Exclusive: Bet365 launches legal action against ICE exhibitor Betio
Operator claims its intellectual property rights have been infringed by little-known Bulgarian provider
Bet365 has launched legal action against Betio, a sports betting provider which was exhibiting at ICE with products and branding that looked near identical to bet365’s.
The Stoke-headquartered operator said it had been alerted by “numerous attendees” from the conference about the similarities, before investigating itself.
Betio had its stand’s promotional screens turned off by Thursday afternoon, according to one source.
The provider still had its site up on Monday morning however, featuring images of its bet365-esque products.
A bet365 spokesperson told EGR: “Numerous attendees at the EXCEL centre brought this matter to our attention due to the obvious confusion it was causing as regards to its possible links to bet365.
“Upon further investigation, we decided to instigate appropriate legal action to protect our intellectual property rights which we consider to have been infringed in this instance.”
Little is known about Betio, although its ICE profile says it is based Petrich, Bulgaria. The firm did not respond to an EGR request for comment.
The bet365 spokesperson added: “Bet365 has spent many years establishing its brand, identity and reputation and will not take those rights lightly.
“Bet365 will always seek to protect its position if people infringe any of our intellectual property rights, whether that be by imitating our brand or logo or our website ‘look and feel’ or content.”
