Unibet, a major online gambling company with headquarters in Gżira, is the only ‘Maltese’ company to feature in the top 1,000 EU companies investing in research and development. According to the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, last year Unibet invested some €33.9 million in research and development.

Although this might sound a huge sum for the size of the Maltese economy, sources close to Unibet told Times of Malta that this money has not been invested only on the island. The former British online gaming operator has a presence in some 100 countries across the world.

According to the scoreboard, Unibet last year increased its R&D investment by more than 27 per cent over the previous year and made a profit of €41.1 million.

For the first time since 2004, an EU company – German car maker Volkswagen – is the world’s largest private sector R&D investor with €9.5 billion in 2012. Overall, EU-based firms stepped up such investment but still lag behind their US counterparts. On a global level, following Volkswagen, Samsung Electronics from South Korea placed second with €8.3 billion.

Other companies in the top 10 include five based in the US (Microsoft, Intel, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer), two in Switzerland (Roche and Novartis) and one in Japan (Toyota).

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