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Unibet loses another round

The UniBet.com ProTour cycling team faced another setback Monday after being excluded from two more Classics.

Unibet.com was already denied participation at Paris-Nice race last month and this coming Sunday's edition of Paris-Roubaix. The team learned on Monday that it will not be allowed to participate in Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege as well.

All four events are promoted by Tour de France organizer ASO which said that the exclusions are due to French and Belgian laws barring the advertisement of out-of-country betting and lotteries.

The Belgian-Swedish team is sponsored by a betting website and betting sponsorship is banned in both countries.

Unibet.com, however, has already offered to sport alternative sponsorship logos on team kits when racing in France, but that did not grant the team an invitation from ASO.

The team did participated in Sunday's Tour of Flanders, in Belgium.

Although the laws against betting sponsorship in both countries have existed for some time, they have not been applied until this season. Indeed, the dispute may have more to do with ASO's ongoing dispute with the UCI over the ProTour than it does to the company's recent embrace of gambling regulations in France and Belgium.

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