Sports sponsorship in Italy is set for a major shake-up as the country’s Senate is prepared to revoke or modify the ban on gambling sponsors.

As it stands, a Dignity Decree passed into law in July 2018 carries a blanket ban on gambling sponsorships applied to all Italian sports. The decision has been contested ever since by Serie A and Serie B football clubs who claim the ban as unconstitutional.

Speaking about the news on the latest episode of iGaming Daily, Ted Menmuir, SBC’s Content Director, explained that it is estimated the ban has cost Italian football over €80m per season in direct costs.

“It’s hugely unpopular, I don’t think it carries any political favours with any parties and no one wants to uphold it,” he said. 

“The Senate will propose a new code for sponsorships where it wants to apply a 1% fee on betting gross revenues that will be used to modernise Italian football, its stadiums, its women’s leagues, grassroots facilities and upgrade youth systems. It’s very much kind of focused on progressing in developing Italian football as a whole.”

Tax audit rocks Romanian gambling

Elsewhere in the episode, Ted, alongside Viktor Kayed, Senior Journalist for SBC News, examined the latest news from Romania, where the country’s Court of Accounts (CCR) has reprimanded the National Office for Gambling (ONJN) for its failure to audit gambling licences and authorisation fees.

The CCR has uncovered potential tax liabilities of between 3.3bn and 4.3bn lei (€630m to €900m), stating that “ONJN did not access remote gambling operators’ servers to verify transaction data, despite having the credentials”. 

Reflecting on the implications of the alleged misdemeanors, Ted said: “There will be implications. I do think that this kind of justifies either a complete revision of the regulatory status of the [ONJN] or a restart of how Romanian gambling is governed by which department. 

“The Romanian government itself has upcoming decisions on how to regulate the sector, including land-based reforms that it wants to put in and also with regards to overall online licenses. I think that this will have consequences and ramifications for the industry, especially for a market that’s still relatively young [and] very competitive.”