July 12, 2007 (Paris, France) — The Swedish-based ProTour team, Unibet, lost a court battle on Tuesday regarding the team’s exclusion from the Tour de France. Petter Nylander, the top executive of Unibet – an on-line gambling house that sponsors the bike team – planned to sue TdR owner Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), and other organizations, for 100 million euros ($145 million CDN) over its refusal to invite the Unibet team to participate in the 2007 TdF reports Bookmaker’s Review.

Despite Unibet’s ProTour status – that theoretically makes its inclusion automatic at such prestigious bike races – ASO cites an 1836 French law banning publicity for gambling houses other than those accorded monopolies by the French government. As such, Francaise des Jeux, the French national lottery, can sponsor and enter a team in the TdF, but Unibet cannot.

Unibet has been banned from other races including: Paris-Nice, Tirreno Adriatico, Paris-Roubaix, Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro d’Italia this year. According to Nylander, Unibet’s allies include the European Commission, which has placed the issue high on its agenda as cited in the Sydney Morning Herald.

In April, the UCI joined Unibet in an unsuccessful Nanterre Commerce Court (Belgium) case against ASO – also concerning Unibet’s exclusion from ProTour races by ASO – but it is unclear if the UCI was a co-plaintiff in this recent court battle in France.