Spain: draft royal decree presented to the European Commission to limit sports betting advertising

The Spanish Ministry of Consumer Affairs has presented the European Commission with a draft Royal Decree on commercial communications relating to gambling, according to the Spanish daily El País on 09/07/2020.

This new text has been strengthened compared to the one discussed in February 2020: sports betting operators would no longer be allowed to appear on club kits, as well as in the names of stadiums, training centres or teams. The text limits advertising for bookmakers on TV, radio, YouTube and other streaming platforms to the 01:00-05:00 CET time slot. Therefore, the exception introduced in the original document to allow advertising during the broadcasting of matches from 20:00 in the evening has been removed.

If validated by the European Commission and the Spanish Council of State, this regulation, according to El País, could come into force as early as the summer of 2020, before the beginning of the 2020-21 season of the Spanish championship.

This project therefore considerably reduces the visibility of the betting operators and therefore calls into question their involvement…