.

Belgium imposed tough new restrictions on gambling advertising in June 2019 that included a ban on betting promos during live sports broadcasts. But the BGC now says that prohibition doesn’t go far enough, citing evidence that football fans were exposed to “large scale” gambling ads “in every medium that can be linked to the football events and the surrounding experience.”

The report notes that football fans are exposed to betting promos from the moment they purchase a match ticket, thanks to their teams’ sponsorship relationships with betting firms. The BGC further notes that the Kindred Group’s Unibet brand sponsors the Jupiler league as a whole, giving the brand a presence on each match ticket.