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With little fanfare, the President of Ecuador has removed a ban on sports-betting advertising from the country’s communications law.
President Daniel Noboa, in an Executive Decree dated October 14, modified Article 56 of Ecuador’s Organic Law on Communications by deleting the references to sports betting from the phrase: “Misleading advertising is prohibited, as well as all types of advertising or propaganda for child pornography, cigarettes, controlled substances and all types of sports betting or prediction systems.”
Ecuador’s minister for sports confirmed the legal changes on Friday afternoon (October 18).
A 2023 decree to ban all betting advertising was signed by outgoing President Guillermo Lasso. At the time, the Professional Soccer League of Ecuador (LigaPro) expressed its alarm at the prospect of limiting advertising and sponsorships on which teams economically rely.
“In the aftermath of the pandemic, partnerships with sports forecasting companies have been a vital avenue for securing the revenue necessary to support teams, their infrastructure and youth development programs, as well as a variety of initiatives that benefit players, coaches and fans alike,” LigaPro stated at the time.
“Surely the national government is unaware that the intended ban threatens to significantly undermine the financial sustainability of soccer.”
The league has yet to issue a new statement on the reversal of the ban.
But Santiago Zambrano, a sports lawyer and founder of Guayaquil-based Conlegal Sports, said that he was sure that football clubs would be happy with the news as their incomes have been decreasing.
Since taking office last year, Miami-born Noboa has shown signs of working to legalise gambling in a country where land-based gaming has been illegal since 2011.
He initially proposed legalising casinos in a petition submitted to the constitutional court earlier this year. But it was withdrawn less than a month later, during a 60-day state of emergency to contain drug and gang violence.
Sports betting is not expressly legal, but over the years has come to exist in a legal grey area as so-called sports “forecasting” is considered by Ecuadorian officials to be exempted from the general ban on gambling.
This year the government implemented a system that requires operators to register and pay taxes on the revenue they earn in Ecuador.
As of the registration deadline of August 31, the government reported that 65 companies had registered who now pay 15 percent of gross gaming revenue.
