The association said that the suspension, for an indefinite period, was due to the adoption of new anti-gambling laws last November which came into force on January 1st 2010.

 The association was keen to stress however that the suspension would not necessarily mean the end of the cooperation agreement with Unibet.

Poland enacted new gambling laws earlier this year which banned all forms of gambling outside of casinos within the country, including a ban on gambling-related advertising.

 At the time it remained unclear whether this included the sponsorship of Polish sports, where teams are reliant on funding provided by the likes of Expekt.com, BetClick, bwin and bet-at-home, amongst others.

Under the sponsorship agreement signed between the Polish Football Association and Unibet last September, Unibet held the right to sponsor the country’s second tier football league, Polish First League.

As a result of the suspension however, Unibet will no longer have any branding at stadiums across the country, nor will the Polish First League carry its name.

TVP Sport, the league's current television partner, will also drop the company’s name from the highlights show ‘Unibet 1 Liga – Summary’, while Unibet will withhold further payments to the eighteen clubs in the league which were due under the initial sponsorship agreement.

“I am confident that the company Unibet as a title sponsor of 1 League, despite the short period of cooperation with the Polish Football Association, has contributed significantly to the development of games in terms of organisation and marketing,” said Kasia Davies, Unibet's Head of Marketing in Central and Eastern Europe.

Davies said that the sponsorship of Unibet 1 League had so far been effective, clearly showing that the Unibet brand had become more recognisable among fans in Poland.

“Involvement in sports sponsorship, particularly football, has been included in the company’s marketing strategy for years,” continued Davies. “We hope that soon all doubt arising from the new gambling law will be clarified, and if there is a chance to continue our cooperation, we will.”

In addition, since the enactment of the new gambling laws, leading Polish football clubs Lech Poznan and Wisla Krakow have both been forced to drop their respective sponsorship agreements with BetClick and bet-at-home.

The Polish government recently proposed new draft laws which would create a ‘blacklist’ of Internet sites to be blocked from citizens, including various online gambling sites.

 However Prime Minster Donald Tusk was forced to abandon that plan after protests from pro-Internet campaigners who claimed that the bill violated their freedom of expression on the Internet.

In February, the European Commission sent a letter to Poland's Ministry of Finance detailing their concerns over the recent changes to the country's gambling legislation, questioning the compatibility of the laws with regard to EC Treaty obligations, specifically the free movement of goods and services with the EU.