This weekend, the consequences of the Supreme Court ruling declaring online betting houses illegal in Chile will begin to be seen
One of the companies that sponsored five clubs will completely withdraw its presence in the national territory.
The presence of betting houses as sponsors of Chilean soccer is under serious threat. If the order of the Department of Corporate Entities of the Ministry of Justice regarding the link between the ANFP and Betsson had already generated a massive alert, the ruling of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court declaring the illegality of these companies and forcing the blocking of electronic systems to make predictions ended up being a tough blow. Basically, because the industry had become one of the main economic supports of the activity.
The consequence was immediate. Betway, for example, announced to the five clubs with which it had signed commercial agreements that the links would end. Coquimbo Unido, Ñublense, Audax Italiano, Everton, and Unión La Calera had signed contracts with the company in exchange for advantageous monetary conditions. The Pirates, in the match that will be played at 8:30 pm this Friday, will be the first team to patch up the betting house. The decision surprised the ANFP, which was not aware of the drastic decision.
Patches
All the clubs related to Betway received a similar explanation. "Betway, through 1190, explained that they do not want to tarnish their image. They put an end to the relationship. They will return when everything is clarified from a legal point of view and the conditions for functioning are established," explains a high executive of one of the clubs that had signed agreements with the company.
In practice, the decision will result in the disappearance of the company's logo from the shirts and all the spaces it occupied in the respective sports venues, such as static advertising or the signs and backgrounds that are usually used in press conferences.
The way the action will be executed depends precisely on the margin that the clubs had to adapt their respective implementation. In some cases, like the Pirates', the attire will display patches to hide the logo. In others, like Everton's, it will not be present on a jersey alluding to breast cancer prevention, also through an emergency solution that will hide it. In La Calera, they resorted to a more ingenious formula: they inscribed the domain of the club's official website on the black patch that goes on the front of the jersey.
At Ñublense, on the other hand, they edited a new jersey, in which there is no trace of the relationship with the mentioned sponsor. At Audax Italiano, they will also use the patch formula and remove the static advertising.
The year is paid
Although symbolically the signal is clear, from a practical point of view, at least the clubs associated with Betway can breathe a little easier. The company has committed to all entities to respect the economic terms it had agreed to until the end of the year, so institutional budgets will not be affected.
"There will be no economic detriment," establishes, for further clarification, a director of one of the local clubs that will have to appeal to another strategy to find future financing until the operation of the industry with which they had been linked is regulated.