Sports bettings in Spain has not yet  grown to have become a successful business. This could explain why Bwin sold its 49% of Winners to its partner in Madrid Betbull.

The Madrid joint venture was the first and the last step of Bwin in the Spanish offline betting market. But, at the end of the last year, the Winner’s shareholders agreed to pass 49% of Bwin’s shares to Betbull, in exchange Bwin received over one million titles of Betbull. As a result of this operation, Bwin is now the largest shareholder of its online competitor with around 37% of Betbull’s shares.

Ignacio Suarez, the operating director of Winners, ensures that the growth plan of company continues and they are openings new shops, but he reconigzes that now this plan is less ambitious than the original. Currently Winners has 6 operating premises in Madrid. When the company announced its entry into betting offline activity at the end of 2008, it expected to open about 120 betting shops.

Suarez attributed the delay to difficulties in obtaining gaming licenses for new establishments. Furthermore, he notes that the sports betting business could experience a significant growth in the short term as Ceuta, La Rioja and Valencia predictably will regulate sports betting before the end of 2011. If so, Winners could obtain licenses to operate in these regions.

Source: Cinco Días