Since 2005, bwin.party has been embroiled in a legal case in Portugal regarding the company’s sponsorship deals and their advertising rights in general. Yesterday, the online gaming giant was given the bad news when a Portuguese court ordered the company to cease and desist all of their advertising activities in Portugal.

bwin and PartyGaming merged early this year to create Europe’s biggest online gambling and sportsbook. In addition to the company’s joining in all of their assets, the new body also inherited all of the legal cases involving the two constituent companies.

A Portuguese court found yesterday that bwin.party’s marketing activities within the country are, in fact, against the law and ordered bwin.party to discontinue all related activities in Portugal. Analysts estimate that the result of the case could prove quite costly for bwin.party when taking into consideration that the company has invested a great deal in Portugal. Of course, the court’s decision will also have a significant impact on the various publications and sports clubs that bwin.party supported.

bwin.party is not the only online gambling operator affected seriously by the court’s decision. Currenlty, Betclic is also very heavily invested in Portugal supporting a number of sports clubs such as Sporting Clube de Braga. Betfair also enjoys a significant share of the Portuguese online gambling market as well being involved in a number of domestic sponsorships.

While other companies are certainly affected, none are nearly as exposed as bwin.party. The company could very well miss out on a giant multi-million Euro deal that they had in the works with the Portuguese Football League (LPFP). The LPFP responded to the decision handed down by the Portuguese court by saying that the cancelation of the deal with bwin.party could have wide ranging effects on the Portuguese football industry.

The problem that the Portuguese court had with bwin.party was that the fact that while the company marketed and advertised in Portugal, they didn’t pay taxes in the country. Attorneys for bwin.party argued that any limitation on bwin.party’s activities in the country was, in fact, a breach of European Union laws.

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