Former professional football player Wesley Sneijder is the star of a new campaign by Sports TOTO, the only legal sports betting provider in the Netherlands.
In the video, Sneijder joins Happy Hardcore legends Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo – more than 25 years after their hit Wonderful Days – to hold a party ahead of the UEFA European Football Championship.
Sneijder plays King TOTO in the campaign, challenging the Dutch to defeat him, while Dutch sports journalist Jack van Gelder reprints his iconic 2010 World Cup commentary dating back to the country’s memorable quarter-final victory over Brazil -final of the competition.
The former Dutch midfielder scored both of his national team’s goals in the game, and is the country’s most successful player of all time.
A great Sports TOTO campaign
“We had to wait an extra year, but with King Wesley we are taking the campaign to a new level,” said Arno de Jong, CMO at Nederlandse Loterij. “With the Happy Hardcore song and track costumes, the nineties are revived, but the staging makes TOTO completely contemporary,” he continued.
Darre van Dijk, Creative Director of TBWA\NEBOKO Agency, added: “Happy Hardcore is Dutch glory. Wesley came to our office and I asked him if he could sing… ‘I can do anything’ was his reply. And he proves it now, Wesley is a true king.”
Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo has officially released the special European Championship track, which can be viewed on Spotify and YouTube.
Netherlands launches into online betting
Last year, the Netherlands set out to launch its own regulated online gaming market with the “Remote Gambling” initiative, which modernized and revolutionized the country’s gaming market, as online activities were previously considered illegal.
