Bwin gives up shirt sponsorship at AC Milan

Online Austrian bookmaker Bwin has announced that its four year shirt sponsorship deal with Italian giants AC Milan, estimated to have been worth €12 million per year  will come to an end at the end of the season. The sponsorship will be taken over by the Middle East Airline company Emirates who already have several running shirt sponsorships including Arsenal at the “Emirates Stadium”, Paris St Germain, Hamburg and Olympiacos. Emirates is also a sponsor of several other sporting activities.  This comes at a time when the Italian market is opening up for online casinos so the effect is unknown. Bwin will continue the shirt sponsorship deal with Spanish club Real Madrid so will not exactly fade away from the football scene. Not casino related but it is worthwhile to note that the long running shirt sponsorship of Manchester United by insurer AIG is also coming to an end after this season and that is being taken over by AON, another insurance company. It would appear that both sides have been happy with the arrangement with Manfred Bodner of Bwin saying “Milan has made an instrumental contribution to the further growth in our brands recognition and the promotion of our image within the market” while Adriano Galliani from the Milan club said “We thank our friends at bwin with whom we have worked well and fruitfully over 4 exciting seasons” and with so much praise for each other you wonder why it has ended. Would it have been different if the incoming sponsor was in competition with bwin? Who knows.