Belgian soccer clubs appear to evade new gambling sponsor rules

Elite soccer clubs in Belgium appear to be using loopholes to evade new restrictions that crack down on gambling sponsorship in sports.

In the small western European nation, the gambling commission, Kanspelcommissie (KSC), introduced stringent rules in January with various stipulations. 

One of those was to eradicate betting brands as primary sponsors on the front of soccer jerseys, but the clubs are finding ways to work around the new arrangements. 

There is supposed to be an outright ban on all gambling logos on the front of kits, with those positioned on the back and elsewhere not allowed to be larger than 75 cm². 

However, in the Juplier Pro League (the top-flight competition of Belgian soccer) and UEFA European competitions, the clubs are seemingly disregarding the new directive.

Club Brugge and Standard Liege are two of the biggest clubs in Belgium, both have gambling companies as primary sponsor partners.

Brugge has a deal with sportsbook Unibet, owned by the Kindred Group, but in recent games, they have displayed U-Expert branding on their kit.

U-Expert is a sports news app developed by Unibet and essentially, a gateway to its sports betting offering. Standard have been wearing jerseys adorned with the Circus Daily logo, a similar site that pushes traffic toward the Circus betting platform.

Other clubs such as Sporting Charleroi and Royal Antwerp, with betting companies as sponsor partners, have been using similar tactics to flout the ban.

Brugge even has the main Unibet logo across the shoulders of their jersey in a font that appears to be bigger than the permitted size.

As reported by SBC, the KSC has launched an investigation into these actions from the clubs.

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