Denmark's L 37: proposed ban on affiliate revenue share would cover existing contracts

Denmark is proposing to make it illegal for licensed gambling operators to pay marketing partners a share of what players stake or lose. Bill L 37, tabled in the Folketing on 7 October 2026 by Minister for Taxation and Growth Jakob Engel-Schmidt, would ban revenue-share and turnover-based commission for affiliates and other third-party marketers from 1 July 2027. The ban would also cover contracts already signed. If adopted, it would remove the commission model much of the European affiliate sector has been built on from one of the continent's longest-established regulated online markets.

The affiliate clause sits inside a wider package. It also contains a statutory ban on gambling ads around live sport, a ban on using "authorities" such as athletes and larger influencers, criminal liability for anyone who breaks the marketing rules, and a legal duty on operators to act on signs of problem gambling. None of it is law yet. L 37 has been tabled but not debated, and every measure described below is a proposal.

Disclosure: iGaming Explorer is an affiliate publisher and runs Danish-market sites. The proposed revenue-share ban would affect our business.

Key facts

• Bill: L 37 (2026/1 LSF 37), amending the Danish Gambling Act (lov om spil), tabled on 7 October 2026. Its status on the Folketing's open-data service is "tabled".
• Origin: It implements the political agreement Spilpakke 1 of 24 October 2025. According to the bill's explanatory notes, it re-tables bill L 127 "with a few adjustments". L 127 lapsed when the March 2026 general election was called.
• Affiliate pay: commission based on a player's turnover, including winnings or losses, would be banned from 1 July 2027, under both new and existing contracts.
• Live sport: no gambling marketing from 10 minutes before until 10 minutes after a live sports transmission, and no live odds shown at the venue.
• Liability: any natural or legal person, not only the licensee, could be penalised for breaching the core marketing rules.
• Welcome bonuses: the government intends to ban free spins and free bets as welcome offers through a later executive order. No date has been set.
• Timing: the law would take effect on 1 January 2027. The marketing rules and the new duty of care would apply from 1 July 2027.

What the bill does

Most of the changes rewrite section 36 of the Gambling Act, which governs marketing. The regulator, Spillemyndigheden (the Danish Gambling Authority), would also get new enforcement tools.

Marketing restrictions

The proposed section 36(2) bans gambling marketing in three settings. The first is on and around public transport. The second is in public space within 200 metres of schools and youth-education institutions, measured from the property boundary. The third is "10 minutes before, during and 10 minutes after" the transmission of a live sports event. According to the notes, the live-sport ban covers linear TV and streaming, including in-play graphics such as live odds. It applies only to the channel or platform carrying the event. Shirt sponsorship and stadium boards are outside the ban, but live odds could not be displayed at the venue while the event is running.

Authorities, influencers and under-25s

Marketing could not use "authorities" or feature anyone under 25. The notes say current and former professional athletes, well-known actors and TV personalities would normally count as authorities. They also set hard thresholds. Anyone with more than 10,000 followers or viewers on a social media platform, or more than 100,000 views across platforms, would always be treated as an authority. Below those thresholds it would be a case-by-case assessment. In practice, this would bar many streamers and creators from promoting gambling at all.

Liability beyond the licensee

Under current Danish law, only the licence holder can be penalised for breaching the marketing rules. The bill would let penalties for breaches of section 36(1)–(3) be imposed on "any natural or legal person". The notes say the purpose is to hold affiliates and influencers responsible for their own marketing. Because subsection 3 is the affiliate-payment rule, that liability appears to extend to the commission arrangements themselves. Separately, marketing unlicensed gambling aimed at Denmark would become an offence. Spillemyndigheden would also gain a legal basis to have websites that market unlicensed gambling blocked.

The revenue-share ban in depth

The proposed section 36(3) reads:

»Benyttes en tredjepart til at markedsføre spil, må afregning til denne ikke være baseret på spillerens omsætning, herunder gevinst eller tab.«

"Where a third party is used to market gambling, payment to that party may not be based on the player's turnover, including winnings or losses." (our translation)

Scope

The notes say the ban targets operators that market through people or media "who receive commission for sign-ups or sales generated" with the operator, often from a website or social media. Affiliates are named explicitly. The stated purpose is to stop affiliates being financially motivated to get people to gamble more than they want to, or profiting from a player's losses. Because the text refers to turnover as well as winnings and losses, the ban is not limited to classic net-gaming-revenue share. Commission calculated on stakes would also appear to fall within it.

Existing contracts

This is the point international networks and operators will notice most. According to the notes, the ban would apply to "new as well as already concluded agreements". It would cover payments for activity after the provision takes effect, which under the bill's section 4(3) would be 1 July 2027. Lifetime revenue-share deals on Danish players would therefore stop generating commission for post-July 2027 play. There is no grandfathering for player databases built up under older terms, even though several respondents asked for a transition period during the 2025–26 consultation (see below).

What stays allowed

The notes give one explicit example of a permitted model: paying an affiliate according to how many times a visitor has been sent from the affiliate to the operator. Payments to third parties in the operator's distribution chain, such as land-based retailers, are also excluded.

Open questions

• CPA: a flat fee per new customer is not based on turnover, so on the wording it looks compatible. The notes, however, only give per-visitor payment as an example. CPA deals that only pay out once a player reaches a deposit or wagering threshold may face closer scrutiny.
• Hybrid and tiered deals: it is unclear how hybrid deals (CPA plus revenue share) and CPA rates tiered by player value would be treated.
• Wording: the statute says "the player's turnover, including winnings or losses", while the notes say "players' turnover or losses". The committee stage may clarify which reading applies.
• Cross-border contracts: many deals are signed by group entities outside Denmark. How Spillemyndigheden would supervise contracts like these is not set out in the bill.

For background on commission models, see our guides to iGaming affiliate marketing and Danish iGaming affiliate programmes.

Welcome-bonus plans

The bill itself does not ban any bonus. It keeps the minister's power, in section 36(4), to set detailed rules on promotions. The notes state the intention to use that power to ban offers of "free gambling", such as free spins or free bets, as a welcome bonus. That would include risk-free bets where the stake is refunded if the bet loses. The notes also announce a planned ban on prize draws with prizes worth more than DKK 1,000. All of this depends on a future executive order, and no date has been given. The notes describe the free-play ban in the context of welcome offers. They do not describe an equivalent ban for existing customers. Our free spins overview explains how these offers currently work.

Duty of care and enforcement

A new chapter 5a would require licensees to "monitor players' behaviour and act immediately" when a player shows signs of problem gambling or addiction. Licensees would also have to evaluate the effect of their measures, keep written procedures and train relevant staff and retailers. Today a duty of attention exists only in executive orders for online casino and betting. The bill would put it in statute, add a duty to act and extend it to land-based products.

Fines for online breaches would be tied to gross gaming revenue (GGR) in an eight-step scale. The base fine would range from DKK 10,000 at the reduced level for operators with GGR under DKK 5 million, up to DKK 3,000,000 at the increased level for those with GGR of DKK 500 million or more. Breaches affecting young or vulnerable people would normally attract the increased level.

Timeline

Trade press has reported a first reading on 22 October 2026. When we checked on 15 October, that date did not yet appear in the Folketing's open data.

How Denmark compares

Massachusetts: the closest parallel

The nearest written equivalent we found is in the United States. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission's 205 CMR 256.01(3) (version dated 30 June 2023) bars sports-wagering operators from paying a third-party marketer "a percentage of sports wagering revenue earned from users" that it directs to the operator. The Commission's 2 March 2023 minutes record a waiver allowing cost-per-acquisition deals while the revenue-share prohibition stayed under discussion. The Danish text looks broader in two respects. It covers turnover, not just revenue. Its notes also apply it to existing contracts. We have not verified whether the Massachusetts text has been amended since 2023.

United Kingdom: voluntary limits, capped bonuses

The UK's "whistle-to-whistle" restriction is an industry code, not legislation. The Gambling Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising (7th edition, updated February 2026) bars pre-9pm TV betting ads from five minutes before a live sports event until five minutes after it ends, with horse and greyhound racing exempt. Denmark's proposal would be statutory, would use a 10-minute window and contains no watershed cut-off. On affiliates, the code expects operators to hold affiliates to the code by contract, rather than regulating how they are paid. On bonuses, the Gambling Commission has capped wagering requirements at 10 times and banned mixed-product incentives from 19 January 2026. That is a cap rather than Denmark's planned ban on free-play welcome offers.

Netherlands: targeting rules and a sponsorship phase-out

The Dutch decree of 5 April 2023 (Stb. 2023, 120) took effect on 1 July 2023. It limits remote-gambling licensees to advertising that is targeted closely enough not to reach protected groups. Online and on-demand advertising is allowed only if, among other conditions, at least 95% of the audience reached is 24 or older. The explanatory note says affiliate marketing on a licensee's behalf is covered. Existing sponsorship contracts got transitional relief: two years for sport, which ended on 1 July 2025, and one year for other sponsorship.

Spain: broadcast windows and affiliate liability

Spain's Real Decreto 958/2020 restricts gambling ads on audiovisual services, including during live sport, to 01:00–05:00. It names affiliates within its scope and makes them responsible for their own compliance. The consolidated text shows that the Supreme Court annulled several provisions on 2 April 2024, including parts of Article 13 on promotions and Article 15 on public figures. We found no rule in the decree on how affiliates are paid.

What operators and affiliates should watch

• Committee stage: amendments could change the wording of section 36(3), the coverage of existing contracts or the 1 July 2027 date.
• Contract reviews: Danish-licensed operators and their networks will need to check every Denmark-facing deal that pays on net revenue, stakes or losses, and decide what replaces it.
• Executive orders: the welcome-bonus ban and other player-protection rules depend on secondary legislation with no date yet.
• Enforcement: watch how Spillemyndigheden uses the new liability, blocking and fine tools against affiliates as well as operators.

What the 2025–26 consultation said

A draft of the bill was in public consultation from 8 December 2025 to 5 January 2026, before it was first tabled as L 127. On 25 February 2026 the Ministry of Taxation sent the Folketing's Taxation Committee a consultation table (L 127, annex 1, in Danish) setting out every response next to the ministry's reply. It is the most complete record of how the affiliate side argued against section 36(3), and of why the government did not move.

The case against the revenue-share ban

• Better Collective argued that the ban would weaken responsible operators, create significant legal uncertainty and push consumers toward unregulated sites with weaker protection. It proposed a licensing regime for affiliates instead.
• The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) said it could support most of the package, but not section 36(3). It warned that applying the ban to existing agreements would lead to costly disputes and lawsuits and move more of the market offshore, and asked for the clause to be deleted or replaced by an affiliate licence.
• BAHN Group called the clause a breach of legal principles and of EU law because it reaches into existing contracts, and asked for it to apply only to agreements signed after the law takes effect.
• Trafficlab and I Gaming Media described it as a far-reaching and potentially unauthorised interference in private agreements. Trafficlab also asked for a legal-basis analysis, a proportionality assessment, a transition period and a separate impact assessment for affiliates.
• Spillebranchen, the operators' trade body, said its own research shows affiliates facilitate around 25% of Denmark's online gross gaming revenue, and called the intervention in existing contracts far-reaching.

The ministry's answers

The ministry rejected the retroactivity argument. In its view the clause only applies from a future effective date, and covering existing contracts is compatible with both Danish and EU law, because businesses cannot have a legally protected expectation that the law in an area will not change (our paraphrase). On licensing, it said a licence would not change the fact that affiliates could still be paid in a way that rewards getting people to gamble as much as possible. Affiliates remain free to promote licensed operators if they are paid on another basis.

The consultation did change the explanatory notes in two ways that matter to commercial teams. They now state more clearly that the ban covers agreements already concluded, and they exclude payments to third parties in the operator's distribution chain, such as retailers. On authorities and influencers, the ministry kept the 10,000-follower and 100,000-view thresholds but described them as objective criteria within an overall case-by-case assessment, and said the authority concept is intended to be broad. It also confirmed that a sponsored club may show its players wearing the sponsor's logo when the purpose is club information rather than gambling promotion.

L 37 carries these provisions over in substance, with the marketing rules now taking effect on 1 July 2027. The main affiliate arguments have therefore already been answered once by the ministry. Any change would have to come through amendments at committee stage.

Industry and political reaction

Morten Rønde, managing partner of Nordic Legal and director of the trade body Spillebranchen, told iGaming Business (9 October 2026): "In all the proposals that are made, there's no link to any evidence that this is something that will help gambling addiction." In his view, "it's still not great where we've landed". He also said several Danish parties favour a full advertising ban. From the other direction, the Danish Center for Ludomani has called the package's ad restrictions a step but argued that partial bans do not work. It recommends a total ban phased in over three years. We found no published reaction from affiliate trade groups to L 37 itself. Their positions on the earlier draft are summarised in the consultation section above.

For a market overview, see our guide to online gambling in Denmark and our Danish affiliate marketing guide. Gambling should only ever be done with money you can afford to lose. Read more in our responsible gambling section.