Italy’s top flight football league has suspended a sponsorship deal with a Russian online bookmaker following widespread protestations by government and regulatory voices.

Italy’s Serie A football league recently announced a deal with Russian bookmaker 1xbet’s Curacao-licensed online gambling operation in which the company would serve as the league’s international presenting partner (excluding Asian markets) for the 2017-18 football season.

However, since Italy has a regulated online gambling market and actively blocks the domains of online gambling operators not holding an Italian license – like 1xbet – the deal was met with howls of protest from the country’s Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM) gaming regulatory body and the usual crop of publicity-hungry politicians.

Infront, the sports marketing company that facilitated the betting partnership between 1xbet and Serie A, defended the deal, saying 1xbet’s lack of a local license was “of no relevance” to the deal as it only applied outside the country and thus no 1xbet marketing would be visible by Italian punters.