BK8 shirt deal vilified
Villa’s fan backlash, Curaçao licensing, Kick’s Greek tragedy, Crypto Titan shocker, New South Wales inspections +More
Good morning. On today’s agenda:
Aston Villa suffers backlash from BK8 shirt sponsorship move.
Curaçao finance minister promises tighter licensing regime.
Greece’s Gambling Commission blacklists Kick.
Crypto bookie takes bets – and heat – for Titan sub market.
New South Wales regulator’s compliance inspectors’ pub crawl.
Villa backlash
Aston Villa are the latest English Premier League club to test fans’ patience with gambling shirt sponsorship deal.
Villains of the piece: The Supporters’ Trust at Aston Villa branded the club’s controversial new shirt sponsorship deal with Asian-facing betting outfit BK8 as a ”cynical last-minute attempt to scoop some financial gains”.
The multi-million pound deal will run until the voluntary ban on gambling-related shirt sponsorships comes in at the end of the 2025-26 season.
It follows strong press rumors that Chelsea were set to complete a £40m-a-year deal with Stake.com.
Both deals appear to run counter to the spirit of the voluntary ban that was signed off by the EPL earlier this year.
BK8 all the pies: BK8 is licensed in the UK via a white-label agreement with TPG in the Isle of Man. The company previously hit the headlines when a proposed sponsorship with Norwich City was called off in 2021 after provocative marketing materials came to light.
In its statement, the Aston Villa Supporters’ Trust said it made representations to the club in January when it was reported that discussions with BK8 were taking place.
The Trust expressed its concerns at the time about the marketing as well as highlighting the “social and mental health harms caused by problem gambling”.
The statement added that it was “given assurances” over Villa’s due diligence processes and had been advised that the “misogynistic marketing practices” were undertaken by a BK8 affiliate.
“Though we acknowledge the commercial reality, we sadly feel that the club has failed to listen to the legitimate concerns of fans about the role of gambling sponsorship in sports,” the Trust added.
Does a lot for charity, does want to talk about it: Under the terms of the deal, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of Vila’s third kit will be donated to charity. But while acknowledging this, the Trust said the funding “should not come at the expense of others”.
The Trust falls short of calling for the deal to be nixed, but says the leadership at the club should “be guided by fan representation in future matters”.
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Quote of the week
Friction factory: Reporting back from the IAGA summit in Belfast held last week, the team at Harris Hagan quote Ben Dean, the director of sport and gambling from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, as suggesting the government is keen that the proposed financial risk checks should be as frictionless as possible.
Ben Dean, DCMS: “We know how important the frictionless commitment is and have said the measures won’t come into force until they genuinely are frictionless.”
Curaçao regime change
Licensed entities in Curaçao can expect a tighter regime as of September.
Tight fit: Curaçao minister of finance Javier Silvania took the opportunity of an appearance at iGaming Next in Malta last week to suggest that the National Gambling Ordinance legislation, which it hopes to implement in just a couple of months, will more tightly control the country’s offshore licensing regime.
Silvania suggested licensees can expect harsher regulations in the areas of AML, fraud prevention and player protection.
"We demand transparency regarding the source of funds entering our country," he is reported as having told the audience.
Operators will have to "comply with legislation that aligns with reputable jurisdictions and meets the minimum requirements of international laws and guidelines concerning money laundering”, he added.
New broom: The new Curaçao Gaming Authority was originally announced in July last year. It will replace the old system, which effectively outsourced licensing to four ‘master licensee’ operators.
Need to know: Silvania said from now on the authorities would want to know “who owns the businesses operating from within our borders by conducting appropriate and consistent levels of due diligence”.
He said the country could no longer overlook that some licensees had “tarnished our nation’s reputation”.
At the end of May, the Australian Communications and Media Authority wrote to Silvania over the activities of Curacao licensed entities.
Kick in Greece
The streaming service that shares a common ownership with Stake.com finds itself on Greece’s blacklist of gambling sites.
Kicked into touch: The Twitch rival owned by one of the founders of Stake.com, which features streams of gamers playing online slots, alongside gaming and other streams, has found itself named on the blacklist issued by the Hellenic Gaming Commission.
The blacklist listed the address Kick.com/slotsgang, which is one of the streamers on the site.
Slotsgang’s page features links to various Curaçao-licensed entities such as Vave.com, Hellspin.com, ivibet.com and 22bet among others.
Moneyball: Kick hit the headlines last week when Twitch star streamer xQc said he would be joining its rival for a fee that could rise to $100m.
Crypto shocker
A blockchain trading platform that allows users to place bets on practically anything has been condemned for taking wagers on the fate of the doomed Titan submarine.
Wait, what? Online gamblers bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on whether the crew of the submarine would survive its ill-fated excursion to the wreck of the Titanic. In what was branded a “dystopian” use of digital finance, Polymarket took at least $300,000 in bets on whether the crew would survive.
Polymarket allows betters to buy and sell shares on the outcomes of events using cryptocurrency, with victorious punters able to redeem the shares for $1 if their guesses are correct.
“For the purposes of this market, the vessel need not have been rescued or physically recovered to be considered ‘found’,” the submarine bets market page said.
“If pieces are located, but not the cabin which contains the vessel’s passengers, that will not suffice for this market to resolve to ‘Yes’.”
In 2022, the company was fined $1.4m by US regulators for offering so-called “event markets” via binary options contracts related to future occurrences, with the tagline enticing punters to “bet on your beliefs”.
Plumbing the depths: A user going by the name ‘Rich’ told Mother Jones he made around $3,250 betting on the sub’s failed mission, which drew global coverage and ended in tragedy when it emerged an explosion on board led to the death of the entire crew.
Rich argued his actions were no worse than trading on stocks, as his activity had no impact on the fate of the entity being wagered on, unlike the shares of Wall Street firms.
“My answer would be that markets are fundamentally immoral. There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism,” Rich said.
Social media users were not convinced, and Polymarket was heavily criticized for allowing the market.
“Gambling on lives is actually insane,” tweeted video game publisher Dexerto.
One Twitter user called it “the most dystopian thing” seen on the internet for some time.
Never go full Trump: Panamanian-regulated Polymarket defended its actions and lashed out at the media for distorting its attempts to, er, provide comfort to the families of the deceased.
“If the families were privy to Polymarket, they could use the market as a way to obtain the real-time, unbiased probability of the submarine being recovered,” the company said in an email to Gizmodo.
“That is a far more valuable service to them than sensationalist media coverage: with our markets at least they understand the true probabilities.”
Current wagers open on Polymarket include “Will Russia use a nuclear weapon by June 30?” and “Will Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg announce a fight?”.
NSW inspections
Gambling regulators in New South Wales are carrying out the next phase of a widespread compliance inspection program to ensure venues are obeying blackouts on advertising and other player safety regulations.
It’s a dirty job: Liquor & Gaming NSW visited more than 875 pubs and clubs in the last seven months, issuing 77 penalty notices for breaches, with three prosecutions under way. Phase two will involve a further 500 inspections across the Australian state.
“Gaming harm-minimisation measures are designed to ensure a safe gaming industry and limit the harm that can be associated with gambling,” said Liquor & Gaming NSW executive director of regulatory operations and enforcement, Jane Lin.
“Failure to comply with these requirements carries penalties up to A$5,500 ($3,700) and is grounds for disciplinary action.”
“Our inspectors will also be observing any gaming signage during the course of these inspections and will be happy to provide information and answer any questions venue operators may have about the signage ban, which comes into force on September 1.”
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European notebook
France: The gambling regulator Autorité Nationale des Jeux has published draft rules for online advertising, including a requirement that all ads feature a warning about excessive gambling and information about resources available for self-help.
Germany: The Higher Administrative Court of the state of Saxony-Anhalt has ruled that federal gambling regulator GGL can enforce bans on ads by social media streamers and influencers and the marketing of social casino games as well as marketing by affiliates linking to unlicensed gambling websites.
Gibraltar: The Financial Action Task Force said Gibraltar will remain on its gray list of jurisdictions subject to increased monitoring. The deadline for rectifying the ongoing issues over money-laundering deficiencies has expired meaning it cannot be removed from the list for at least another year.
The Gibraltar government said in a statement that only “one substantive action point” was yet to be cleared up
“The government continues to work tirelessly to meet its action plan at the very earliest opportunity,” the statement added.
Sports integrity notebook
The International Tennis Integrity Agency has banned two players, Nastja Kolar and Alexandra Riley, for life after they were found to be involved in match-fixing. The Slovenian Kolar committed 25 offenses from 2015-20 and was fined $175,000, while Riley, from the US, committed 15 offenses in the same period and was fined $50,000.
The ITIA said the penalties reflected “the depth and significance of these breaches, which included contriving aspects of matches, wagering, facilitating wagering, courtsiding, conspiracy and failing to report corrupt approaches.”
RG notebook
AML regtech provider Kinectify has partnered with Kindbridge Behavioral Health to help develop an all-in-one responsible gaming platform that will be integrated with its existing technology offering.
Calendar
Jun 28: Gambling Industry Information Network webinar.
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