Following the English model: are betting providers out from advertisements with Werder Bremen?
In mid-April those responsible for the teams in the English Premier League decided to ban betting providers from being the main sponsors and from advertising on the front of shorts on the player kits. Bremen‘s Interior Senator, Ulrich Mäurer (SPD) took the decision to initiate a discussion on the general exclusion from advertisements on sports betting at Werder and for all football.
To anticipate this: at the moment no betting provider is emblazed on the top advertising place of the kits of Werder Bremen. In fact, there is no Bundesliga club which has a main sponsor from the games of chance sector.
However, sports betting providers and their promotions are especially widespread in the German top division: perimeter advertising, banners on background walls for interviews, spots in the advertisement breaks and even mentioned on special features during the media coverage (cue “tipico Countdown” on Sky). All these provide lots of space to convey the relevant services.
In the present season Werder Bremen is collaborating with a bookmaker, betway. The collaboration is not as a contract as a main sponsor but as top partner in the third highest category. This means that the betting provider’s logo appears on less prominent places, for example in the background of the interviews during home games, definitely in conjunction with the club. If it would depend only on Ulrich Mäurer, this would end very soon.
Besides, betway is also affected by the Premier League ban. The brand is still advertising on the kit front of the West Ham United players.
Mäurer encourages a complete ban on sports betting advertisements in German football
After Ulrich Mäurer took note of the ban in the Premier League, the 71-year-old reinforced his mission to ban sports batting advertisements. Since 2008 he has been internal senator in Bremen and for a long time, he has been calling for a ban of sports betting advertisements in football and in public in general.
Till now he has not had any success. The arguments which led to the changes in the Premier League however fuelled tension to this issue. According to the British authorities, the widely spread betting providers adverts are very dangerous when they feature prominent personalities. Possible dangers of these services are less noticed.
Speaking to the press about this, Maurer said: “Sports betting adverts and sponsoring are omnipresent and help awaken young people to these desires, which would not be the case without advertisements.” Besides this, he mentions that in Germany there are “around 1.3 million gambling addicted people and over three million players who are at stake.”
His motivation is clear and obviously unabated.
How did the advertising ban in the Premier League come about?
There are currently (still) eight of the twenty clubs in the Premier League which cooperate with a betting provider as the main sponsor. This is quite a high density -otherwise the advertising measures of the bookmakers are similar to those in Germany.
The fact that the recipients of the kit advertisements could combine the prominent personalities, i.e., the footballers directly with the promotions was especially a thorn in the eye for the British authorities. The statements imply that this is being played down.
Those responsible at the clubs were finally invited, i.e., invoked to vote on an advertising ban on front of shirts. They voted unanimously against the promotions; the teams involved must find another partner by the season 2026/27.
A betting provider was previously a main sponsor with bwin at Werder
There is currently no club in the Bundesliga, which has sports betting providers as front of shirt advertisements. However, things were completely different in the past.
Some years ago, Werder Bremen’s top tricot advertisement spot was occupied by a very well-known bookmaker: in the season 2006/07 the club partnered with bwin. However, this advertisement was only seen for a short time.
At that time the German regulations on sports betting and advertisements for these services were less consistent than today. Very soon there were problems with the region of Bremen. The responsible authorities put an end to all this, since the club had advertised for games of chance which were not licensed in the region. At that time bwin was providing its services in Germany with a European licence.
Thus, the contract with Werder which was originally valid till the season 2008/09, was cancelled in October 2006. However, the club and the bookie had originally agreed that the money would be paid even if the promotion was restricted by the authorities or by the court. Thus, bwin ended up paying more than 4.9 million each year without being allowed to make use of the agreed advertising spot.
Conclusion
Ulrich Maurer’s success chances do not seem to be very high. In the English Premier - surprisingly for many- there has been a ban. However over there the present regulations on games of chance are anyway on the rocks. It is expected that there will soon be a reform since many of the conditions are outdated.
The GlüStV 2021 brought about an update in the regulations in Germany and the requirements for advertising measures are unequivocal. betway has a German licence, works in conformity with the current regulations and thus the company may take up advertising or sponsoring contracts if it abides by this framework.
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