Spanish lawmakers ban betting sponsors on LaLiga club shirts

July 10 – Betting firms will no longer be allowed to appear as front-of-shirt sponsors or hold stadium naming rights in Spain from the start of next season.

The ban follows the approval of laws as part of Spain’s ‘Royal Decree on Advertising’ which currently allows a four-hour advertising window for betting companies only.

The laws, proposed by Spanish Minister of Consumer Affairs Alberto Garzón, still needs to be rubber stamped by the EU in Brussels but that is likely to be a formality. Garzón said they will be in place for the new season of LaLiga.

Spain has moved rapidly to pass the new laws and had already banned betting company promotion appearing on youth team kits. LaLiga’s second and third tiers have been hto by a succession of match-fixing scandals.

The advertising prohibition will hit LaLiga’s top tier hardest with eight teams featuring a gambling company as their main sponsor – Valencia, Alavés, Leganés, Granada, Mallorca, Sevilla, Osasuna and Levante.

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