/ THE BRIEFING / NEWS
BELGIUM
UNIBET SPONSORSHIP ROW SET
FOR SWEDISH COURTS
The Swedish Gambling Authority
has warned organisers of last
month’s Stockholm Marathon
they may face legal action after
the event refused to pull its
sponsorship deal with operator
Unibet.
The Stockholm Marathon,
which took place on 31 May,
received repeated warnings from
the regulator in the lead-up to
the event that its sponsorship
contract with Unibet was deemed
to be in violation of the Swedish
Lottery Act.
The warnings culminated in
a court injunction being granted
on the eve of the race, however,
organisers decided to press
ahead with a deal that saw Unibet
branding displayed around the
26-mile course.
SWEDEN
S PA I N
GEORGIA
KAMBI ENTERS GEORGIA IN
FIRST POST-UNIBET DEAL
I TA LY
REGULATORY DELAYS “KILLING”
ITALIAN BINGO MARKET
Continual delays to a new online
bingo platform expected to
galvanise the vertical in Italy are
“killing” the market’s chances to
prosper, according to Eurobet’s
gaming director Marco Trucco.
The bingo platform,
PBAD3, which was expected
to be approved by the Italian
regulator at the start of the
year, will enable operators to
W W W. E G R M A G A Z I N E . C O M
offer variants beyond 90-ball
bingo for the first time.
“Everyone expected the
new bingo [platform] to be
rubber-stamped in early 2014,
and we dedicated considerable
time and resources to be ready
with the new guidelines and the
new protocol,” Trucco told eGR.
“We still hope it will see the
light sometime soon, because
the lack of innovation and
flexibility is killing this
product,” he added.
EUROPE
UPDATE
N
E
W
S
EGAMING UPDATES BY COUNTRY
Kambi Sports Solutions has taken
its sportsbook into Eastern
Europe for the first time after
agreeing a deal with Casino
Iveria, one of the largest landbased casinos in Georgia.
The deal, Kambi’s first since
its spin-off from former parent
company Unibet, saw the
sportsbook provider launch an
online sports betting platform
called Iveriabet in regulated
Georgia at the start of the month
in time for the football World
Cup.
The deal also includes
provisional plans to roll the
product out into other countries
such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan
and Uzbekistan at a later date,
while Kambi will also provide
Casino Iveria with a retail betting
outlet in the Georgian capital
of Tbilisi.
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