The KSA and professional football club Roda JC Kerkrade have announced a new phase in their cooperation to understand youth views of sports betting.
The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) and professional football club Roda JC Kerkrade have announced a new phase in their cooperation to understand youth views of sports betting.
The regulator and football team are together launching an in-depth study into the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours of young adults toward sports betting in the Parkstad region.
The study will run through November and December, with findings expected in early 2026.
The results will serve as the foundation for educational and communication programmes aimed at raising awareness of sports betting risks and reducing its normalisation among young people.
The research will examine the extent of sports betting participation among young adults, the frequency and amounts wagered, and how social factors such as peer influence and media exposure affect their views and habits.
Roda JC is currently the only professional football club in the Netherlands that has chosen not to enter into sponsorship agreements with sports betting companies.
The club has stated that such partnerships conflict with its social values and its mission to provide ongoing value to the local community.
Its cooperation with the KSA underscores a shared interest in addressing the increasing visibility of betting in sports and the potential consequences for younger audiences.
Betting has become a ubiquitous part of sports culture in the Netherlands, with brands appearing in stadiums, on television broadcasts, and across social media platforms.
According to the KSA, the risks associated with gambling, including financial losses, peer pressure, and potential problem gambling, remain under-acknowledged among young adults.
Study to help guide new RG reforms
The authority said the forthcoming study would provide data-driven insight into these issues and guide the development of prevention measures.
The initiative follows broader efforts by the KSA to improve compliance standards among licensed betting operators.
The regulator recently reported an improvement in the quality of risk analyses conducted by operators, citing a “rising trend” in adherence to legal and ethical standards.
This marks a significant shift from last year, when the KSA criticised operators for “insufficient” risk assessments and issued several warnings following a review prompted by the Sports Betting Intelligence Unit (SBIU) after reports of a potentially manipulated match.
The KSA’s latest assessment noted continued gaps in the specification of risks and reporting obligations but described the general level of compliance as improved compared with the previous year.
It also confirmed that random inspections of operator risk analyses would continue.
The findings from the Roda JC partnership are expected to help the regulator and other stakeholders better understand gambling patterns among young people and develop more effective tools to address them.
The collaboration reflects a data-oriented approach to mitigating gambling-related risks in Dutch football and beyond.