Gambling logos will stay on Australian sporting uniforms until the end of 2031, five years after the country’s new advertising restrictions take effect, under legislation passed by federal parliament on 21 August.
The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026 bans wagering advertising on uniforms worn by players and officials, and on premises used for sporting events. Existing sponsorship agreements are exempt until 31 December 2031, provided they are not modified. The rest of the package commences on 1 January 2027.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the reforms were the toughest the country has passed.
“The Albanese Government is delivering the strongest ever laws to tackle gambling harm.”
The five-year carve-out is the part the industry will plan around. Front-of-jersey betting brands stay legal in Australia for another five seasons, and clubs keep the revenue from deals already signed.
What the bill restricts
The package goes wider than uniforms. Wagering advertising is barred from the window immediately surrounding live sport broadcasts during the day, and capped at three instances in any 60-minute period within the daytime broadcast window. Overnight, wagering ads are permitted only during scheduled breaks in play.
Radio advertising is restricted during school drop-off and pick-up periods. Online platforms must take reasonable steps to stop restricted users from seeing wagering content, and must give users in Australia the ability to opt out, with a carve-out for live sport coverage.
The bill also prohibits “notable persons” from promoting wagering. That category covers current and former professional athletes, celebrities and social media influencers, closing off a channel that operators have used heavily in the Australian market.
On the customer side, the legislation creates a Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register, bans direct marketing for 14 days after a customer signs up, and imposes a three-month marketing ban after a customer leaves the BetStop self-exclusion register. Marketing to customers identified as at risk is prohibited. Online keno and foreign lotteries are banned outright.
Domestic lottery operators are exempt from the sponsorship restrictions. Racing, including horse, harness and greyhound racing, sits outside the bill’s definition of a sporting event, which leaves the racing codes’ commercial arrangements untouched.
Seven NRL clubs affected
Seven National Rugby League (NRL) clubs currently carry wagering or lottery branding: the Newcastle Knights, Penrith Panthers, Sydney Roosters, Brisbane Broncos, Dolphins, Wests Tigers and Gold Coast Titans. The Titans deal is with The Lottery Office, which falls under the lottery exemption.
Several of those agreements expire well before the 2031 cut-off, with some running to at least the end of the 2028 season. Wells said one club holds a jersey sponsorship that runs through 2031, which is the arrangement the transition period was written to accommodate.
Clubs that let their current deals lapse will not be able to sign replacements with wagering brands. The exemption applies only to agreements already in place and only while they remain unmodified, so any renegotiation risks pulling a deal inside the ban.
Crossbench and Coalition objections
Independent senator David Pocock criticised the length of the transition, arguing that sporting organisations should not wait for the legal deadline.
Sporting organisations “should voluntarily withdraw their betting sponsorships as soon as they can.”
Pocock noted that jerseys could still carry betting logos when the legislation’s three-year statutory review falls due, which would put the review in the position of assessing reforms that have not fully taken effect.
Liberal MP Andrew Wallace, who voted against the package, had pushed for a two-year transition instead of five, saying that would give “clubs enough time to replace betting sponsors.”
Wells said the government would rather clubs cut ties with wagering companies before the deadline, but described ending commercial agreements early as a matter for individual organisations.
Public health advocates have questioned whether a five-year run-off weakens the reforms, on the basis that continued exposure to betting brands during broadcast sport keeps normalising wagering for younger audiences. European regulators have opened the same line of argument, including the Slovak regulator’s plan targeting loot boxes and Gen Z gambling.
What operators face from January 2027
For operators active in Australia, the immediate work is the 1 January 2027 commencement rather than the 2031 sponsorship date. The broadcast caps, the opt-out register, the influencer ban and the direct marketing restrictions all apply from that point, and each carries compliance and systems cost.
The influencer prohibition removes a large part of the acquisition mix. The opt-out register and the post-signup marketing freeze change customer relationship management timelines. The at-risk marketing ban requires operators to demonstrate how they identify those customers, which puts their monitoring models in scope for regulatory scrutiny.
Australian sport now has a fixed date to price into its next round of commercial deals. Rights holders negotiating sponsorship cycles that run past 2031 will have to find replacement categories, and the clubs with the longest wagering contracts will be the last to test what those categories are worth.
Source: Parliament of Australia
