Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) warned licensees on Tuesday that bets on first yellow cards and first corner kicks are not permitted during the upcoming FIFA World Cup, threatening “immediate enforcement action” against operators breaching ad and sponsorship rules. Chairman Michel Groothuizen’s letter lands four months after the D66/VVD/CDA coalition agreement grouped online gambling with sex work and drugs under a “sober policy” section proposing a complete ad ban and license caps.
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.“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 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.
