Bwin, Mangas brands, Unibet escape Poland sponsor ban
Sponsorship deals held by operators in Poland including football deals held by Bwin, Unibet, Betclick, Bet-At-Home and Expekt have been exempted from Poland's gambling crackdown.
SPORTS SPONSORSHIP DEALS held by operators in Poland including football deals held by Bwin, Unibet, and Mangas Gaming’s Betclick, Bet-At-Home and Expekt have escaped a ban after being exempted from the gambling crackdown in the country due to be signed into Polish law this month.
As reported on EGRMagazine.com, deals between egaming companies and sports teams under threat from the proposed ban on gambling advertising in Poland included Unibet’s 4m-a-season title sponsorship of the second tier of Polish football, Unibet 1.Liga; Expekt’s sponsorship of the Polish national team; and BetAtHome, Betclick and Bwin’s sponsorship of three football teams from the Ekstraklasa top division of Polish football.
However while Poland’s Senate on Friday voted in favour of a ban all forms of gambling outside land-based casinos, sponsorships of sporting teams by bookmakers were exempted from the integral ban on all forms of gambling-related marketing and advertising, which Polish president Lech Kaczynski is anticipated to sign into law on Monday.
The Polish parliament’s decision is aimed at safeguarding the PLN50m (£11m) channelled into Polish sport each year by egaming companies, and follows lobbying by groups including Betclick-sponsored Lech Poznan and the BetAtHome-sponsored Wisla Krakow teams and the Polish Football Association, who outlined how the proposed advertising ban could be financially damaging to sport.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the clampdown on all forms of gambling in the wake of four senior Polish officials being forced to resign on suspicion of their decisions being unduly influenced by gaming industry lobbyists. If President Kaczynski signs the ban into law on 30 November as is expected, only online bookmakers with sports sponsorships will be allowed to display their logos and brands in the country.
Piotr Dynowski, a senior associate at the Warsaw office of law firm Bird & Bird, explained: “This will be limited to their name or other branding and marking. There can’t be any content other than name and logo on shirts, banners and billboards showing which a particular team is sponsored by, with no advertising directing customers to websites allowed.”
Maciej Poschwald, country manager for Betsson, which does not have any high-profile sporting sponsorships in the country, said Poland was entering an era where “budget would not mean as much as creativity” for egaming marketing. Bwin, Unibet and the Mangas brands were not available for comment at the time of writing.
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