One of the supporters of 23-year-old Rovanperä is Unibet. Rovanperä has consistently promoted the company in question on social media and also competes in the World Series under the letters Unibet.
Finland, however, has very strict laws regarding advertising on betting portals. Finnish lottery law stipulates that the national Veikkaus is the only company capable of marketing and offering gambling and betting in the country. Advertising by foreign betting companies is prohibited in Finland.
According to Ilta-Sanomat, thanks to its collaboration Rovanperä has come into the interest of the local police. Police suspect that Rovanperä violated local laws and asked the Finn for explanations in September. According to authorities, Rovanperä promoted a foreign gambling company to Finns because some of his social media posts related to Unibet are in Finnish.
“It is worth noting that the content in English can also be interpreted as advertising aimed at Finns, because English is also widely known and used in Finland,” is the view of the local police.
Rovanperä provided explanations to the police on 23 October. Ilta-Sanomat brokered the position of the world champion.
“I would like to point out that I do not live in Finland, but in Monaco, and I am an internationally known rally driver. As the police surely know, I was born in Finland and speak it as my native language,” Rovanperä said. “Most of my content on Instagram is in English, but sometimes I also speak in Finnish because it’s more natural for me.”
Rovanperä added that the Finnish posts will also be translated into English. “It is not clear to me why, as a Finnish citizen, I have to limit my right to speak in my native language while living abroad,” Rovanperä added. “The police seem to think that an athlete of Finnish origin should not collaborate with foreign gambling companies and should otherwise avoid both his native language and English, even if he works abroad. There is no legal basis for a such a broad restriction on my fundamental rights.”
The rally driver also claimed that the police want to limit his freedom of speech and his business activities. However, Rovanperä promised that in the future she will monitor more closely what and how he posts on social media.
According to Ilta-Sanomat, the police contacted the Finn again on November 24 and found his responses largely justified. However, he was no longer allowed to publish Unibet-related content in Finnish. At the same time, the authorities investigated what Rovanperä intends to do with the old messages, which are in Finnish and therefore, in their opinion, aimed at compatriots.
Rovanperä stated in its December response that it still does not agree that Finnish-language content can automatically be considered national advertising. “To avoid misunderstandings in the future, I will try to communicate with people on Instagram only in English to reach a wider global audience.”
In conclusion, the Finnish publication underlines that the investigation is not yet officially concluded. It is therefore unclear whether and what measures the police will take regarding the fact that Rovanperä still has Unibet-related content on Instagram, where he appeared in Finnish. Rovanperä’s position is that in this case the police should bring out the exact terms and points of the law that he went wrong with.
In the spring, the Latvian ice hockey team, which won a bronze medal at the World Cup, also became the focus of police attention. The reason is the OlyBet logo on their uniforms, with which they competed in Finland. Read more here.
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2023-12-21 09:18:41
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