Second iSportconnect Directors’ Club Germany a Huge Success
December 4, 2012
With almost 50 registered visitors including representatives from Tipico, Interwetten, The Sportsman Media Group, Sport A, Infront Deutschland, ProSiebenSat.1, TSV 1860 München, the German Soccer League and the German Icehockey League, the second iSportconnect Directors Club on “Betting and Gaming – how the state treaty affects the sports and sponsorship industry” was a big success.
Check out the Photos for the Munich event here
After a short introduction from Director of German Operations Sonja Kreye, Dr. Michael Stulz-Herrnstadt, Partner and media rights expert at Bird & Bird LLP, started with a keynote on the current situation with regards to the state treaty. It was Bird & Bird’s partner Joseph Fesenmair, Co-Head of the sports rights group at Bird & Bird, who afterwards anchored a panel discussion between Stefan Meurer, CEO Tipico Deutschland, Ralf Koslowski, CEO Infront Deutschland, Robert Schäfer, CEO TSV 1860 München and Dr. Florian Kolb, Head of Diversification at ProSiebenSat.1.
Many questions and comments from the audience underlined the importance of the topic in the sports industry. More than once it was speculated that the advertising code is only a means of containing the liberalization of the state treaty on betting through additional limitations. Furthermore it was guessed that the advertising code is nothing less than a pre-censorship and prevents expression of opinion. At the end it furthermore became clear that the sports industry still suffers from the unclear legal situation, as turnovers cannot be realized. Not only the top leagues, but also amateur sports would profit from these turnovers. At the same time, the black market flourishes and target of fighting against addiction is not approached in any way.
Sonja Kreye, iSportconnect Director of German Operations, commented: “After our first Directors Club on compliance, it proved right to choose this important topic for our second event. We were completely sold out and received some great feedback from participants. This event provides great opportunities to meet the members of the sports industry in person. We guess that we were able to show what is possible when establishing an event that brings real value and a real possibility to network aside of the virtual services that iSportconnectc.com offers.”
