Online Casinos Earn Billions for European Sports Leagues

Revenue produced by online casinos and private gambling operators for European sports organizations runs in the billions each year, a study suggests.

Gambling operators, including online casinos, contribute over $5 billion each year for European sports, according to research by the Remote Gaming Association. Using both public data and private information given by its members, the Internet gambling site advocacy group says the report shows the sheer volume of funding provided by gaming, almost two-thirds of which comes from private operators.

"This report is important in its own right because it demonstrates the scale of funding that flows through the gambling industry and into sports," said RGA CEO Clive Hawkswood. "If nothing else it must serve to counter any claims that sports do not benefit from the link with gambling."

Europe Economics, the independent consultancy hired to do the investigating, determined that sports organizations would be missing major funding without the revenue provided by Internet casinos and other private sector gambling.

Bob Young, a spokesman for Europe Economics, says that contributions from public gaming tend to filter only to a limited number of sports, but that private gambling operators fund a wide variety of sporting groups.

"The most striking thing that our research discovered about sports funding from private sector gambling is the sheer diversity of sport that it supports," said Young.