James Warren
A NEW royal decree on advertising comes into place today (Friday 30) that will potentially cause huge financial headaches throughout Spain’s sporting world.
Published in the Official State Bulletin (BOE), the new decree bans all gambling sponsorship in all official Spanish sporting competitions and prohibits partnerships with individual teams.
Currently, Spanish football relies heavily on gambling sponsorship, with 17 of the current 20 teams in the La Liga having deals with betting companies.
Teams such as Valencia, Alaves, Cadiz, Granada and Sevilla all show betting companies on their shirts as a main sponsor.
Under new guidelines, the display of gambling logos is now banned, as is the use of trade names for particular brands, similar to the ‘Mission Winnow / Philip Morris’ branding in Formula 1.
The La Liga organisation itself also has strong ties with Sportium, which acts as the official gambling platform for the league.
Teams such a Valencia CF, whose title sponsorship deal with BWIN is on the line, will have be scrambling to now fill the financial deficit left with the removal of betting sponsors.
BWIN has been involved in Valencian football since 2016, and just signed a three year deal with the club in July 2019 in a deal estimated to be worth €5 million per season plus other benefits.
Written in the decree, clubs will be allowed a transition period to organise alternative sponsorship deals but will not be permitted to run out their current deals.
The restrictions drawn up by the Ministry of Consumer of Affairs also target advertising on TV and other video media outlets.
Betting adverts are now limited to one hour per day between 1.00am and 5.00am and events sponsored by gambling companies will not be permitted before 8.00pm.
The move aims to put a stop to Spain’s ever growing youth gambling problem.
According to figures published by the Institute of Statistics, 40% of 18-25 year olds take part in gambling activities, a figure that shows a dramatic rise since 2016.
Alberto Garzon, Minister of Consumer Affairs, explained that average spending within this age group has also risen year on year by 13%.
The new decree on sports advertising will add to the current restrictions put into place in response to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Television advertising, promotional offers and winners’ bonuses were all scrapped to help combat the growing issue of gambling during the quarantine.
