Key Takeaways
- KSA letter bans first yellow card and first corner bets ahead of 2026 World Cup, threatens immediate enforcement.
- Dutch coalition agreement bundles online gambling with sex work and drugs under “sober policy” section.
- Coalition proposes complete gambling ad ban and license caps on top of existing sponsorship restrictions.
KSA Threatens Instant Sanctions on Operators Crossing Pre-Tournament Ad and Bet-Menu Lines
The Kansspelautoriteit has written to licensed operators ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, reiterating prohibitions on untargeted advertising, sports sponsorship, and specific bet types in a notice published Tuesday. KSA Chairman Michel Groothuizen’s letter identifies “wagers on which player will receive the first yellow card or the first corner kick” as expressly prohibited, and pledges direct enforcement action against breaches by domestic licensees. The KSA also flagged extra scrutiny on advertising by illegal operators during the tournament period.
“We saw at the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 European Championship that gambling increased. That makes it interesting for companies to attract new players during that period,” Groothuizen wrote, urging operators to “remain mindful of the protection of young adults and other vulnerable groups” and adding: “When we see that this is not happening, we will take immediate action.” The KSA issued a comparable pre-tournament warning ahead of Euro 2024.
The pre-tournament tightening lands within a broader Dutch policy environment that turned sharply against gambling earlier this year. The D66/VVD/CDA coalition agreement, published January 30, grouped online gambling under a section titled “Nuchter beleid: drugs, gokken, sekswerk,” which translates to “sober policy: drugs, gambling, sex work.” The agreement argued that online gambling and sex work are “legal in the Netherlands, but also susceptible to crime and human trafficking,” and committed to “strengthen the duty of care of online gambling providers, crack down harder on illegal gambling sites, and introduce a complete advertising ban on online gambling.” It said it is “exploring limiting the number of licenses for online gambling sites.”
The KSA’s pre-WC notice extends an enforcement push that already covers sports sponsorship (which were fully banned from July 2025 onward) and untargeted advertising restricted under 2023 reforms. The regulator separately filed more than 4,600 takedown reports against illegal gambling adverts on Meta platforms in April. A City University of Hong Kong and University of Bristol study found 11.2% of KSA-licensed operator ads on Meta still reached users under 24, with offline-licensed operators breaching the rule at roughly four times the rate of online-only counterparts.
The Dutch escalation is the second pre-tournament regulatory move by an EU jurisdiction this month, after Belgium’s BAGO flagged a near-doubling of online gambling participation since 2018 despite the bloc’s toughest advertising restrictions. This comes at a time when Entain has separately pressured Premier League clubs to drop unlicensed crypto-funded sponsors before the 2026/27 season, with group-stage matches scheduled to begin June 11 across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
