Turkish and Spanish gambling ad restrictions force AS Roma and Inter Milan to remove operator logos from front of shirt in UEFA Champions matches.
Gambling ad restrictions forced AS Roma to remove the Eurobet.live logo as their front of shirt sponsor before the UEFA Champions League match against Fenerbahçe in Turkey.
The match was played at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbu. Under Turkish regulation, betting brands are banned from appearing on football kits – this includes operators which aren’t authorised in the country.
As a result, AS Roma replaced the Eurobet.live sponsor with a one-off ad for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). This turned the ad restriction into a fundraising opportunity for the programme, with shirts auctioned after the game, and the proceeds going to the WFP’s emergency response to the floods in Nepal.
Although this meant Eurobet.live missed out exposure for one of the biggest games of the year for AS Roma, reports suggested the club won’t lose sponsorship income or face a penalty.
Eurobet.live signed a sponsorship deal in March this year to be on the front of AS Roma shirts up until the end of the 2028/29 season. The deal, reportedly worth between €13m to €14m and close to €50m for the full term, had to be carefully structure due to Italy’s Decreto Dignità, which heavily restricts gambling advertising. Roma is therefore using the Eurobet.live sports-information brand rather than the bookmaker’s main Eurobet identity.
However, this workaround did not comply with Turkish gambling advertising rules.
Similarly, Inter Milan has done the same with its sponsor – Betsson – and is using the Betsson.sport label on front of shirts.
However, the Italian club also had to forgo the logo from its kit for its match against Real Madrid earlier in the week and will do the same against Feyenoord in November, as both Spanish and Dutch regulations prevent gambling companies from having their logo on front of shirts.
With more and more markets and football leagues opting for stricter rules around gambling advertising, this could be come a theme this season with teams having blank kits for some matches.
