Football shirts – Bone of Contention

Apparently European football shirt sponsorship has come into view as the strange battleground for an increasingly acerbic fight between offshore internet gambling groups and a handful of continental regulators, determined to bar unlicensed online betting on their territory.

The charge for the gambling groups is leaded by Bwin, a Gibraltar-based company. It was already sponsor for the shirts at Champions League winners AC Milan.

Recently the group included also Real Madrid in its sponsorship list by signing a deal of about €21m (£14m) a year. This is the third largest agreement in Europe. The first two are the insurance group AIG's joint with Manchester United and T-Com's contract with Bayern Munich.

Some regarded the move as commercially irrational. But the current rumors and happenings come to demonstrate that Bwin has been hard to stop promoting its betting and gaming websites this way.