Unibet @ Tour

[Pas Souci]

I week ago i heard from my mate that Unibet may not be competing at the Tour. I know about there sponsorship debacles, not racing in some countries, and in others racing under Canyon (bike sponsor). But come on, banning them from the Tour. Is this true or was it just an inaccurate report my mate read?

 

[whiteboytrash]

I week ago i heard from my mate that Unibet may not be competing at the Tour. I know about there sponsorship debacles, not racing in some countries, and in others racing under Canyon (bike sponsor). But come on, banning them from the Tour. Is this true or was it just an inaccurate report my mate read?

Oh dear.....

 

[Denia]

This is a long-running debacle which has resulted in the Unibet Team missing out on the Tour and various other high profile races including some of the Spring Classics. The French don´t allow the advertising of gambling (unless of course it´s their own national lottery-sponsored team Francaise des Jeux). Neither do our Gallic friends seems to be perturbed that the European Parliament has said the law is on Unibet´s side. Their double standards are incredible as I don´t believe any other European country bans Francaise des Jeux from riding - why should they be allowed to ride in the Giro and the Vuelta on the grounds that Italy and Spain both have their own national lotteries? Why do the French think they can control advertising when they are a founding member of the European Union (open competition without borders etc.)? Do the French public not get bombarded with gambling adverts on the internet?

In other sports, I have seen Real Madrid playing in the Champions League in France and having to remove their Bwin logos but no-one ever suggested Madrid couldn´t actually play their games. However when Unibet offered to ride with a question mark as their logo (or with Canyon as the main sponsor) they still couldn´t satisfy the Frenchies.

The result is a very talented team missing out on the chance to compete at the highest level. I´m not sure why the necessary cycling bodies haven´t made a much bigger deal of this and why other teams haven´t shown more support towards Unibet - are they all scared of the TdF organisers? Unibet paid their dues to have a pro team, to them exclude them from major races is scandalous.

 

[Pas Souci]

Cheers guys. I knew they had been baned from a couple races from france but i wasn't sure weather they'd carry it out at the Tour. Thanks again.

 

[poulidor]

Unibet received an "illegal" Pro-Tour licence. Their team's manager knew that the number of PT team were limited to satisfy GT who need to have the possibility to invite extern teams. Something has certainly happened between UCI (or some of its managers) and Unibet. UCI tried to use Unibet to pressure GTs with the knowledge of Unibet.
Unibet was warning many times that their sponsor was illegal in some countries. European Justice gave in 2 cases 2 differents results: one for Unibet and one for AS, and there is certainly a lot of technicalities to debate, like "are these european laws applicable in France?"