The executive director at Asian-facing sports-betting operator SBOBet believes the sponsorship of English Premier League football clubs by online gaming companies is a “match made in heaven” and has once again dismissed concerns over the issue of the integrity of sports.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chairman of German football giant Bayern Munich, said his club will “intensify” its lobbying towards a liberalization of Germany’s sports betting market as legal concerns restrict Bayern’s sponsorship deal with Bwin to the online gaming company’s play-for-free poker site. Meanwhile, as shirt sponsorship gossip builds in the UK, Unibet has agreed a deal to sponsor leading Spanish football team Valencia CF.

Gaming companies are in the running to acquire the naming rights to Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium, according to an executive director at the English Premier League club.

The future of Cardiff City’s shirt sponsorship deal with an Asian bookmaker is uncertain after regulators said sponsor 777ball.com was not permitted to advertise gambling in the UK.

Last week’s Bwin Liga judgment at the European Court of Justice has already dealt a major blow to the finances of Portuguese football, but the European football industry, and online operators, remain sanguine that the wider trend of gambling industry sponsorship will not be deflected.

Bodog Europe is in the running to be the next shirt sponsor at English Premier League club Fulham when the current deal with Korean electronics firm LG runs out next year.

Against the backdrop of regulatory uncertainty regarding pan-European betting sponsorship, Real Madrid has renewed its shirt deal with Vienna-based Bwin for a reported fee of €23-24m per year until 2013.

Bwin has launched negotiations with Real Madrid to renew its three-year sponsorship deal with the Spanish football giant.

While the worthy objective of “Protecting children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling” is one of the three statutory tenants of the 2005 Gambling Act, the Gambling Commission’s response to the question of whether to allow gambling advertisements on children’s clothing is strangely muted.

Confusion over UK regulations governing gaming firms’ sponsorship of children’s replica shirts has been highlighted just days before the start of the new football season.