Lotto versus Unibet
March 6th, 2007 |
VeloNews actually makes a good point regarding Unibet’s exclusion from Paris-Nice:
The reason is that it is illegal to publicize betting in France and the team is sponsored by an online betting shop. Oddly enough, the French law in question is a 19th century regulation that bans the promotion of gambling, including “lotteries,” which could conceivably ban participation by two long-time pro teams, Française des Jeux and Predictor-Lotto.
I am sure that France has some kind of exception to allow the promotion of its own national lottery in the case of Française des Jeux. But Lotto backed teams have been actively racing in France for almost 20 years with no problems. Seems a bit hypocritical to ban Unibet while allowing Lotto.
Never-the-less, both the Unibet and Astana racing teams paid the UCI over $40 million each in order to qualify as a Pro Tour team for 2007. Neither one of these teams are getting what they paid for.
