| | |  | Last Updated: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 |  | | | Gambling on Sports Proves Controversial
- Monday, 5 Jun 2006
Sports betting is one of the growth areas of online gambling with nearly every major sports event now available to wager on. However, relationships between sports betting sites and sporting bodies are not without controversy. Last year’s court case between three well-known gambling operators and soccer team Real Madrid proved that stakes are high when sports and lucrative amounts of cash are combined. In recent years, online gambling firms have made huge profits on running sports betting events.
A gambling firm targets fans by providing state of the art graphics on their sites, along with fast, convenient betting facilities and real time results on a variety of events. However not everyone shares the opinion that gambling firms provide a valuable service. Some sporting authorities are concerned that gambling sites use player images for promotional purposes without recognizing clubs or players financially. Last year’s case in France brought by Real Madrid players David Beckham, Ronaldo and Luis Figo against online sports betting firms Ladbrokes, William Hill and Sporting Bet drew particular attention to the use of top sports team’s names and the names of players on sports betting sites.
The sports team’s lawyers argued that the gambling sites should be made to pay a license fee for the right to use names or alternatively, agree to remove the names from their sites. In their defense, the gambling operators claimed that they report factual events and that player names are not used for commercial purposes. The French court subsequently dismissed the case after ruling in favor of the sports betting sites.
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