Online gambling companies have become a big source of sponsorships for football clubs. Poland’s proposed legislation to restrict online gambling poses a real threat to football clubs as their major source of finance is threatened. The Wall Street Journal reports on the implications of the legislation for football and states that e-gaming companies provide USD 18.2 million to Polish sports annually, and this includes Unibet's USD 4 million per season sponsorship of Polish football’s second tier 1 Liga. Bet-At-Home and BetClick, other leading on-line gambling operations, are the shirt-sponsors for Wisla Krakow and Lech Poznan, which are leading Polish teams. These annual USD 3 million agreements stand to become illegal if the draft legislation is passed.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski banned slot machines and restricted gambling to actual physical buildings through a bill he signed on Friday. The bill has also outlawed gambling-related marketing and advertising. Poland's legal direction is not a stand-alone position though as e-gaming sponsorship is already illegal in Russia and Ukraine. The European Court of Justice’s ruled against Bwin in the suit it brought against Portugal’s state-controlled monopoly over sport-betting. Bwin’s sponsorship of the Portuguese football league had previously been outlawed by the national government.
The current reality is that football is growing increasingly reliant on money from online gaming agencies. Cristiano Ronaldo and Ronaldinho are among those who wear shirts sponsored by gambling companies. With the global economic crisis taking its toll on many traditional sponsors, it has been a great time for online gaming companies to establish themselves as major sports sponsors.
Given this reality, a ban on gambling sponsorships has serious implications and can well affect the competitiveness of Polish clubs in the European leagues. There is serious concern that if online betting companies are banned in Poland they will have not motivation to be sponsors in the market and their beneficiaries will not be able to find easy replacements.
Even if Poland passes this law there are questions about whether the European Commission will let it stand. Given that one third of English Premier League teams now have shirt-sponsorships with online-gambling companies and given Austrian betting company Bwin’s recent deal with AC Milan and Real Madrid, this is a matter of great interest to the rest of Europe also. There are many newly regulated markets opening up for gambling at the same time and this is likely to facilitate the football and gambling industry alliances. France is expected lift a ban in January which will enable Ligue 1 clubs Marseille and Lyon to wear shirts sponsored by the Malta-based gambling company, Betclic. Italy passed a law allowing online poker last year and Denmark plans to open up its gambling market. This latter development may be the forerunner of things to come in the Scandinavian countries; earlier this year Spanish club Valencia was not allowed to wear shirts with its sponsor Unibet’s name while playing a match in Norway.
There are also concerns about a complete ban on sponsorship of sports by gambling companies similar to the one placed on tobacco companies. Alcohol and gambling sponsorships have recently been scrutinized and they are vulnerable to being outlawed on ethical grounds. A sports-business strategy and marketing professor, Simon Chadwick, says that " …there's now discussion over the banning of alcohol sponsorships, and gambling may also be banned in the coming years because there is a general consensus that socially undesirable sponsorships should not be allowed.” He also refers to the Lisbon Treaty, that is about to be ratified, and feels that online gambling sponsorships can be seen as going against the treaty’s emphasis on leading healthy lifestyles.
The gambling sector and its huge financial contributions to the sponsorship market means that any legislative ban will have tremendous impact on sports in general and football in particular.
Source:eufootball.biz/
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