Monthly Archives: March 2016

Betting firms’ sponsorship of top European football rises 180% in one year

Australian online bookmaker Sportsbet has inked a new betting partnership with Australian Football League side Brisbane Lions.

The Lions claim the two-year, “six-figure” deal will offer prominent placement for Sportsbet’s brand across all of the club’s digital properties, including desktop, mobile, app and email. The deal apparently doesn’t include any offline branding opportunities.

Sportsbet will provide integrated content that gives Lions fans all the necessary info they need ahead of each weekend’s games, while the bookmaker is also temporarily offering a free Lions jersey for new account signups.

The partnership marks a reversal of a recent trend that has seen seven AFL clubs reject sports betting partnerships after striking a deal with the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. The Richmond Tigers, which were formerly sponsored by Sportsbet, announced last month that they wouldn’t be re-upping with the bookie.

Online bookmaker Pinnacle Sports gains control of Pinnacle.com domain

Online bookmaker Pinnacle Sports has gained control of the Pinnacle.com domain.

On Friday – a very Good Friday, if you’re the Curacao-based sports betting operator – DotWeekly.com reported that Pinnacle Sports had been listed in the Whois registry as the new owner of the Pinnacle.com domain.

The domain had been owned by Avnet, a Phoenix-based Fortune 500 technology company that acquired the domain in 2011 via its $22m purchase of Pinnacle Data Systems Inc. This week saw the domain transferred from the MarkMonitor corporate brand protection service to the SafeNames registry, and while privacy protection blocked the new owners’ identity, the administrative email lists a pinnaclesports.com contact (although the domain currently still redirects to Avnet’s corporate site).

Pinnacle has long operated using its official full name Pinnaclesports.com but the new domain will undoubtedly make it easier for bettors to find what they’re looking for, particularly given the company is popularly referred to minus the ‘sports’ appendage. The domain acquisition could signal a subtle tweaking of the company’s branding strategy is in the works.