| | Online Gambling Sports Partnerships Ends | | | 00:05 AM Saturday August 25th 2007 | | | | | The Associated Press news service reports that we are going to witness the end of a great sporting sponsored partnership. The Unibet internationally respected cycling team will disband as a consequence at the end of the year. The online gambling group Unibet decided to end the sports partnership as reported. This kind of partnerships between online casino sites and sports teams is great for online gambling. It projects positively on the industry and it also helps the world of sports as the online gambling community can use some of its fortune to support another great entertainment community.
The Swedish gambling group decided to end the sports partnership after a long dispute with the French race organizations. The latter refused to invite the team as the France law bans international gambling advertising. As a direct result of the dispute, the team missed the world's most important cycling tournament - the Tour de France and was also banned from the Paris-Nice road race. The online casino gambling group received the support of both the International Cycling Union and European Union regulators, but nothing could change the way the race organizers were thinking.
The riders of the sporting team will have to look for a job on different teams. The team general manager had nothing favorable to say about the Amaury Sports Organization which runs the Tour de France. While there was nothing wrong with the team professionally - good athletes were unable to compete because their team had the logo of an online casino business. It seems as the ban over online gambling advertisements has gone too far in France. Betting over sports is a known practice in France and in Europe and the fact that this specific online casino sports book was forigen doesn't have to lead to the disqualification of a sporting team. Hopefully, someone will have to answer for this saddening turn of events.
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