Sport is made for betting

For several years, there has been much debate about German law and the licensing of sports betting. It's a country divided up into provinces which often have conflicting laws. Most, if not all, of the 'legal' online betting licences in Germany stem from former East German regions which were somehow able to offer things which weren't allowed elsewhere in the unified country. Now with the EU pushing hard for all member states to allow/regulate online gambling, Germany decided it had better follow suit before it got dragged through the courts forever and a day. And this is what they come up with.... Germany’s non-ratified sports betting proposals 7 five-year licences to be issued 16.67% turnover tax Live betting but only on final result. No in-play Only land based casinos would be able to operate online casino Sports betting advertising only allowed on or in sports arenas and club shirts and not on television ----- France is the most recent big European nat...

Not got as much time on my hands at the moment, so I'll try to keep the site fresh with a weekly update as a minimum... Betfair shares break back through the £10 mark as their financial trading arm LMAX flounders . The newly-recruited CEO has gone after just three months; sounds like either a major difference of opinions or a long walk off a short pier. Also leaving is 'Chief Products and Services Officer' Matthias Entenmann. Considering the service these days is the most criticised part of the business from customers and the major shareholders will be looking for scapegoats, my guess is his share options had matured and he decided to jump before he was pushed. The quest for licensing in Europe continues, and is messy as always. Greece started off with a ridiculous 6% turnover levy and have now switched to 30% GPT, which won't be too popular either, but at least it's manageable in a jurisdiction switching from monopolistic margins. The Greek government has also...

Global gaming giant Bwin have finally decided to have a serious crack at the UK market. After years of ignoring the UK because of the maturity of the local market, they have hired several experienced UK folk to bring them into the fold. Earlier this year Bwin bought into the Oddschecker listings, but haven't covered horse racing.... until now. How popular that will be in the UK, where punters expect to be allowed a decent bet is unknown. Bwin is a firm which in the past has banned all customers who were employed by other gambling firms, campaigned the Greek government to set a pitiful MAXIMUM stake in order to block competition, pathetically tried to welsh on paying out an Aussie client because he was beating them betting in-play, and numerous other controversial or even indefensible actions - search any betting forum for their previous black marks. They might have a massive advertising budget, but they have a lot of work to do to gain market share in a mature UK market which...

Sportingbet started the trend by purchasing No1 Betting Shop from Vanuatu and then moving them to Darwin, Paddy Power got into the act by snapping up Sportsbet and IAS, and then Centrebet started preening their feathers in public trying to woo as many prospective buyers as they could. Anecdotal evidence suggests that several other Australian firms are available to buy, as most of the original owners are approaching retirement age. BWin, William Hill, Ladbrokes, 888 and others were mentioned as prospective suitors for Centrebet but it all seems to have gone very quiet lately. BWin have tied up with Party Gaming which should keep them busy plus neither are shy about attracting Australian customers despite laws against online casino and poker operations; William Hill's online division is 29% owned by Playtech, another company with fingers in many bingo, casino and poker pies which reach Australia either organically or by targetted marketing; Ladbrokes are still involved in the bid f...

Europe's biggest and richest market, Germany, looks set for deregulation after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) yesterday ruled that "German rules do not limit games of choice in a consistent and systematic manner". The court stressed that "the holders of public monopolies carry out intensive advertising campaigns with a view to maximise profit from lotteries thereby departing from the objectives justifying the existence of those monopolies." Germany was a messy legal and regulatory system in relation to online gambling, as provincial governments held different attitudes toward the industry. Some licences existed in the days of East and West Germany, which the unified nation refused to recognise but the licenceholders (or those who had bought into them from outside Germany) were prepared to take them to court. Real Madrid and AC Milan had recently been either fined or forced to wear alternative strips to avoid prosecution from local authorities. Now it...

Shares in the two firms jumped at least 20% yesterday with the long-awaited announcement of the merger. Party Gaming, bwin Plan Gambling Merger PartyGaming PLC plans to merge with Austrian sports-book operator Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, creating the world's largest listed online-gambling business. The new company will be owned 48.36% and 51.64% by PartyGaming and Bwin shareholders respectively and will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. It would have a combined net gambling revenue of €682 million ($885.6 million) and combined earnings before interest, taxes and amortization of €196 million, PartyGaming said. Shares in PartyGaming jumped 20% Thursday, valuing the company at £1.26 billion ($1.96 billion), while Bwin shares soared 25% on the Vienna Stock Exchange, valuing the company at €1.58 billion. Jim Ryan, Chief Executive of PartyGaming, and Norbert Teufelberger, co-CEO of Bwin, will run the merged group as co-chief executives. Mr. Teufelberger said his co-...

Serie B is renowned as one of the dodgiest football leagues in the world. Any football punter with an eye on Europe will recall numerous end-of-season matches with arranged results - convenient draws played out after club presidents do favours for their mates as teams pull all the strings they can to avoid relegation. So the last thing you'd think was a good idea is a betting company becoming naming rights sponsor of the league..... Italy's Serie B rebranded as Serie bwin July 7 (Reuters) - Italy´s second tier Serie B has been rebranded Serie bwin after a two-year sponsorship deal was signed on Wednesday with Austria-based internet betting firm bwin. The deal, announced in a Serie B statement, will bring much-needed revenue to a division which has been under severe financial pressure for several years. Serie B will run its own affairs this season after the top-flight Serie A broke away from the two-division professional league.

After many months of speculation and discussion between the two firms, it appears that a proposed merger between bwin and PartyGaming is off. This would have been a genuine super-merger, unseen before in the gambling industry, but reasonably common in other business sectors. bwin chief says Party Gaming merger talks failed bwin have long admitted to being keen on acquisition and mergers rather than natural growth, so expect more activity from them in the near future. The article even quotes the bwin boffins as chasing partners in the US. ---- Two minutes after I posted this article, through comes a report denying the original statement... Androsch refutes bwin/Party comments So who do we believe? Was that genuine or trying to protect the share price? Either way, it looks like things aren't progressing quickly.

As mentioned on this blog previously, Centrebet is very keen to be bought out and some of the big boys of the global industry have been sniffing around. William Hill is believed to have bid A$132m for the company according to this report , although the deal is not exclusive. Ladbrokes and Bwin are still evaluating their own bids. Watch the video on that link to hear the comical pronunciation of Bwin by the Aussie 'never been out of Sydney in my life' presenter. How does A$132m stack up? In 2003, Centrebet was bought by SportOdds (the Kafataris family) for A$46.55m, although Jupiters Casino Group did say they wanted an unrealistic A$150m for it at the time. IASBet changed hands last year for around A$60m (after Centrebet posted a hostile bid for about half that amount). The big variation in cost is the value of the AUD vs GBP - back in 2003, the $46.55m was worth less than £20m. Now on the very strong AUD, the A$132m equates to £80m. Still, it sounds about the right sort of pric...

Europe is saturated, it's illegal all through the Middle East, Asia goes mad for it, North America has its hypocritical legal views about gambling which bounce around for years and then get banned in late-night votes, Australia is tightly regulated and Africa is too poor, racked by civil wars/corrupt governments and lacks the infrastructure required. So what's left for a gaming giant to pursue? South America. Bwin plans S.American entry VIENNA, April 13 (Reuters) - Austrian Internet bookmaker bwin Interactive Entertainment (BWIN.VI) plans a presence in up to four South American countries within the next two years, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Had to happen sooner or later, a massive population, improving infrastructure and a few smaller companies like BetBoo have already led the way. If there are punters down there, Bwin will find them, although the government of Argentina doesn't have a very favourable opinion of sports betting.

No surprise really, a sporting authority meddling in team affairs for the sake of it... Betclic hits out at UEFA shirt ban: 'no legal basis' BETCLIC chief executive Nicolas Béraud has hit out at UEFA’s refusal to let French football team Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) wear his company’s logo for tonight’s Champions League tie with Real Madrid, saying it has “no legal basis”. UEFA have banned Lyon from wearing shirts depicting BetClic as their sponsor, a deal they signed many months ago, because the French government are taking as long as physically possible to delay the enactment of local gambling regulations which are supposed to comply with European Union directives. Rather a big free kick for Bwin, sponsor of Real Madrid, tonight then....

Just a fortnight ago, I reported on Centrebet touting itself for a sale . Where there's smoke there's fire they say, and word is coming from good sources that the company is about to be swallowed up by the global giant Bwin. Expect both companies to keep tight-lipped about it until they have to release it to their respective shareholders and stockmarkets. PartyGaming had been sweet-talking Bwin for sometime about a merger, does this mean they will go back to chasing Ladbrokes again? Interesting times in the gambling world. You heard it here first.

So now the Polish govt have decided to give exemptions on the online betting advertising in Poland to companies investing in sports sponsorship - but with a catch. A rather confused situation this. I imagine a discussion something like this behind closed doors.... "Let's ban all forms of betting unless they have a Polish licence" "Is that a good idea, that only leaves land-based casinos that rob our citizens blind?" "But they pay us lots of taxes" "Well, that's OK then.... What about the sports sponsorships? Unibet, Bwin and other companies pay a lot of money to sponsor sport in Poland, and have legal contracts as well..." "Hmm, we don't want our football clubs to end up like ones in Albania and Latvia that are being investigated for match-fixing... I know, how about we give them an exemption, so they can still spend their money, but reap no benefits from it?" "So you expect these companies to pay hundreds of thousands ...

Found this snippet in my news feed earlier, can't find any more details as C21Media is a subscription site. M6 puts its money on web gambling C21Media - 10 Nov 2009 - 57 minutes ago French broadcaster M6 Group aims to move into online gambling, and is negotiating to acquire poker website Bwin. Never heard of M6 Group before not being French, but it appears they are very big and keen to get involved in the new online gambling regulations to be introduced in France... This article (in French) seems to back it up.

Of all the tennis players you could choose to promote betting on the sport, surely Nikolay Davydenko comes at the very bottom??

Changes occurring in the sponsorship of English competitions with E.ON ending their FA Cup deal and Coca-Cola not renewing their six-year sponsorship of the Football Leagues. Football League seeking new sponsor But the key part for me was right at the tail.... E.ON is ending its sponsorship deal with the FA Cup at the end of the season. E.ON's four-year deal was understood to be worth £32 million, which English football's governing body will be keen to recoup. Betting firm bwin has been linked with the FA Cup title sponsorship and the Austrian company has made it known to the FA that it would consider a bid to replace E.ON. Very interesting!

Very interesting development here - after the legal battles in France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden, particularly involving Betfair, Bwin, Ladbrokes and Stanley International, it seemed that the European Union was forcing the hand of member states to allow free trading across borders for all gambling companies, particularly bookmakers, licensed within the EU. Does this ruling in Portugal open the door for governments to protect their monopolies in the name of fraud and crime prevention? Bwin Loses EU Court Challenge to Portuguese Gambling Monopoly Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, an online bookmaker, lost a challenge to Portugal’s sports- betting monopoly after a European Union court said gambling restrictions are legal as long as they target fraud and crime. Bwin had challenged Portugal’s national gambling monopoly and its extension to online wagering. The ruling today by the European Court of Justice could affect other pending cases i...

Following on from their sponsorship of AC Milan, Bwin are getting aggressive in Italy, this time in poker. Bwin eyes Gioco Digitale deal in Italy Gioco Digitale came to prominence when it swiftly took the number one spot in the burgeoning Italian tournament poker market after it opened up for business late last year. If you've never heard of Gioco Digitale like me, here's a look at their rather flash looking blog site .

I thought Bwin had become a billion-pound business by making shrewd business decisions - I doubt buying Newcastle United FC would ever fit into that category! Austrian firm Bwin makes Toon takeover enquiry It's one thing sponsoring successful clubs like AC Milan and Real Madrid, but owning an under-performing money-guzzler like Newcastle? And how would the Football League look at a club being owned by a betting firm?

bwin have been hammered for closing accts and poor customer service over the years. They even have a rule buried deep in their T&Cs prohibiting accounts from employed at other firms. But this one has to take the cake. The punter wins €2000 and then the bookmaker says 'sorry, we shouldn't have offered these bets to you in the first place'. There's no comeback for this. The punter has done nothing wrong, and bwin have remote staff based in Australia trading live on AFL and NRL matches. If that is not deliberately targetting Australian clients to bet in-running, then I don't know what is. Conveniently hiding behind rules to suit themselves, they know damn well what they are doing is wrong, but also that the Australian government will never prosecute a firm based overseas anyway. Every UK bookmaker offers betting in-running to Aussies, the only firm who restricts is Betfair because they hold an Australian licence. read the thread from OLBG - bwin shafts punter Pure ...