Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2009 40 Regulation Betting Their Shirts Asia-focused gambling operators sponsor top tier European football their marketing budgets on sport due to the symbiotic relationship between the betting and sports industries. Although betting markets are growing ever more diverse, the sportsbook remains the lifeblood of most betting operators. The people most likely to bet on sports events are sports fans, so sponsorship of a sports team or competition is an obvious way to reach the betting operator’s target demographic. Football betting in particular is a growing market for gambling operators, being a major reason for the fact that, in Britain, horseracing now accounts for just 28% of bookmakers’ gross win, compared with 45% only five years ago. Football clubs in particular are also adept at offering more to gambling sponsors than the right demographic. Typically, clubs offer ‘official gambling partner’ status either as part of a shirt sponsorship deal or as a standalone offering, whereby the gambling operator provides branded gambling services at the stadium and via the club’s website. This provides a direct route for the sponsor to generate revenues from the club’s fans—a straightforward way to recruit new customers and demonstrate immediate return on investment. At the time of writing, 19 of England’s 20 Premier League clubs have gambling partners. The odd one out is Manchester City, owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Presidential Affairs. Whilst Asian operators may view football shirt sponsorship as a good way to enter the Europeanmarket or expand existing European operations, the key driver is not necessarily the European market at all—it is the global reach of European football. Most pertinently, prior to the 2009/2010 season Asia accounted for more than 40% of the Premier League’s global television audience and some of its most passionate fans. This proportion is likely to increase if the league is able to secure coverage of at least some matches on a nationwide free-to-air (as opposed to only on pay television) basis in China, as it appears keen to do. An attempt to organise a deal between WinTV (the incumbent Chinese rights-holder for top tier English matches) and Guangdong TV (the national satellite broadcaster) to show a game a week free-to-air collapsed recently. Leading domestic leagues in Europe such as the German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A are also widely available on Asian television screens, as are the UEFA Europa League and Europe’s premier club competition, the UEFA Champions League. As a result, sponsoring a European football club allows Asian A big hand for bwin.com– Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos T he2009/2010European football seasonhas seenanexplosion in the number of predominantly Asia-facing gambling operators signing sponsorship deals with European football clubs. In England’s Premier League alone, operators with a significant Asian presence now sponsor the shirts of no less than four of the 20 teams, with 188Bet sponsoring both Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers, SBOBETsponsoringWestHamUnited,andMansionhavingsponsored Tottenham Hotspur since 2006. In addition, 118bet has also secured standalone “official gambling partner”deals with Aston Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool. This article considers the commercial opportunities behind this trend, and the legal and regulatory challenges facing Asian operators entering the European sponsorship market. Why European football? This question is perhaps more manageable when broken down into its two constituent elements—why football, and why Europe? Addressing the first question, it is no coincidence that gambling operators around the world choose to spend much of