After the Chilean Supreme Court issued a ruling declaring illegal 23 iGaming platforms operating in the country, Chile’s National Association of Professional Football (ANFP) stated that they do not rule out “the immediate end” of the sponsorship agreement signed with the company Betsson.
According to the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, the ANFP stated that “the immediate end of the advertising agreement is not ruled out” and that this “is one of the most probable scenarios” in the current context.
It should be noted that on August 31, the Chilean Ministry of Justice decided to grant a period of 30 working days to the ANFP to “render ineffective” the contracts signed with online sports betting operators, which carry out an activity, as they stated, “outside the law”.
In response, the association led by Pablo Milad announced days later that it would file an appeal for protection before the Court of Appeals of Santiago against such a decision, in order to avoid having to deem the contracts signed, specifically with the Betsson brand, null and void.
In January of this year, the ANFP and Betsson entered into a three-year agreement for the sponsorship of the First Division soccer league in Chile, a tournament currently known as the Betsson Championship. The accepted offer was $2.5 million, with progressive amounts until the end of the contract.
Within this framework, and after the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court also ordered the blocking of 23 online betting sites, including Betsson, the ANFP points out that the link with the company “has clauses that allow terminating the contract for different reasons, one of them being the court ruling that declares them illegal.”
Regarding the money paid by Betsson so far, they explained that “the quarterly installments already received will not be reimbursed, since the advertising service was executed by having the name of the tournaments”.
Five clubs will terminate contracts
Chilean soccer clubs Unión La Calera, Everton de Viña del Mar, Ñublense, Audax Italiano, and Coquimbo Unido announced that, in the next few days, they will terminate their advertising contract with the Betway brand, which was signed in January 2022.
This decision was informed by company 1190, an intermediary between these sports institutions and the online operator, and responds to the ruling of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court regarding sports betting firms.
“There is no longer the intention to continue advertising Betway on the Coquimbo Unido jersey. As long as the issue is not regulated in Chile, they have asked us not to advertise them anymore until the end of the year”, said the president of the club, Pablo Morales, to the local radio station San Bartolomé.
