FC Porto, Juventus and PSV Eindhoven are some of the sports clubs that took online betting operators, Bwin, William Hill and Unibet to court in a disagreement over the use of the club names on online gambling websites.

The Belgian appeals court in Liege decided that online gambling is a separate business activity and thus the sport organizers had no claim to charge a fee for the use of their names. The sports clubs were looking for 2 million Euros from the operators of gambling companies as compensation as well as a court ordered action curtailing the operators’ activities. The clubs also tried to get the court to impose fines of up to €50,000 for violations of the sports clubs image rights.

So the appeal court has sided with the bookmakers in a decision that clears the way for them to a use sports organization’s name and event when taking wagers. The sports organizations wanted to charge a fee to the gambling operators each time they would use the sports group’s names or event tags.

Paul van der Bulk, a partner at McGuire Woods, the legal firm representing the gambling firms, stated, “What they wanted was money for using the trademarks. But the court simply said that the activities of a sports team are one activity and gambling is another activity. It’s part of the principle of freedom of commerce. It’s like a restaurant near the Le Mans circuit or an airline during the World Cup having an obvious benefit but they are not connected enough to the sport enough to need to license.”

The defense lawyer suggested that the decision may or may not be helpful with similar court cases in France. Investor relations manager at Bwin, Konrad Sveceny said of the decision, “We’re very happy that this is now off the table. There is an appeal but we don’t see any reason why this dispute should go any further. We see ourselves as contributors to sports and a partner to sports organizations.”

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