This time, the company has signed a deal with French football club Olympique de Marseille, in a move that would see bwin.party become the club’s official online betting and gaming partner. The deal now sees the company directly involved in the top tier football leagues of the overwhelming majority of major western European nations.

It comes after bwin has signed a number of similar deals with other football clubs in recent times. Just last month, the company announced that it had signed a sponsorship deal with Belgian club RSC Anderlecht. Before that, it had announced that it had also signed sponsorship deals with Italian club Juventus and Spanish football giants Real Madrid. Bwin.party also had sponsorship deals with English Premier League club Manchester United and German Bundesliga club Bayern Munich.

Bwin.party CEO Norbert Teufelberger said that the latest deal with Marseille would be a huge boost in the company’s marketing efforts across Europe, citing the history and success of the club as a mainstay in top level French football.

“We are proud to establish this partnership with Olympique de Marseille, one of the oldest and most successful clubs in France and Europe,” he said. “Today’s announcement means that we are now partnered with six of the greatest clubs in European football, enabling us to offer our customers an unparalleled range of online and real world offers.”

The deal will certainly give the owners of PartyPoker.com the opportunity to market themselves on a huge scale in France, and all over Europe, in conjunction with its other sponsored clubs. The only French club to have even won a UEFA Champions League event, Olympique de Marseille have also won the Ligue 1 (France’s top football league) title nine times.

What the deal also shows is that bwin is deadly serious about addressing its dwindling financial performances that have plagued the company in recent times. That is especially the case with the company’s poker offering. Revenues for bwin’s poker operations fell by a massive 37 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 to €33.1 million.

Bwin also announced earlier in the week that it had hired PokerStars director of strategy and business development Jeffrey Haas to be the company’s head of poker, further showing that its desire to boost its poker operations is a huge priority.

It will be a difficult battle as online poker revenues for a number of gaming companies have decreased in recent times. However, bwin’s sponsorship deals with Olympique de Marseille and other top tier football clubs put it in direct contact with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of fans across the continent.

While it is still early days, the move may pay off for bwin, though it will likely be a difficult undertaking.