There has been a great deal of controversy in the cycling world following the decision by the Royal Dutch Cycling Union (‘KNWU’) to enter into a sponsorship agreement with the online betting company Unibet.
CMS law offer a downloadable pdf which discusses the matter in detail. They conclude that the deal “crossed an imaginary red line” because the company did not have an online gambling license in the Netherlands at the time of the deal.
Therefore the Union has effectively entered into an agreement to promote a company that can’t even operate legally within their own country. There are also conflicting opinions on many betting review sites regarding Unibet themselves, with respected outlets such as David Graham’s MobileBettingSite.com rating them at 1/5 at citing rogue behaviour towards customers and business partners alike.
It begs the question as to whether this is a brand that the KNWU would really want to be associated with, quite apart from the legalities of its Dutch license.
CMS law also cites a conflict of interest with the Union’s existing sponsor, the dutch lottery. They state:
First of all, the KNWU is, as indicated above, affiliated with the national umbrella sports association, the NOC*NSF. The main ‘sponsor’(in other words, the financier) of the NOC*NSF and of Dutch sports as a whole, and therefore of the KNWU, is a Dutch organisation, the Nationale Sporttotalisator foundation (‘The Lotto’). The Lotto is, at heart, different from Unibet. In short, it sells tickets for a lottery, which is distinct from betting on sports in the way that Unibet facilitates. Factually speaking, The Lotto and Unibet are not competitors but the market view is that they actually are4 . This is therefore a delicate situation.
So far we are not aware of any comment from The Lotto regarding their position on the matter.
At a time when betting sponsorship in various sports, including football, is under review in many countries across Europe, this could not have been timed any worse.
It seems an ill advised move, and surely the UCI will need to take a position themselves sooner rather than later.
If you have any comments or opinion, please let us know.