Sport is made for betting

Another Asian bookie heads to the UK market, following the lead of SBOBet and 188Bet. Nearly 50% of Premier League sponsored by gaming In the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the club’s 128 year history, premiership football club Burnley FC has announced a multi-million pound two-year deal with Asian online gaming operator Fun88 , becoming the UK's eighth top flight football team to carry the name of an online gaming operator. Under the agreement, Fun88 will have their logo emblazoned on the club's home and away shirts beginning next season. The initial two-year deal, the first time the football club has attracted international interest, represents the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the Clarets' history. Currently this firm is very Asian-focused but is intent on gaining a presence in Europe from next football season by all reports.

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 ...

There have been several stories around in recent weeks about the threat of gambling bans being introduced in Poland, mostly a lot of speculation about what might happen and panicking about complete bans. This latest report centres on advertising and marketing bans which will strip Polish football clubs and the second division of millions of euro. Exclusive: Bwin, Mangas, Unibet sports sponsorship threat Current deals between egaming companies under threat from the law include Expekt’s sponsorship of the Polish national team; BetAtHome’s shirt sponsorship of Wisla Krakow, champions of last year’s Ekstraklasa top league in Polish football; Betclick’s shirt sponsorship of Ekstraklasa team Lech Poznan and Bwin’s role as a principal sponsor of Ekstraklasa team Legia Warszawa. The loss of Unibet’s title sponsorship of the second tier of Polish football, Unibet 1.Liga, could alone cost the Polish National 2nd League €4m a season. The Polish prime minister announced a clampdown on all forms o...

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!

Cardiff City FC showed that wisdom and commercial acumen aren't amongst their fortes with this deal. Unlicensed 777Ball Told to Suspend Football Sponsorship Days after signing a one-year shirt sponsorship agreement with 777ball.com, Football League Championship side Cardiff City FC has been forced to remove its sponsor's logo from shirts, after the Gambling Commission warned that the Asian online gaming operator had not obtained a UK operating licence which would enable it to advertise in the country. Has anyone ever heard of them? Apparently they have a licence in the Philippines, in the First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corporation. They don't have a UK licence and the Philippines isn't a country of the UK Gambling Commission's White List of territories outside the European Union, implying naivety at its best from both the club and the bookmaker. The bookmaker says it will now apply for the relevant licence - good luck getting that before next season then!

Who'd have thought crusty old William Hill would sponsor a football team? Certainly not in the UK but they've taken the big step to sponsor Malaga, the closest club to their Gibraltar base of online operations, in La Liga. William Hill signs shirt sponsorship deal with Malaga CF It's easier this season to count the clubs who aren't sponsored by bookmakers!

Betfair have opened their deep coffers and stepped into the non-English language market for this first time - at least at this level. As tipped on this site months ago , Betfair have signed as official betting partner with FC Barcelona according to this report: FC Barcelona sign with Betfair It's a big step up from the days of sponsoring Fulham at Loftus Rd (when Craven Cottage was supposed to be getting re-developed). Will it open up South America for them? It might help if they stop using misleading ads about their products .

Sportingbet take a fairly safe gamble on Wolves lasting the pace and being promoted to the Premier League next season. Sportingbet to sponsor Wolves Football Club So in the English leagues, that makes: Betfair (Fulham 2002/3) 888 (formerly Boro) Bet24 (Blackburn) SBOBet (West Ham 2008/9 after XL Airways collapsed) 32 Red (formerly Villa) Mansion (Spurs) (Feel free to add more in the comments please) and then there's Real Madrid and AC Milan being sponsored by bwin. Anti-gambling crusaders say it's a bad thing for the sport etc... the funny thing is that after Manchester United knocked back a deal from a gambling company, who did they go with? AIG who are turning out to be one of the biggest corporate crooks in the world!!