First off, two telling quotes:

“As a reliable sports betting provider, we focus our engagements and collaborations in sports with long-term partnerships that enable maximum entertainment. We are proud that we have a multi-year partnership with the NHL – the best ice hockey league in the world…”

“As a reliable sports betting provider, we always strive for long-term partnerships and corporations with international reputation. It fills us with pride that, with the help of Onside Sports GmbH, we will have one of the most traditional and powerful club brands in the world at our side in Liverpool FC.”

Both statements, almost identical, belong to Stefan Sulzbacher, Interwetten Group’s speaker of the board. For those unfamiliar with the brand name, it comprises one of the world’s biggest sports betting and online gaming companies, active for the past 30 years, and currently a license holder for the Greek market, as granted by the Hellenic Gaming Commission.

Everything legal, principled and ideally crafted, assuming one forgets that this … major company is accused of accumulating a 1.8-million-euro debt, at least, in the local market. Everything would also be rosy if, at the same time when Mr. Sulzbacher refers to a “reliable sports betting provider”, the company he represents wasn’t threatening the Greek market with a “burnout”.

Because when you owe nearly two million euros to television stations, sites, the Super League of pro football – of which Interwetten is a sponsor – and practically to everyone who speaks Greek, but at the same time promote your “reliability”, then something is definitely amiss.

The specific gentlemen often appears at various events and at deal-signing ceremonies for the sports betting company. For instance, he was photographed with NHL officials when Interwetten finalized a deal to sponsor North America’s top pro hockey league. He was also the one to announce that German football legend Lothar Matthäus would join the sports betting company’s extended corporate family. Mr. Sulzbacher was also in attendance at the event to announce the company’s sponsorship deal with celebrated Liverpool FC.

He’s seen greeting guests, posing for photographs and making grand statements extoling the company’s credibility.

However, behind the photographs, smiles and the over-the-top statements by the company’s representative, things appear …murky, especially in Greece, where beyond the unpaid arrears that now threaten major players in the domestic market, other questions arise for the punters that trust the company with their bets.

Even as Interwetten officials have disappeared from view or are trying to blame the company’s former representative, the essence of the matter is that someone must finally address the debts being accumulated months now, as Mr. Sulzbacher has disappeared from Greece for quite some time now.

On … reliability

In reading about the company’s history and profile, someone may initially be impressed. The company was created in 1990 by Wolfgang Fabian, with sports betting first handled by phone. The first online betting webpages followed in 1997, completing transforming the market.

As one can read from the company’s profile: “The Austrians support a very high level of reliability, they have a close cooperation with the Greek Football League, something that demonstrates the reliability and quality of online betting.”

For those with intimate knowledge of the Greek betting market, Stefan Sulzbacher was among those who brought the Austrian company to Greece and promoted it, in every possible manner, when it received a license from the Hellenic Gaming Commission. Their main objective was to unveil a series of promotional campaigns in mass media, so that the company would be made well-known to Greek sports betters – while always playing up its more than 30 years of experience in the global sports betting and online gaming market as a primary indicator of reliability.

Nevertheless, events show a quite different side of the company. The market’s nervousness on when it will receive the money owed by Interwetten has reached a fever pitch, leaving punters wondering if their turn is next. Major operators in the Greek market who are owed tens of thousands of euros cannot fathom how a company that operates within a legal framework, and which – supposedly – is regulated by a competent authority, could take actions that are inconsistent with the principles of reliability and corporate responsibility.

They also fear that the company may, at some point, exit the Greek market, cease its activities or find other ways to continue doing business, without, however, paying off its debts. Seeking legal redress and filing class-action suits is the only “weapon” that Interwetten’s suppliers and clients retain, but nothing can guarantee that an Austrian company now… headquartered in Malta, will respond.

This appears to be an oxymoron, if we consider the very recent agreements the Austrian company announced with world-class athletes, teams and sports leagues, deals worth millions of euros. Unless, the result again is to merely create more debts and arrears.

Who would have thought that in the summer of 2020, when Interwetten was concluding the deal with the Greek football league for sponsorship, that we would get to this point. Or, how different things are today, with the «hole» of more than 1.8 million euros, compared to July 2020, when Interwetten country manager Marios Lefkaritis spoke about the sponsorship, saying at the time:

“It’s one of the most significant markets, and in a difficult period we’re entrusting a large part of our revenues in order to make the sport more competitive, so we all benefit from this. This is why, as I mentioned, it’s a win-win situation for both sides.”

Pity how even a betting giant with more than 30 years in the market is stigmatized by such events. Will the parent company, which prides itself on its reliability, allow such embarrassing situations to continue in a market?

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