Bundesliga Fights Shirt Sponsoring Issue
Published: Monday, October 30, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
BUNDESLIGA CLUB FIGHTS LEGAL ISSUE ON SHIRT SPONSORING
"We Win" the slogan for Werder Bremen
When the German Bundesliga football team Werder Bremen beat VfL Bochum last week their shirts bore the slogan "We Win," but it was not from arrogance - the team was protesting at the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, which had endorsed a ban on shirt sponsorship by Austrian online gambling group Bwin.
The defiance of Werder Bremen has not stopped there, either. Deutsche Welle reports that the popular soccer team will face a different type of opponent in the coming weeks when it takes on the Federal Constitutional Court in a challenge seeking to reverse the ban.
The Bundesliga leaders have filed a complaint to the court in an attempt to overturn the ban and have Bwin returned to the chests of its players. The northern city state of Bremen banned the promotion of commercial betting firms in July and Werder have been restricted in their advertising since.
The alternative logo works while Bremen keep winning. "Until we have new regulations, Werder Bremen should be allowed to promote private betting firms," the club said on its Web site, adding that it had filed the complaint on October 13.
The Austrian publicly listed internet betting firm Bwin, at the heart of the sponsorship dispute, is the nation's biggest commercial bookmaker and also sponsors second-tier club 1860 Munich. It has become increasingly embattled following bans on commercial betting imposed on it by three federal states as Germany's regions seek to maintain their lucrative monopoly over the gambling market.
Bwin was dealt a similar blow in France earlier this month when AS Monaco, one of a number of teams outside Germany that the company sponsors, was forced to remove advertising boards for the firm from around the side of the Ligue 1 team's pitch.
The French Professional Football League (LFP) has banned its clubs from advertising any form of gambling and online betting.
The LFP ban came after the two joint chief executives of bwin.com Interactive Entertainment were placed under investigation earlier in October for alleged violation of French gaming laws. Gambling is a state monopoly in France and online betting firms are banned from seeking clients on French territory.
Bwin is just one of the online commercial betting firms which are facing opposition throughout Europe as countries look to protect their own national gambling monopolies. The practice of banning online commercial betting firms is under investigation by the European Commission, which believes that nations which restrict their gambling markets are infringing on competition regulations.
The commission has recently sought information from France and Italy on sports and online betting and from Austria on the casino industry. In April, it opened proceedings against a half-dozen nations, including Germany and the Netherlands.
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