France has relaunched its ‘Behind the Label’ campaign for the upcoming French Open at Roland Garros, to warn tennis fans about the risk of sports betting. Meanwhile, the Netherlands is preparing to roll out a sweeping ban on gambling sponsorships.
Launched by l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux, the French initiative aims to raise awareness about the risks associated with sports betting, with messaging tailored specifically to resonate with tennis fans.
The campaign, which will run from May 25 -June 8, takes the small print usually found on gambling ads and turns it into personal stories. By sharing real experiences of people harmed by gambling and making these messages more visible, the ANJ aims to make the risks easier to understand and harder to overlook.
According to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), an estimated 1.17 million people in France were problem gamblers in 2024, including 360,000 classified as excessive gamblers. Sports betting was identified as the highest-risk activity, with the rate of excessive gambling reaching 5.9%, six times higher than that of lottery games.
This isn’t the first time the campaign has appeared on French TV. “Behind the Label” was first launched in June 2024, kicking off what turned out to be one of France’s busiest summers of sport, with both the UEFA Euro Championships and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The campaign is part of a stricter regulatory framework for gambling advertisements. Since early 2024, all licensed online gambling operators in France have been required to submit their marketing strategies to the ANJ every six months.
A tougher stance in the Netherlands
The Netherlands, however, is taking its advertising restrictions a step further. Last week, the Dutch gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), reminded sports clubs to prepare for the upcoming gambling sponsorship ban this summer.
Set to take effect in July, the ban will not only affect sports clubs but also individual athletes, entire competitions, shirt sponsorships and all other promotional partnerships.
Michel Groothuizen, Board Chairman of the KSA, said: “In other countries with a similar ban, we see that gambling providers are trying to circumvent the ban in creative ways.
“As far as I am concerned, that is not an issue in the Netherlands. This law is drafted to protect young adults and other vulnerable groups.
“You do this by preventing them from being exposed to gambling advertising, regardless of who that advertising comes from. As the KSA, we are going to be very keen on that.”
Groothuizen is likely referring to Belgium in these comments, where the ban is being implemented in phases. However, the new rules have already sparked some creative responses.
Under Belgium’s measures, sports clubs can only partner with entities which do not directly operate games of chance but may still feature gambling brands indirectly. Examples include foundations, supporter groups, apps, football information websites and online broadcast platforms.
Despite these restrictions, some clubs have found clever ways to navigate the rules. Club Brugge, for example, has a sponsorship deal with sportsbook Unibet. To comply with the new regulations, the club replaced Unibet branding with “U-Expert” on the front of its shirts.
U-Expert is a sports news app owned by Unibet, which contains links to the betting platform. Other clubs have adopted similar sponsorship strategies, as reported by Insider Sport in January.
Could English football face a similar situation?
While Groothuizen isn’t worried about gambling companies trying to bypass restrictions, the English Premier League may want to take note. Starting from the end of the 2025/26 season, Premier League clubs will be banned from having gambling-related front-of-shirt sponsorships.
However, clubs will still be allowed to feature betting sponsors on training kits, sleeves, and shorts.
Since gambling sponsorships have traditionally brought in high-value deals, clubs might be tempted to find creative ways to keep benefiting from these agreements.
