Government of Chile gives local football an ultimatum to break with bookmakers

The Chilean government gave the National Professional Football Association (ANFP) a period of 30 days to terminate the million-dollar contracts.outside the law” that keeps up with online bookmakers.

“In accordance with current legislation (…) we have considered that this activity is carried out outside the law“, said Jaime GajardoUndersecretary of Justice.

Starting this Friday, the ANFP You have 30 days to cancel the contracts.

“Failure to comply with this instruction authorizes the Ministry of Justice (…) to request the State Defense Council to dissolve or terminate the legal personality” of the ANFPGajardo warned.

After being notified of the instruction, the ANFP reported in a statement “that the aforementioned resolution is being duly analyzed by its legal team, to determine the different alternatives to what was resolved”.

The ANFP closed a contract with the online bookmaker earlier this year Betssonof Swedish origin based in Malta, after which the first and second division tournaments adopted the name of that company.

According to the newspaper La Tercera, thanks to this agreement, he receives US$2.5 million per year.

Most of the 16 Chilean soccer first division teams also have these foreign-based platforms as sponsors.

The Ministry of Justice asked the ANFP the list of clubs that have agreements with those betting houses, to likewise demand their termination.

In August 2022, the ministry began to investigate the contracts of the chilean soccer with online betting houses at the request of seven deputies, who alleged “possible legal infractions committed by the ANFP”.

In other countries in the region, such as Brazil and Mexico, first division soccer clubs have agreements with these online betting platforms.

Source: AFP