August 16, 2007 (Stockholm, Sweden) — Unibet has decided to end its sponsorship of a Continental cycling team at the end of this season reports according to their web site Unibet.com (click here). Unibet, an online gambling company, and its predecessor, Mr Bookmaker, have supported a continental cycling team since 2002.

In December, 2006, Unibet was awarded a UCI ProTour license and the expectation was that they would participate in the major races. But during the 2007 season the team was excluded from the “Grand Tours” (Tour de France, Vuelta, Giro, etc). Unibet, an online sports betting site listed on the Stockholm stock exchange, has consequently decided to end its sponsorship announced in a press release yesterday.

“We would like to salute the professionalism of the entire team of Green Cycle Associates AB, its managers and cyclists. This mutually-taken decision was a very difficult one, but as the team and the individual riders had been excluded to compete for discriminatory and inconsistent reasons, Unibet had no other choice,” explained Petter Nylander, CEO of Unibet.

Team general manager Koen Terryn blamed the situation on “being taken hostage” by the Amaury Sports Organisation (which owns the TdF) in the ASO’s war against the UCI.

This news follows the announcement that the Texas-based Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team will cease operations at the end of this season.