-
Casinos for you
La Liga Soccer Clubs in a Predicament Over Gambling Shirt Sponsorships
By Jeff Osienya Jun 11, 2020 IndustryEight out of 20 teams in Spain’s La Liga, will have to rework their player jerseys for the remainder of the season to comply with the country’s anti-gambling State of Emergency regulations.On 31st March, when the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to hit Spain hard, the Spanish government declared urgent measures for social and economic preservation, under Article 37 of Royal Decree 11/2020. These new rules included the banning of gambling commercials within sports stadiums and on mass media such as Tv, radio, and even via the internet.
Nevertheless, mass media gaming advertisements were allowed a 4-hour window starting from 1:00 am to 5:00 am. But then again, gambling advertisements that were to be aired even in those wee hours of the morning were prohibited from mentioning bonuses, offering information about live odds, or including any calls to action in the ads.
Come May, Spain’s department of sports, the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF), and La Liga, the country’s top-tier pro soccer division agreed to resume the pro soccer season on Thursday 11th June after a Coronavirus suspension since 12th March. Considering the tough anti-gambling regulations, clubs in La Liga, are now faced with a dilemma because nearly half of them are sponsored by gambling companies.
Block Out Gambling Logos or Remove them Entirely
Of the twenty La Liga clubs, 8 of them are sponsored by gambling companies. The teams in question are Granada, Mallorca, Osasuna, Sevilla, and Valencia, sponsored by Winamax, Betfred, Kirolbet, Marathon Bet, and Bwin respectively, and Alavés, Leganés, and Levante UD all sponsored by Betway.
All the 8 clubs will now have to block out the logos of their gambling sponsors on their shirts or remove them completely to comply with the State of Emergency regulations. It is unlikely that the teams are considering replacing the gambling company logos with those of other sponsors especially since multi-million Euro deals are holding the sponsorships together.
On the bright side though, the State of Emergency rules will only be running until 21st June and the La Liga clubs can continue donning their sponsors’ logo proudly during their matches. Therefore, unless the State of Emergency laws are extended, the clubs only have to deal with the gambling logo dilemma for the first three games that each of the affected teams will be playing between 11th June and 21st June.
July La Liga Matches Could be Played with Fans in the Stadium
Following the 91-day hiatus, the soccer league will resume behind closed doors at least for the matches that will take place for the remainder of this month. Korea’s K-League and Germany’s Bundesliga also resumed with empty stadiums and the USA’s NBA and MLB which plan to make a comeback by early July will borrow a leaf from the same book.
Reports from sources close to Spain’s pro soccer league however indicate that depending on the Coronavirus situation after the La Liga matches resume, there are chances that stadiums could be opened at a third of their capacity by early July. It will be interesting to see how this will play out, given that the country is yet to completely recover from the pandemic, even though it has cautiously started the process of resuming to normalcy. Well, in restrospect, Sin City gaming properties started taking in gamblers at restricted capacities last Friday and all seems to be fine.
You might also like