National lottery operator denies having demanded ban on sponsorship advertising by Åland betting firm

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Finland’s national lottery and pools company Veikkaus, which is also the main sponsor of the country’s premier football league, has denied the information currently circulating to the effect that it would have demanded a club remove the logo of an offending sponsor from its shirts.
      The club in question is the Åland-based IFK Mariehamn, which is seeking entry to the league via promotion/relegation play-offs. IFK Mariehamn is in turn sponsored by PAF, an offshore betting company based in the Åland Islands.
      "Veikkaus has been a passive player in this dispute. The Finnish FA and the Football League have merely upheld their responsibilities as partners. We have a normal sponsorship agreement, under the terms of which there should not be other advertising from companies in the same branch while the contract is in force", said Veikkaus’s Director of Communications Ilkka Juva.
     
Veikkaus enjoys a monopoly on lottery, pools, and variable- and fixed-odds gambling activities in mainland Finland, but Åland law is slightly different. There have been earlier disputes over the advertising of online suppliers of gambling services, for example Ladbrokes, who would dearly like to gain access to the wider Finnish market.
      In this latest case, the Finnish FA has demanded that IFK Mariehamn, who currently play in the division immediately below the Finnish League, must remove the PAF advertisements from their team-shirts for the away fixture of their two-legged qualifier against FC Jazz in Pori.
      After the company gave the club a free hand in the matter, the IFK Mariehamn management decided on Monday that the advertising logos would be taped over for the Pori match, to be played on Saturday October 16th.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Wanna bet? Finland's gaming monopolies are under attack (16.12.2003)
  UK bookmakers Ladbrokes file complaint against Finnish restrictive practices over Internet betting (19.8.2003)
  Three Åland gambling monopoly executives charged with gaming violations (23.5.2001)

Links:
  Veikkaus

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