by Renee Israel
First division German football club, FC Schalke 04, has announced
an extension of its sponsorship deal with leading online gambling operation
Bet-at-Home.com.
The Malta-listed group, which is owned and operated by the BetClic
Everest Group, said that it would be extending its deal with the Bundesliga club
for a further two seasons.
Bet-at-Home will be Schalke 04's premium partner as the team heads
to the UEFA Champions League, after securing automatic participation through its
third place listing on domestic tables.
Bet-At-Home will remain the football club's chief sponsor until at
least June 2014.
The Sponsorship Manager for Bet-At-Home.com, Klaus Gruber said
about Bet-At-Home extending the Schalke sponsorship deal: "With our
brand, we have worked for many years with the best sports clubs in Europe and FC
Schalke 04, as one of the biggest football clubs in Germany, is a very
attractive club for an international company like Bet-At-Home.com.
Schalke 04 and Bet-At-Home Well Suited
"This past year has shown that we are ideally suited to each
other because we can use our collective creativity," he said. "In future, FC
Schalke 04 will become even more important in all of our communications across
Europe."
The Marketing Director for FC Schalke 04, Alexander Jobst, said
that he was pleased to engage in the online betting arena with one of the
leading suppliers in the industry, and the team was happy that the already very
productive partnership had been extended as early as possible.
"From the perspective of FC Schalke 04, we also appreciate our
future involvement in the Europe wide advertising campaigns from
Bet-at-Home.com," he added. "It shows the emotional significance that our club
has."
Bet-at-Home Awarded German Gambling License
The sponsorship deal with the football club comes one month after Bet-at-Home
was awarded an online gambling license by the German state of
Schleswig-Holstein.
The gaming license taxes companies 20% of their gross gaming profit and
allows them to offer sports betting services to German players.
Recently, however, a new government was voted in to Schleswig-Holstein which
is seemingly anti-online gambling, leaving Bet-At-Home and the other licensees
such as Bwin and Bet365 questioning their future in the German state.
