Bwin Ordered To Halt Portuguese Sports Advertising
On Monday of this week, Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, the world's largest publicly traded online gambling company, was ordered by a Portuguese court to stop sponsoring sports in the country.
Bwin's sponsorship of national sports in Portugal has been deemed illegal and the new court ruling could be responsible for ending similar sponsorship deals between sports groups in Portugal and online gambling companies.
In Portugal, many local sports clubs and associations, as well as tournaments, have sponsorship deals with online gambling companies, as in some cases it's the only way for them to generate the revenue they need to fund their activities.
Bwin's sponsorship of the Portuguese League Cup is worth a substantial €4 million, meaning the tournament could potentially be in jeopardy if its main source of funding is suddenly cut off.
The Portuguese Professional Football League said in a statement: "As of Monday, the Portuguese Professional Football League is obliged to remove all advertising that refers to Bwin."
However, the league was adamant that it would appeal Monday's ruling - which also covered tax and regulatory laws - stating that if it was forced to cancel Bwin's sponsorship, the country's national game would be directly affected.
Online Gambling Groups Sponsor Portuguese Sports
Bwin.Party is not the only group sponsoring sports organizations in Portugal. Betclic, which is based in the online gambling friendly jurisdiction of Gibraltar, has its name on the shirts of several football teams in the country.
Leading UK online sports betting exchange Betfair also has a strong presence in the Portuguese sports market.
In 2005, the Portuguese Casino Association, together with Santa Casa, the country's official lottery operator, filed a lawsuit against Bwin's actions in the sports betting market.
As part of their complaint, the groups claimed that Bwin.Party had an unfair advantage over them because they were subject to Portuguese taxes while Bwin.Party was not. They also claimed that Bwin.Party was not subject to the country's gambling laws.
Following this week's court ruling, Portuguese Casino Association manager Artur Mateus said: "We are happy with this decision, it was a positive one. We pay for extremely expensive licenses, so we want the state to fight illegal operators who have unfair advantages.
Bwin executives were obviously disappointed with the ruling, saying that it goes against acceptable European Union law.
"The court failed to take into account EU law," said a Bwin spokesperson. "You cannot aggressively advertise and expand games on the one hand and keep out foreign competition on the other."
The company also said that it would suspend all sponsorship and Bwin will quit sports advertising in Portugal.