Dutch regulator takes action over further World Cup-related marketing breaches

The breaches, the KSA said, were in relation to activities based on the 2022 Fifa World Cup, which is currently taking place in Qatar, where the Dutch national men’s team has reached the quarter-final stage of the tournament.

Two operators were warned about adverts within a free-to-play World Cup prediction game. This form of marketing is not legal in the Netherlands due to the likelihood of minors playing these games. After being contacted by the regulator, both operators withdrew the ads.

The KSA also spoke to a number of operators about the use of role models in advertising or sponsorship. Dutch law states that the name or logo of a gambling business cannot be used in the same communication as the image, voice or name of a role model. 

Again, after being contacted by the KSA over the breach, both the operators withdrew the marketing.

The regulator also issued a warning to an operator advertising sports betting while a match was in progress. Providers are not permitted to promote or market their services while an event is taking place and after the KSA ruled the operator in question breached this rule, the advert was withdrawn.

In addition, KSA contacted a local café that was taking bets on matches involving the Dutch national team. The regulator said as the café did not hold a licence to offer bets so this activity was not legal, leading to the café halting any further betting.

KSA pre-World Cup warnings

In total, KSA has issued 14 warnings in recent weeks around the World Cup, including some that were issued in the build-up to the tournament starting last month.

The announcement comes as a new Dutch government report about KSA was published this week, concluding that the body’s capacity was “too limited” to properly tackle illegal online gambling, but stopped short of recommending it receive more resources to cover this area.