With immediate effect, the Italian Serie B will now be known as Serie Bwin. The cooperation between the 22 league teams and Bwin Sportsbook, the world's leading online gaming provider, will continue until 30 June 2012.

The sponsorship agreement has been presented this morning at the offices of Lega Serie B in Milan by Luca Ferrari, Chairman of Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie B, and Paolo Di Feo, CEO of Bwin Italy.

Several bookmakers offices have confirmed that the last World Cup in South Africa in terms of sales was the best tournament in the last forty years. Especially the subsequent loss of Spanish world champions in their first game against Switzerland turned out to be beneficial for bookmakers.

Bookmaker William Hill, said that the World Cup turned out to be very good compensation for the losses the company made during this year's Royal Ascot. William Hill claims that this year's Royal Ascot result for bookmakers was the worst in history.

Bookmaker William Hill are paying out to their customers who bet on Frank Lampard scoring against Germany after his goal was ruled out by the linesman and referee.

"Even Sepp Blatter knows Lampard scored so we have already begun paying out to punters who backed him to do so at odds of 10/3. It will cost us a six figure sum." said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.

Bookmaker William Hill said last Wednesday that, following the introduction of new laws relating to online gambling in France, it's taking steps to cease accepting online gambling business from clients resident in France.

William Hill Online is considering whether to apply for a licence to offer permitted online gambling products to French residents.