EUROPEAN COMMISSION TAKES UP ONLINE GAMBLING SPONSORSHIP CASE

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Brussels to the rescue in banned Tour cyclists issue

According to reports in the Financial Times in Britain, the Tour de France cycle race has been hit by controversy not over drugs but gambling, with a team banned for being sponsored by an online bookmaker. And the European Commission is taking an interest in the issue.

The Malta-based Unibet team was barred by the race organisers as a result of the restrictive gaming laws imposed by France. Following the ban, Charlie McCreevy, the internal market commissioner, has written to lawyers of the Green Cycle team and the International Cycling Union, the sport's governing body, pledging his support.

The FT reports that McCreevy is already taking the French government to court for protecting its national gambling monopolies against online competition, and said he would seek to broaden the case to include the cycling restriction.

"Mr McCreevy detects more that a whiff of hypocrisy, given that the biggest backer of the tour is the PMU, the French horseracing monopoly, which encourages bets on the race," observes the newspaper in reporting the incident.

"The consistency of the French approach is highly questionable, given that other teams sponsored by gaming operators in France, such as the Française des jeux, are permitted to participate and given that the main sponsor of the event is in fact a gaming operator, the PMU," says the letter, seen by the Financial Times. The Belgian national lottery also has a team, he adds.

Green Cycle, which joined the professional tour this year, was banned from two races through the Belgian Ardennes this month by Amaury Sports Organisation, which also stages the Tour de France, even though it had offered to remove the Unibet logo from its jerseys. It is suing for Euro 5 million ($6.8 million, GBP 3.4 million) in damages.

ASO says that permitting the team to race would leave it vulnerable to prosecution in France for aiding and abetting illegal gambling.

"It's as if they said in a bar, 'beer is dangerous if you drink the other fellow's brand but not if you drink my brand'," said McCreevy's spokesman. "States are free to control gambling but it must not be discriminatory."

McCreevy also objects to France's flexing its muscle beyond its borders. The Tour de France runs through the UK and Belgium and is broadcast worldwide.

"The French state is trying to extend its cosy arrangement to other countries," said the spokesman. McCreevy has launched a crackdown on online gambling restrictions in a dozen EU countries after a series of European court judgments, most recently against Italy.

Many EU countries have laws that favour traditional state lotteries over newcomers such as internet bookmakers. Charlie McCreevy, the internal market commissioner for the EU, launched cases against a dozen member states in October after complaints from companies and punters. If the European Court of Justice finds in his favour, laws will have to change.