Our weekly column Inside Denmark takes a look at some of the stories we’ve been talking about in the last seven days. This week, long-awaited restrictions on gambling ads during live sport have been agreed to a mixed response.
If you’ve ever watched a football match on Danish television, you’ll have found it impossible to miss the near constant barrage of betting ads, particularly during any break in play but also during the action itself.
That is likely to be toned down significantly in the coming years after a long-sought after political deal to restrict betting advertising was announced this week.
A majority in parliament agreed on new measures which the government says are designed to reduce gambling addiction and protect children and young people from exposure to betting.
The agreement which was announced on Friday, targets betting ads that encourage viewers to gamble while watching sports on television.
The deal follows several years of efforts to reach political agreement on the issue.
It includes a “whistle-to-whistle” ban on gambling ads during televised sports which was first floated by former taxation minister Rasmus Stoklund, meaning a ban on gambling advertising from ten minutes before a sporting event begins until ten minutes after it ends.
The agreement will also ban “live odds” banners inside stadiums and forbid people under the age of 25 and professional or former athletes from appearing in betting ads.
Gambling ads on public transport and within a certain distance from schools or colleges will also be prevented by the agreement.
It meanwhile includes funding for treatment for people with gambling addictions.
That is a “significant and important step towards pushing back against gambling and against the massive pressure young people face to get them to start gambling,” Tax Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said at a briefing.
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“We need to be able to watch a football match without being bombarded with adverts,” the minister said.
The deal has very strong political backing with only one party, the libertarian Liberal Alliance, not part of the agreement to vote it through parliament.
The measures will begin to take effect from 2027, and come at a time when increasing numbers of young men in Denmark are gambling.
Men aged 18 to 24 transferred an average of around 396 kroner per month to betting and gambling companies in 2020, according to customer data from Danske Bank. By 2025, the same age group was spending an average of 881 kroner per month on gambling.
The new measures do not represent a blanket ban on betting ads, however, and could therefore have gone further according to the head of the gambling addiction clinic at Odense University Hospital, Jakob Linnet.
“If it were up to me, I’d support a total ban on gambling adverts, just as we have for alcohol and tobacco,” Linnet told news wire Ritzau.
Linnet said it is difficult to establish a direct link between advertising and an increase in gambling addiction.
“But advertising can help sustain or worsen gambling addiction,” he said.
“And just because it can’t be proven that the adverts cause harm doesn’t mean they’re harmless,” he added.
Broadcaster TV2 meanwhile said it could lose advertising revenue, and Brøndby IF, one of Denmark’s biggest clubs which is sponsored by gambling companies and is located close to educational institutions, will face a decision on how to comply with the new law.
“It’s no secret that the regulation will have significant financial consequences,” TV 2’s commercial director Stig Møller Christensen said in a written comment to Ritzau.
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Christensen noted that TV2 had previously introduced a limit on gambling ads on its stations.
He also called for advertising deregulation in other sectors, which he said could help recover lost revenues from gambling advertisers.
Brøndby IF did not comment on the matter when asked by Ritzau on Friday and the director of the Danish professional league system including the top division, Superliga, was also hesitant.
“I don’t really have any comments on [the government announcement], as there’s nothing systematic to say,” Claus Thomsen, director of the Divisionsforeningen, said.
Both Brøndby and league champions FC Copenhagen are among clubs that have betting companies as their shirt sponsors.
“You can’t make any systematic statements about what will happen to clubs that have agreements with gambling operators licensed in Denmark,” Thomsen said.
The league director also said he does not think the clubs’ TV deal will be affected by the gambling agreement.
“The TV deal has nothing to do with advertising,” he said.
“As we have always said, we respect the rules and laws governing gambling in Denmark. We have also consistently expressed our willingness to help ensure that gambling takes place responsibly in Denmark,” Thomsen also said.