The bookmaker Bwin signed a contract to sponsor the Liga Portugal, and may even name the championship, which would be called “Liga Bwin”. According to information from the newspaper “A Bola”, the settlement, which will be valid from next season, is signed and results in a significant financial increase for the Portuguese competition.
The bookmaker is a brand belonging to Bet.pt. Although there is no official confirmation of the amounts involved or the duration, the new commercial arrangement is well above the 4.8 million euros paid per season by “NOS” in recent years.
And, according to Tribuna Expresso, the amount also exceeds the 5.5 million euros offered by Betano, another sports betting company, which was interested in sponsoring the main Portuguese football tournament. However, Betano is not thinking of giving up so easily and can go to court.
This was because everything seemed adjusted for the signing of the contract, only that the organization of Liga Portugal withdrew due to a contractual term triggered by another partner. The league’s stance was strongly criticized by the betting company.
Betano promises to take pending dispute with Portuguese League to the courts
Also according to Tribuna Expresso, Betano’s marketing director, Panos Konstantopoulos, reportedly sent a statement to the teams that are part of the Portugal League. He stated that he intends to “assert all his rights through the agreement finalized with Liga Portugal”, and that he will go to the courts to resolve the issue.
Konstantopoulos spared no criticism of the representatives of the Portuguese competition. “We strongly believe that, due to the credibility and defense of the collective interests of its individual members, if nothing else, the Portugal League (being the sixth largest professional league in Europe) should always be concerned with dealing with possible sponsorships”.
The marketing director at Betano also pointed out that the brand was willing to “seriously invest in the competition with the most professional, impeccable and exemplary attitude possible, reasonable expectations that the representatives of Liga Portugal did not fulfill in this case”.
