SOURCE: GamingIntelligenceGroup

Spain’s communications watchdog, Asociación de Usuarios de la Comunicación (AUC), has logged a formal complaint with the Administrative branch of Spain’s Ministry of Economy and Taxes, demanding an investigation into bwin’s sponsorship of Real Madrid FC.

The consumer protection agency believes that the countries existing legislation makes it illegal for unlicensed online gaming operators to offer gambling services in Spain. As such, the AUC considers the promotion of such services to also be illegal.

Speaking exclusively to Gaming Intelligence Group, Alejandro Perale, spokesman for the AUC said, “We have logged several formal complaints within the past few weeks. One was against the media, involving Cadena Radio & Television, and several newspapers that carried advertising for online gaming companies. We have also made a complaint against the Spanish football teams Real Madrid, Seville and Figueres, who are sponsored by bwin, 888.com and Miapuesta respectively.”

“The inclusion of the bwin logo on the shirts of Real Madrid during Sunday’s championship decider has made it even more imperative for the government to clarify the situation,” he said.

Last week Francisco Antonio Gonzales, the Sports spokesman for Spain’s main opposition party, Partido Popular, denounced foreign online gaming companies as illegal and also called on the government to take action, claiming that such companies were in breach of at least eight Spanish laws. According to Gonzales, Real Madrid and other sporting teams are also complicit in these crimes through the promotion of online gambling, and their management should therefore expect consequences.

The Spanish authorities have so far been reluctant to take action against unlicensed foreign online gambling companies, however this could now change as the AUC steps up its campaign against the industry following what it called the high profile promotion of bwin in such an important game as Sunday’s match between Real Madrid and Mallorca, a match that virtually brought the country to a standstill.

Elsewhere in Europe the internal market commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, has written to the organisers of the Tour de France to express his dissatisfaction after the Unibet team were banned from this years event. Unibet sponsors the Green Cycle team which has not been allowed to take part due to French restrictions on gambling promotion, even after they offered to remove the Unibet branding from the team.

The move has been widely viewed as unjust and protectionist, particularly as the French horse racing monopoly Pari Mutuel Urbain is the Tour's main sponsor. France’s national lottery operator La Francaise des Jeux is also a sponsor of one of the competing teams.

Both the exclusion of the Unibet cycle team and the uproar surrounding bwin’s sponsorship of Real Madrid demonstrate just how far European member states are from a consensus view on online gaming.

In announcing their deal with Real Madrid, bwin said that in future they would invest available sponsorship resources in markets that have adopted an enlightened attitude to the subject of gaming regulation. Without clear and decisive direction from the EU, all sponsorship of sports by online gaming companies could now be called into question, due to the international reach and viewership of such sporting events.