Premier League's Sponsor Ban: How the Dutch Got There First

The English Premier League’s front-of-shirt gambling-sponsor ban takes full effect at the end of the 2025-26 season. For viewers in the Netherlands watching matches on Ziggo Sport and KPN, the change is visible — but the regulatory point is that the Dutch market got here two years earlier and from a stricter starting position. This article compares the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) approach to gambling advertising with the UK’s incoming sponsor restrictions, and explains what the practical viewer experience looks like for a Dutch football audience. This is informational. We do not promote any operator, and we do not display any gambling creative. Online gambling in the Netherlands is restricted to adults, with elevated 24+ visibility rules for marketing.

The Premier League decision in plain terms

The Premier League’s 20 clubs voted in 2023 to remove front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship from the end of 2025-26. The deal pre-dates the UK’s wider Gambling Act review and was negotiated voluntarily, partly to head off statutory imposition. As reported by The League Paper, the ban covers the front-of-shirt position only — sleeves, training kit, hoardings, naming rights and digital perimeter boards continue under the existing UK Gambling Commission code and the Whistle-to-Whistle voluntary code (no gambling ads in the five minutes before and after live broadcasts up to 9pm).

In raw numbers, half of the Premier League’s 2024-25 shirt deals had a gambling operator on the front. The financial value at risk for clubs, per Sportcal estimates cited in the football press, was approximately GBP 60 million in aggregate annually across the league. That figure will be redistributed across non-gambling categories (energy drinks, technology platforms, e-commerce) over 2026-27.

What the Netherlands did, and when

The Netherlands moved more decisively, and earlier. Three dates matter:

1 October 2021 — Wet Kansspelen op Afstand (Koa Act) entered into force; KSA-licensed online gambling started operating
30 June 2022 — KSA issued first enforcement letter about “role models” in advertising; voluntary clean-up began
1 July 2023 — full ban on untargeted advertising (TV, radio, outdoor) for online gambling, plus a complete prohibition on athletes, celebrities and social-media figures appealing to under-25s in any gambling creative

The 2023 rules go further than the Premier League’s voluntary decision. Where the EPL banned the front-of-shirt position, the Dutch ban covers:

The athlete’s face, voice and likeness in any creative (regardless of position on the kit, hoarding, or broadcast)
Untargeted broadcast advertising between 6:00 and 21:00
Influencer marketing where the influencer has documented under-25 audience reach
Sponsorship of youth-team kits and competitions targeting under-24 viewers

The KSA’s practical effect: Dutch top-flight football (Eredivisie) shirts cannot carry gambling logos in a position visible during a televised match if the broadcast reaches a meaningful under-24 audience. In practice, all Eredivisie shirts have moved to non-gambling sponsors since 2023.

Comparative table

Restriction	UK (from end 2025-26)	Netherlands (since July 2023)
Front-of-shirt gambling logo	Banned	Banned (broader: face and likeness anywhere)
Sleeve / training-kit logo	Permitted under Gambling Act + CAP Code	Banned if visible during broadcast reaching under-24 audience
Athletes in gambling creative	Restricted (CAP Code: 25+)	Banned (under-25 reach)
Untargeted broadcast ads	Whistle-to-Whistle voluntary (5 min pre/post, up to 9pm)	Banned 6:00-21:00 by statute
Front-of-stadium / hoarding	Permitted	Permitted, with audience-reach check
Influencer marketing	CAP Code restrictions	Banned where under-25 audience documented

What Dutch viewers see on Ziggo and KPN

Premier League matches in the Netherlands broadcast via Ziggo Sport and KPN typically reach a sub-24 share within the bands the KSA cares about, particularly weekend afternoon kick-offs. Practical consequences for the Dutch viewer:

The on-shirt gambling logos visible in Premier League broadcasts up to end of 2025-26 — Stake.com (Everton), Fun88 (Tottenham, until 2023-24), W88 (various) — are foreign brands not licensed by the KSA. They are not promoting to a Dutch audience as a matter of statutory marketing definition, because the operator does not solicit Dutch deposits.
Hoarding-level gambling brands seen during broadcasts continue and will continue after the front-of-shirt ban. The KSA does not have jurisdiction over UK broadcast hoardings.
A Dutch broadcaster could refuse to carry a match feed that contains gambling creative in violation of Dutch rules, but in practice the KSA accepts the foreign-broadcast exemption.

The visual difference Dutch viewers will notice from August 2026 is straightforward: half the Premier League shirts swap their gambling logos for non-gambling brands. The Eredivisie has already finished that transition.

What it means for affiliate sites

KSA-licensed casino and sportsbook affiliate sites operating in the Netherlands cannot use Premier League footage, club logos, player names or kit imagery in promotional creative — irrespective of what the Premier League itself allows. This is a Dutch advertising-content rule, not a Premier League rights rule, and it applies because the KSA defines the marketing-channel boundary.

The practical effect on Dutch iGaming-affiliate content: informational sports-betting articles can reference fixtures, results and statistics; they cannot use kit photography, player-face imagery, or any creative pairing a sponsor logo with on-pitch action.

The 24+ marketing line, in the football context

The KSA’s “role models” rule is the cleanest application of the 24+ line. Premier League players are, by definition, public figures with under-25 audience reach. The rule pre-empts the marketing question entirely: even if a Dutch licensed operator wanted to use a top Premier League footballer in a creative for the Dutch market, the KSA forbids it.

The UK CAP Code arrived at the same conclusion via a different route — its 25+ threshold for athlete imagery, in force since 2022 — but stops at the creative-content line and does not extend to sponsorship presence on the kit itself. The Premier League decision closes that remaining gap on the front-of-shirt position.

Where the two systems diverge

The fundamental architectural difference is regulatory layering. The UK system stacks:

Statute (Gambling Act 2005, currently under review)
Regulator licence conditions (UKGC LCCP)
Voluntary industry codes (Whistle-to-Whistle, BGC Code of Conduct)
Sport-body decisions (Premier League front-of-shirt ban)

The Dutch system runs statute and regulator only:

Wet Kansspelen op Afstand (Koa Act, 2021)
KSA Beleidsregels (policy guidance, 2023 update)

The Dutch model concentrates regulatory authority at the KSA and uses targeted-marketing definitions to draw bright lines. The UK model distributes authority across statute, regulator and voluntary codes, allowing club-level commercial decisions to fill gaps.

“The Netherlands enacted what is arguably the strictest gambling-advertising regime in the European Union,” noted the European Gaming and Betting Association industry brief (2024 annual report).

What we are not saying

This article does not endorse or criticise either regulatory model, and does not recommend any operator or affiliate site. We describe the rules as they are and the practical viewer experience that follows from them. We do not display any gambling-operator creative, and we do not display any Premier League imagery in promotional context.

Sources

Responsible gambling

Online gambling in the Netherlands is restricted to adults; marketing communication targets 24+ only. Cruks, the national self-exclusion register, blocks all KSA-licensed operators on a single sign-up. If gambling has stopped feeling like entertainment, sign up at cruks.nl or call Loket Kansspel on 0900-2177.

This article is for informational purposes. 24+. Self-exclude at Cruks. Loket Kansspel — 0900-2177.