Unibet Considers Continuing Court Battle in France

Recently in France the company Unibet lost it's fight in court with Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT), or the French Tennis Federation. The company was ordered to pay a fine of 1.3 million euros, a substantial sum of money.

Unibet is considering it's options and may take the action to the Supreme Court in France or seek another judgement from the European Court of Justice. In a quote obtained by Gaming Intelligence Paul Van den Bulck of McGuire Woods, the legal representative for Unibet said, “We are reviewing the decision. There are a lot of decisions about trade marks and gambling that have to be analysed.” With this ruling by the Court of Appeal legal opinion is now divided with those on the side of the gaming operators and others going with the sporting organizations. In the arguments against Unibet the FFT were successful in maintaining they have a monopoly on the profiting rights of their events. Unibet thought that the existing Code de Sport only covered audio-visual rights.

France's new legislation regarding online gambling will be affected by the decision creating a new right for sport betting. Unibet was also found to have infringed the FFT’s trademark. Unibets lawyer argued it was not the use of a trademark but the just the use of the football club name. Unibet has been successful in defending it's use of the name of the football clubs Juventus and Paris St.Germain.

Unibet which is headquartered in Malta is owned by the Nordic OMX was first established in 1997 and has since grown into the Unibet Group. Together with the Nordic region, Belgium, Netherlands and France constitute their key markets with approximately 18 percent market share in France. Through their website and other platforms including mobile phones and digital TV Unibet offers various products associated with online gambling such as sport odds, live betting, supertoto, various casino-games, poker and bingo. The company's turnover in 2008 was GBP 123.4 million, and claims over 3.1 million customers worldwide. As of January 2009, Unibet has registered customers from more than 150 countries. It is hoped the company will continue it's battle in the courts.