The Netherlands Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, KSA) is collecting data on how young adults perceive and engage with sports betting through a partnership with professional football club Roda JC Kerkrade. The findings are intended to inform future prevention efforts.
The research, taking place in November and December 2025, focuses on the Parkstad region. It examines how often young people bet, how much they stake, and the role that peer pressure and exposure to betting advertising can play, according to iGamingToday. Results are expected in early 2026.
Roda JC is the only professional football club in the Netherlands that has not signed a sponsorship deal with a sports betting company. The club says such agreements conflict with its values and its long-term commitment to the community. Through the partnership with the KSA, Roda JC is seeking to address the growing presence of gambling in sport and help protect younger fans from its potential harms.
Sports betting has become highly visible in Dutch stadiums, television broadcasts and social media. The KSA has highlighted financial and social risks associated with betting, including problem gambling and the influence of friends. The study is intended to provide a clearer picture of how young people gamble and support education and prevention campaigns that discourage betting from becoming normalised.
The partnership forms part of the KSA’s broader prevention effort. Separately, six academic projects received funding in November 2023, according to Casinobeats.
The KSA has also said that licensed operators are improving compliance with risk-analysis obligations. However, gaps remain in how some operators report and specify player risks. The regulator says it will continue random checks of those analyses as part of its supervision of safer and more responsible betting.
For the KSA, the Roda JC findings are expected to help shape future prevention efforts and responsible-betting education for young people.
Petra Vanhoof has spent the better part of a decade following the shifting tides of gambling regulation across Europe and beyond. She came up through the compliance side of the industry before pivoting to writing, which gives her a grounded, no-nonsense perspective on the rules, loopholes, and political maneuvering that shape how operators actually do business. She is particularly drawn to the gap between what regulators say and what the market ends up doing in response.