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A daily podcast delving into the biggest stories of the day throughout the sports betting and igaming sector.
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The Dutch Formula One Grand Prix has highlighted the regulatory sensitivities of gambling sponsorships displayed in sports. In the week before the Grand Prix, the Netherlands gambling authority, de Ganselspel Autoriteit, demanded that Stake.com be removed from the team it sponsors or risk participation. On today's episode, the insider sports team will take a look at the reasons behind this development and what it could mean for the wider gambling sponsorships. I'm Ted Memwe. Welcome to iGaming Daily, sponsored by OptiMove, the number one CRM marketing solution for the global gaming industry. Joining me today, we have Callum Williams and Ted Ornclay from the insider sports team. Guys, how you doing? Yeah, doing all right. Thanks, Ted. Not too bad. Going to miss the Premier League this weekend because I've actually been doing half decent in fantasy football this year and Forrest haven't, you know, got absolutely annihilated yet. So, you know. gonna miss that but there's plenty of time for both things to go downhill. And Callum? Yeah, unlike Forrest, city of doing just usual city things aren't there? So no, yeah, International Breaks are the greatest, I mean, it's probably not the greatest is it? Evil 5 betting and stuff like that is it? Especially with these Nation League games so yeah, it's just a week enough coming up so yeah, everything's not too bad. Okay, well... I want you guys to focus on today's subject, which is Formula One. And Callum, you've kind of led the reporting on this story. So give us an overview of kind of the disciplinary action taken on stake.com with regards to the Dutch Grand Prix. Yeah, sure. So the Dutch gaming authority, the KSA, they placed a ruling on stake a few weeks back. It was a few days before the Dutch Grand Prix, which has already happened, and that was a few weeks ago. So they basically just ruled that steak because it was unregistered within the Dutch gaming landscape that it was to have no branding at all during the Grand Prix which is quite a significant murder because it's called the Steak Kick F1 team or the Kick Steak F1 team Now this was pretty significant because obviously with the title sponsorship being a part of the Sauber Motorsports manufacturer And so it was prohibited under Netherlands gaming legislation that any betting or gaming company to offer games off chance without a license as well as advertise those same games or to promote them. So the KSA outlined that this means companies like Stake must apply measures such as geo-blocking for Dutch players to not be able to access its platform which the gambling authority revealed that it's still seeing participation of Dutch players on the platform so they've kind of, some of these unregistered. Game of Thrones have kind of gotten away around it to still access the Dutch market. But yeah, in terms of what that meant for Stake, we do have a quite a big F1 fan in the Manchester office, Jack. And he basically said that Stake still had some branding visibility at the Dutch Grand Prix. So there must have been some sort of agreement that the KSA and Formula One come together over. Yeah, I still think there was still branding there, but it's still interesting to see how betting companies will now look at advertising and sponsoring F1 teams in the future due to some of these market regulations. So Ted, let me bring this over to you. Let's take this on a surface level. Is this about licensing or stake not following the rules? Yeah, I mean, as Callum's already outlined quite well, it's chiefly to do with licensing. It isn't a license holder in the Netherlands. I think there was some things that the KSA said that obviously Stake had been doing quite well with the geo blocking and you know and not directly offering its paying service to Dutch customers but it seems like yeah according to the regulators some people have found a way around that and have still been using it. But yeah it's true they didn't want a gaming company that isn't officially licensed with them to have the massive visibility that this tournament, this Grand Prix. would give it obviously in the Dutch Grand Prix, it's got the country's title in there, it's got the country's name in its title, there's a lot of associations that could be drawn there. So yeah, so on the surface level it wasn't about the Netherlands advertising restrictions but I do think that it does kind of highlight how important it is for gaming companies to factor those in. The Netherlands, as you all know, you've reported on this extensively on SPC News Ted, has some very sort of strict rules coming into force since I think July last year and is going to be there getting stepped up next year from I remember around betting advertising. So I think that really sort of hammers home how important it is for operators who want to have these global multinational sort of cross-border sports partnerships, how important it is to make sure you factor these different... market and legal considerations in when embarking on those. But that's very interesting and kind of my initial reaction is, and I'm going to throw this back to Callum is, what do you think the consequences are for the gambling industry and its incumbents for seeking kind of these big level multi-country or multi-counter visibility sponsorship deals? I'll give you an example. We've now seen this with Bet365 and the Champions League. Betano, Betano as well. Do you think this has any consequences on the overall sector? Callum, Ted? No, that was a good question, Ted. I mean, you mentioned there Betano and Bet365. They've got really lucrative title-betting sponsorships with UEFA, with the Champions League for Bet365 and Betano with the UEFA Europa League and the Conference League as well. That's just, they are major visibility in brand enhancing deals that can just... bring forward those companies, those betting firms into a new light, into new markets, new visibility. But then there is the certain market parameters that may hinder some gaming companies if they're not registered within those markets. It is a market to market issue that gambling operators would and should be aware of. If we take for instance the football leagues in Spain and Italy, La Liga and Serie A, they have a pretty hard widespread ban on gambling sponsorships on shirts and advertisements. But operators have still found activation ways around this rule you can see off the field mainly with fan participation methods on digital social channels as well. They've been able to get their brand on some of those platforms. It's interesting because there's a blanket ban right in some football leagues but there is also feeds that go into some of these countries for instance like the Champions League were to be broadcasted in Italy. there wouldn't be that much Bet365 coverage, right? But then also where Bet365 will be heavily prominent is in the UK, obviously, because it's one of the biggest betting brands in the country. So I just think it comes with a market to market situation, just knowing what gambling and gaming companies, where they need to be, where they need to be registered in. And then it's then about good foregoing, about relevant sponsorships that can then take them. to the next level in terms of branding and marketing value. Okay. So look, if I could just bring it back, we live in a kind of, sports is now an interconnected world, it operates for globalised audiences. So what are the safeguards for sponsorship and sponsorships being promoted to global audiences? I mean, what should operators follow? I'd say, yeah, I don't mind taking this one, I guess. is really you just need to make sure that you're incredibly well informed. I think that's part of it and it's going to be a difficult job because obviously there's so many different major markets now that are all developing in a different way in terms of like regulations and especially with rules around marketing and advertising. So you know you just look at like the UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, these are all some really prominent markets in Europe all where... If we're just going to take, I know we're talking about F1, but we just say like football for example, or where football is incredibly popular, has a massive following and has a massive betting volume on it. But each one is kind of going down a slightly different route regarding sort of marketing and sponsorship within that space. Obviously something like F1 is, as we've said on here, is a global powerhouse, it's huge, it's huge across multiple markets. You've got these teams that compete in each different country. where each different country will have different standards around gambling. I mean, yeah, there's some, some of the countries F1 holds events in gambling is banned, isn't it? Or like, you know, is it very significantly limited? So I guess you've got a factor that in as well. Yeah. It's just, it's all about staying in, basically just keeping informed and making sure you know exactly what the standards are in each, in each nation that your, your brand might become visible in. Yeah. And I guess also just to make it back on. Ted's point there is just, I know F1's becoming one of the fastest growing sports over the recent years. I know the Netflix documentary kind of helped that as well. So there's no doubt that operators are going to look at F1 and think that's something we'd like to be a part of in terms of the growth trajectory of that sport. But no, I think it, like Ted said, it's just about knowing the market and knowing where to, yeah, basically to know where and where to land. It's a good comment Callum made there about the growth of F1 because it's quite noticeable that obviously lots of sports had a big slowdown and a big shutdown during the pandemic and suffered quite heavily financially because of that. F1 suffered massively but in recent years has turned around a really impressive rebound from that and part of that rebound has been Firstly by just hosting all these massive events and having a lot of engagement like what Kalm said with the Netflix documentary and other sort of fan engagement and docu-series style things. But the commercial partnerships have been huge in that and I think that was, I covered something recently on Inside of Spore about F1's sort of financial performance lately and they really heavily emphasised how big the commercial value is in that. So they're going to be keen to look at, potentially look at you know deals with betting companies have done that in the past. It's something they're going to want to keep on the table in the future. So I guess it's something that not only the operators need to consider, it's also sports organizations like F1 themselves need to look at that and think we want to get revenue out of this industry by working with it in a commercial sense and sponsorship sense, but we also need to make sure that this doesn't clash with certain regulations in place across the, I can't even remember how many countries it is that F1 has events in, but you know, like it's a huge amount. So it's a task for both stakeholders. So, kind of how is kind of F1 governance balancing gambling sponsorships and its visibility within these hyper events that they host, especially in insensitive or jurisdictions that are transitioning to regulations, you know, talk about Brazil, the US and its wagering states. Yeah. I think it would kind of just, it would kind of work in tandem with the gaming and gambling authorities of that relevant market and The US market I think I know the you I know they've F1 Grand Prix the F1 Grand Prix calendar I was about four US races there now yearly. I think there's one in Vegas, Miami Austin and another one So if you want to look at Ben operator there that is kind of almost like a gold mine now because of how big US bedding and sport online bettons taken off so that would But then again, it would also work with some of the state gambling regulators as well. You know, there's not a big, there's not a chance for a gambling operator to sponsor in California, for instance, because it's not legalized yet, I believe. So no, I think it would take the F1 governing some regulators to then come and work with the market regulators and then just come to some sort of agreement, which I think they did kind of, must have come to an agreement. during the Dutch GP because I mean, I'm not the biggest, you know, F1 fan, I don't watch it weekly, but no, like our colleague Jack said that there was still some stake branding visibility there. So they must have come to some sort of some form of agreement in terms of the branding and advertisement, right? And Ted, is there any fear of by licensed operators that there is kind of encroachment of sponsorships? So if you take state.com, they might not be licensed in Holland. But isn't that encroaching on the terms of play of the market, that you can have an unlicensed brand being sponsored at such a high level event? Yeah, I mean that is a concern. It's clearly a concern that the KSA has. And the KSA in particular, I think we've noticed, has been enforcing licensing conditions has been quite a big priority for them over the past couple of years, particularly around marketing and advertising, because there's been a lot of public concerns in the Netherlands about... how betting's visibility in public life, particularly in sporting life and in on the media, has really exploded since the market was re-regulated in 2021. Regarding whether there's a concern from operators, I've not really seen anything around this one, but obviously there will be a lot of concern across, in terms of both the Netherlands and other markets among operators, about how they can achieve their marketing goals, which obviously as a betting company... you're always going to focus heavily on sport because that's what betting is all about. You know, they can't just move straight back and focus on like politics betting or who's going to win strictly or something. You know, sport is always going to be front and centre and a lot of different markets, that relationship is coming under a lot of pressure. Like we talked about, if we're just going to talk about the Netherlands next year, I believe sponsorship is going to be completely phased out there. I believe same as in Belgium, I think they're both put it both Netherlands and Belgium are putting in. very similar regulations, both actually from 1st of July last year. So there's that for them to consider. You've then got the whole situation in Italy that we talked about earlier and the big one which I know we've talked to death on inside of sport and on our game in daily a lot lately is obviously the one in the UK and what we've got going on with the Premier League and the Code of Conduct. Although it does seem that with that operators are finding that happy middle ground. between themselves, the clubs and regulators, I'd like to think, with this code of conduct and everything. So yeah, the concerns are there, I'd say, but it seems that people are working with it. Okay. So talking about this happy mediums and middle crowds. Now, going back to reviews and what we're witnessing in the industry, there's a lot of emphasis on conduct and developing new codes. Are we heading toward a landscape where every professional sports has to have its own code of conduct for sponsorships? Is that wanted? Is that a priority? And how do you kind of see or envision the future of gambling sponsorships from a conduct perspective? Well, yeah, I'd say it's certainly, if it was just going to... I can't really speak. too much for the Netherlands exemplary, I know that's still sort of getting developed to some extent, but in the UK, 100%, I think the code of conduct thing is, it's a regulatory requirement now, isn't it, under the white paper. We've seen all the football leagues, the rugby league, the rugby football union, and some of the other biggest sports governing bodies in the UK have all worked. that's seemingly very proactively with the bettering gaming council and with CMS in creating these codes of conduct. I think the way it's going to roll forward and we've already been seeing this a lot lately even before the regulations come in is that responsible gaming is going to have to be put at the forefront of various advertising things, various advertising campaigns. We've already seen that a lot with adverts. You see just as many adverts now basically where a company talks about. here's the tools we've got to help you stay in control almost as much if not more than talking about you know here's what betting markets we have going on over the weekend, here's our great our bet builder is or whatever. So I think that's really going to be front and centre and we're seeing that in the US as well where not even you know the markets only been going for like a tiny fraction of the amount of time that the UK market has been going on for. We're seeing the various campaigns focus very heavily on putting money into responsible gaming initiatives and have been very public about that. So I think that's going to be what defines the future of how these sort of commercial relationships go about. So Karen, close us out. How do you see the story developing and what should stakeholders look for? Yeah, it's an interesting one because like Ted said, there is going to be a phasing out of gambling sponsorships within the Dutch market over the next year. So I'm presuming that... The F1 and the KSA have come to some sort of agreement, but in about a year's time, what does that mean for Stake? Their deal with the Salvo Motorsports team comes to an end in 2026, so there's another two race calendars that this team will still be called Stake F1 team. So it's going to be really interesting to see how that transpires and if Stake may have to drop the title sponsorship. But yeah, in terms of the UK market as well, I know we've talked about Dutch. I think also with the code of conduct it's really important to note that there's a lot of players recently that have been caught with betting charges. Ivan Toney and Sandro Tornale, he's just came back hasn't he from suspension. So I think there's a hyper focus now also on the player conduct as well and how they're safeguarding the players and the youth players as well. I think each Premier League club has their own kind of code of conduct and when it comes to gambling as well they've mentioned a bit of gambling in there as well. And yeah, it's also to safeguard not just the better consumer, but also the players within the sports as well. Okay. Well, guys, it's been great to speak at All Things Formula One and gambling to our audiences. Thank you for tuning in. I'm Ted Memwear signing out. Please check in on Insider Sports for all the latest news on sponsorship developments. Thanks.