European Union regulators have weighed in to support the Belgium-Swedish Unibet.com cycling team which was threatened with being banned from the Tour de France and other major races because its online gambling sponsor is not registered in France.
"The whole matter is violating the rules of the internal market," said European Commission spokesman Oliver Drewes.
"No team can be excluded from another country just because you don't like the sponsor."
The Amaury Sports Organisation, which organizes the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix, has refused to allow the Unibet.com-sponsored team in its races because French law forbids foreign betting companies advertising in France.
Drewes said the EU's executive body had started legal action against France in October over gambling rules, which the commission says infringe European laws allowing companies to operate freely within the 27-nation bloc.
He said EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy had written to the race organizers to explain the law.