In Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) is moving towards the approval of a statutory amendment that will establish an absolute ban on sports betting for all players, coaches, club officials, and other persons linked to the federation. The proposal, which will be presented by CEO Andrey Petrov and President Georgi Ivanov, will be discussed at the BFU plenary meeting in Sofia, scheduled for March 20, 2026.
The initiative represents a significant change from the previous regulatory framework, which included general provisions on match-fixing and doping but lacked specific clauses on the participation of football personnel in betting activities.
What the BFU statutory amendment establishes
In Bulgaria, the proposed text turns disciplinary bans that were previously applied on an ad hoc basis into permanent federation law. The new statute introduces a clear and unequivocal ban on participating in any betting or gambling activity related to football, applicable to all personnel linked to the BFU and its member clubs.
If the amendment is approved, clubs will be required to implement their own compliance frameworks including education programs and monitoring mechanisms to ensure that players, coaching staff, and officials refrain from betting on football matches. The institutional responsibility for enforcing the rule will fall directly on the sports entities.
The precedent that accelerated the reform in Bulgarian football
The urgency of the measure has a specific origin. In September 2025, joint operations between the BFU, the National Revenue Agency, and the police resulted in sanctions against dozens of players and coaches who had bet on matches in the 2024/25 season. The events raised serious concerns about the integrity of competitions and highlighted the absence of a sufficiently specific regulatory framework to deter such behavior.
This process also led to greater cooperation between the federation and state bodies, laying the foundations for a more robust institutional response than that offered by the current regulations. The 2026 amendment is, to a large extent, the direct consequence of those sanctions and the debate they generated within Bulgarian football.
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Centralization of betting and data rights under BFU control
Beyond the ban on personnel, the statutory reform introduces a relevant change in the commercial management of Bulgarian football. The new text expressly designates betting and data rights as part of the commercial, media, and digital rights that the BFU manages centrally for all competitions it organizes, including current and emerging technologies and platforms.
Until now, clubs and leagues could negotiate individually with data providers and betting operators. With the reform, these agreements must be closed directly with the federation. Existing contracts will require review, and future agreements on live data transmission or betting-related content must go through the BFU. Federation regulations will also regulate the distribution of income derived from these central agreements, which will involve adjustments in the distribution mechanisms for streaming platforms, betting operators, and sponsors.
Bulgaria in the international context of the fight against match-fixing
The BFU reform is part of a broader international trend. Last year, the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency extended the gambling self-exclusion period to one year, reinforcing the preventive approach to problem gambling.
On a global scale, initiatives such as the GameChanger 360 platform, developed by former footballer Moses Swaibu, convicted in 2015 for match-fixing in the United Kingdom, work on training athletes to identify the risks and warning signs of manipulation and corruption in sports betting. The Bulgarian proposal aligns with these types of preventive efforts by combining the regulatory ban with the obligation to implement education programs within the clubs themselves.
For the BFU, the approval of this amendment at the March 20 meeting would represent not only an advance in terms of sporting integrity but also the establishment of an institutional precedent that could influence other federations in the region facing similar challenges.
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