Germany awaits sports gambling ruling 06/09/2010 |
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German football clubs may tap into revenue from the country’s 7.8bn euro betting market when the European Court of Justice decides on the legality of the its sports gambling laws this week.
The Luxembourg-based court is scheduled to rule on Wednesday (September 8) whether Germany’s inter-state gambling treaty breaks European law.
A decision to overturn the law could boost teams’ income by 300m euros, reports Bloomberg, with sponsorships and agreements giving them a slice of gambling revenue.
Unregulated online betting currently accounts for 3.9bn euros, or about half of Germany’s sports gambling market, according to a study by media research company Goldmedia GmbH.
“The current state monopoly on sports gambling is fundamentally flawed,” Rainer Mutschler, chief executive of VfB Stuttgart Marketing GmbH, the commercial arm of the Bundesliga club, said. “A controlled, licensed sports betting market should be introduced.”
Even with Germany’s ban on sports-betting sponsorships, gambling operators are featured on the shirts of 20 clubs in Europe’s five most popular leagues – more than any other industry.
“The extra money would certainly strengthen German clubs’ position in the transfer market,” Mutschler said. “Most German clubs are not run to make a profit, but rather to reinvest money in the playing squad.”
Germany’s laws maintain a state monopoly on sports gambling, a ban on online betting and on advertising for bookmakers. Three cases at the European Court of Justice, the first to deal with German gambling laws, will rule on the legality of these measures.
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