188Bet Becomes Chelsea’s Betting Partner

188Bet becomes Chelsea’s official betting partner.

The Chelsea move follows another deal between 188Bet and Aston Villa FC last week, as well as others this season including 188Bet having signed as the main sponsors of Bolton Wanderers and Wigan football clubs.

The deal will run for an initial three year period, and see Chelsea and 188Bet begin a series of co-marketing initiatives focused on the Asian market. There will also be special 188Bet promotions for Chelsea supporters.

188Bet chief executive Andy Scott stated: “Chelsea’s reach throughout the World will allow 188Bet to fully establish itself throughout the UK and across all key markets.”

Logo Problems For Victor Chandler

The Nottingham Evening Pose newspaper reports that football club Nottingham Forest has to remove the logo of recently signed sponsor Victor Chandler from children’s replica shirts to avoid breaching advertising guidelines.

The club’s new kit was launched last week with the name of the online gambling firm placed on the front.

Adult customers wanting a replica red shirt will be able to choose whether they want the company logo on when it goes on sale on August 7. But anyone under 18 will not be allowed to buy a shirt bearing Victor Chandler’s company symbol.

Forest officials took the decision to stay within the guidelines of the Gambling Commission’s industry code for socially responsible advertising, the newspaper reports. The code, while not legally binding, is designed to stop vulnerable people being attracted to gambling.

The British Football Association wrote to the country’s top clubs in June reminding them of the terms of the code, introduced in 2007.

Ladbrokes Could Pay £1m To Punter

Ladbrokes punter is ready to scoop the maximum £1million jackpot if Red Merlin wins the Ebor Handicap at York later this month. The mystery punter is waiting on the final leg of his treble having seen Laa Rayb and Genki win last week at Glorious Goodwood.

He now has £84,500 running onto his 12/1 selection Red Merlin in the Ebor which would make him £1m richer.

Ladbrokes spokesman David Williams said: “Both we and the punter are set for a fortnight of sleepless nights. He’s on the brink of a life-changing win and we’re staring down the barrel of a record breaking payout. It’s a recession-busting type of a bet and if Red Merlin hits the front in the final furlong at York we’ll be in a whole world of trouble.”

The £250 win treble was placed last month by telephone.

188Bet To Sponsor Aston Villa

Online sportsbook 188Bet has replaced Bet Direct as official betting partner of Aston Villa Football Club.

The deal follows primary sponsorship deals with Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers and will see 188Bet become Aston Villa’s official betting partner for the 2009/10 and 2010/11 Premier League seasons.

The partnership will include branding on the grounds and promotional activity to Aston Villa fans.

Ladbrokes Moves To Gibraltar

Ladbrokes follows its rival William Hill in moving its web betting to Gibraltar. This move will save one of leading British bookmakers around £7m per year.

Ladbrokes will retain its call centre operations for telephone betting in Britain.

The cost-cutting move comes after the bookmaker announced that its pre-tax profits went down by 3.9% to £131.3m over the last six months.

Chief Executive Chris Bell said trading conditions had worsened since May but the company was still aiming to meet full-year expectations. He added that the bookmaker is planning to sell its Italian retail business and had received some expressions of interest.

On the positive side, Ladbrokes said it had 12,500 new eGaming customer sign-ups – bringing its total to 249,000. It also announced that it will launch a new betting website by December.