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Monday, September 18, 2006
Soccer clubs file complaints against online gambling sites

Some large European soccer clubs, Real Madrid, FC Porto and PSV Eindhoven and some of their players, Ronaldo, Zidane, Beckham and Raul filed a complaint against online gambling companies Betfair, Unibet, Bwin, Sportingbet, William Hil and Victor Chandler for unauthorized use of their brand name and image rights and unauthorized offering of betting services.

The complaint was filed last week at the court of Liege in Belgium. Real Madrid already filed a complaint last year at a court in Paris against the same betting operators and for the same reasons.

European soccer proves to be opportunistic about online gambling, with some clubs accepting shirt sponsorship deals by online sports books and others bringing the same sports books to court for unauthorized use of their IP rights and offering illegal betting