All bark, no bite
TGP Europe licensing surrender won’t stop gambling football sponsorships
Commission warning unlikely to halt football’s Asian-facing sponsorship presence.
In +More: IGT consortium wins Italian lottery bid, Wynn calls a New York halt.
Esports: ESIC investigation results in seven player bans.
Wynn Resorts pays a $5.5m fine for allowing unlawful betting transactions.
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The frighteners
Sabre rattling: The UK Gambling Commission’s latest attempt to frighten off English football clubs from having sponsorship dealings with largely Asian-facing gambling entities with warnings about offshore gambling are likely to have little effect, according to legal sources.
The warning from the Commission came with the news that TGP Europe had surrendered its license late last week.
This came after reports surfaced that various Asian-facing brands, such as Fun88, SBOTOP, Kaiyun, BK8 and BJ88, have all shuttered their UK-facing operations.
The charge sheet: TGP Europe – which had previously been fined £316k by the Commission for not having effective money-laundering controls – opted to surrender its license after being told it needed to pay a £3m penalty and make “significant” improvements if it wished to continue conducting business into the UK.
The Commission investigation revealed that TGP failed to carry out effective due diligence on each entity involved in the ownership of the third party.
It also failed to carry out due diligence on the source of funds for business arrangements or sufficiently consider money laundering risks.
Lastly, it did not sufficiently consider any activity by a third-party that is illegal, in either the UK or the territory in which it is conducted.
Low block: The Commission appeared determined to cast doubt on the continued sponsorship arrangements of a number of these brands with English Premier League clubs. These include Bournemouth, Fulham, Newcastle United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and promoted Burnley.
The Commission said it was “seeking assurance from the clubs that they have carried out due diligence on their white label partners and that consumers in Great Britain cannot transact with the unlicensed sites.”
The Commission added that clubs would be “asked to demonstrate that they have assurance that any steps to geo-block the sites are effective.”
But the Commission said it “recognizes” that some blocking can be easily by-passed by use of tools such as a virtual private network.
Cock and bull: Legal sources suggested the Commission might be making empty threats in suggesting that club officials could be liable to prosecution and could face fines or imprisonment should the clubs’ due diligence miss any instances of unauthorized transactions.
“The idea that the chief executive of Fulham or any other club is going to go to jail because of some illegal betting with a club sponsor is a bit fanciful,” one expert legal source argued.
“There’s an element of willy waving going on,” they added. “I don’t disagree with what they are attempting to do, but the rhetoric is a bit over the top.”
Toothless: Notably, already this season both Stake and BC.Game, sponsors at Everton and Leicester City respectively, each surrendered their licenses as the season progressed but remained as front-of-shirt sponsors.
Each was similarly warned by the Commission about conducting due diligence on their partners given their now ex-UK status.
Legal sources pointed out that while the football clubs involved might feel more “peril” in dealing with offshore-facing entities rather than UK-facing, the likelihood is the commercial imperatives will remain paramount.
Give and stake: Recalling the case of Everton and Stake earlier this year, after Stake withdrew from the UK, David Zeffman, partner at the law firm CMS, said Everton made it plain that, despite the UK exit, it had no intention of ditching its sponsor.
“They were right in saying this,” Zeffman said. “They will only be committing the offence of advertising unlawful gambling if Stake is continuing to provide facilities for gambling in GB without a licence.”
“And, provided Stake have properly blocked their site to GB punters, they will not be providing facilities for gambling.”
The last resort: Zeffman added that having “finally gone for” TGP Europe, the Commission’s only remaining recourse with regard to the offshore gaming entities sponsoring English clubs was to warn on the potential for unlawful gambling.
“If properly advised, the clubs should just make sure that their sponsors are blocking their sites and they should be fine,” he added.
The global billboard: As one legal source put it, what the bookies involved were mostly interested in was the English Premier League’s global reach. Most, if not all, the gambling sponsors involved in English football have never had any interest in generating revenues from UK customers, added Zeffman.
“They only entered into the white label arrangements with TGP because the Commission said (incorrectly) that they had to hold a licence in order to sponsor/advertise in Great Britain,” he added.
“Now that the Commission have effectively moved away from that position, they are free to sponsor without having to pretend that they are targeting British punters.”
Recall, Premier League clubs have voluntarily agreed a ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsors from the start of the 2026/27 season.
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+More
IGT has announced that the technical and economic aspects of its Lottoitalia bid to operate the Italian lottery has been passed by the judging commission and it will now be proposed to be awarded the nine-year contract. The consortium, comprising IGT alongside Allwyn, Arianna 2001 and Novomatic Italia, will pay €2.23bn in upfront fees payable between now and April 2026.
See tomorrow’s Earnings+More for the analyst reaction.
Calling a halt: Wynn Resorts has withdrawn from the downstate New York casino race, saying the plans for a property to be built in Hudson Yards, Manhattan, would have faced “years of persistent opposition despite our willingness to employ 5,000 New Yorkers.” Development partner Related Companies will now go ahead with its plans without a casino. Las Vegas Sands previously pulled out of the proposed Nassau County bid.
Another door opens: Separately, it has been reported that Wynn’s representatives met with the Thai government last week to convey its interest in a potential entertainment complex development with a casino. Earlier in the week, the Bangkok Post reported that a Thai Senate special committee was pushing for a public referendum, warning the draft bill may contravene the constitution if passed into law.
PointsBet must pay a A$500k ($321k) penalty and is subject to an enforceable undertaking after the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found the operator sent more than 800 spam messages. PointsBet has also entered into a second enforceable undertaking after the ACMA found it sent marketing messages to people who had registered for the national self-exclusion register BetStop, in breach of industry rules.
Pennsylvania: A skill gaming bill has been introduced into the state Senate that proposes a tax regime of 35% and which would cap the number of machines per establishment to seven. The bill is currently in the Senate committee on Community, Economic and Recreational Development.
Predictions lawsuit: A US District Court judge has said he will move quickly to determine whether the Nevada Resort Association can intervene in a lawsuit filed by Kalshi that threatens to bring “seismic” changes to Nevada’s sports-betting industry, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Integrity
Sportradar has reached a technical cooperation agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Sports focused on protecting the integrity of sports betting in the country. The partnership provides for the exchange of information related to the betting market and the implementation of joint initiatives to combat match-fixing.
ESIC investigation
ATOX-ic environment? An extensive investigation undertaken by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has resulted in seven bans for match-fixing and betting-related corruption. The bans range from eight months to a lifetime.
ESIC began a formal investigation on January 9, 2025 after receiving statistical data detailing anomalies in a Counter-Strike match featuring ATOX and Team Falcons.
The Commission issued four Notices of Charge in February 2025, before receiving further evidence, including chat logs, testimonials, phone call recordings and voice recordings in March.
The report details that the “match-fixing behaviors were team-based in nature” and linked to organised crime syndicates in China.
Over 70 suspicious bets were placed on ATOX matches through domestic and offshore accounts that shared overlapping device IDs, IP addresses, payment methods and social media credentials with ATOX team personnel and associates.
Master of your own downfall: Three lifetime bans were dished out, to Ana-Erdene ‘Nuka’ Baasantogtokh, Bat-Enkh ‘Kabal’ Batbayar and Gan-Erdene ‘Dobu’ Batbold.
Team analyst Nuka was found to have placed or facilitated the majority of wagers. He was also found to have given deliberately misleading advice to ensure that on-server events aligned with betting positions.
Dobu orchestrated the operation and “pressured or deceived teammates,” and admitted cooperating with organised crime groups.
Kabal worked with Dobu and also accepted payments to remain silent.
Tuguldur ‘FlyNN’ Gansuk, the team’s coach and de facto CEO, was handed a three-year ban for “failing to prevent or address known corruption.”
Temuulen ‘MiQ’ Byambadalai will serve a one-year suspension for accepting hush payments and failing to report violations.
Safe, for now: ESIC has also revealed that three individuals remain under investigation. The participants were excluded from initial charges due to insufficient evidence but are now the subject of a “related enquiry.”
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Wynn fine
Pay the man: Wynn Resorts has reached an agreement with the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) to pay a $5.5m fine for its involvement in unregistered money transmitting.
Referring to a non-prosecution agreement between Wynn Las Vegas and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, the NGCB said Wynn had facilitated international monetary transactions, allowed proxy betting and committed other prohibited monetary transactions.
The NGCB complaint details instances where former employees of Wynn allowed international patrons to obtain and/or transfer money improperly for the purposes of wagering.
They also allowed wagers to be placed for other patrons in violation of the gaming licensee’s AML compliance program.
Been here before: This is the third high-profile penalty issued by the Commission recently. In March, Resorts World Las Vegas paid a $10.5m fine stemming from allegations it catered to illegal bookmakers involving millions of dollars.
In April, MGM Resorts International paid an $8.5m fine for accepting wagers from an illegal bookie.
Both cases were related to the fallout from the Ohtani case and the illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer.
Events
Event highlight: Gaming in Holland has announced its full line-up for this year’s event, including keynotes from Björn Fuchs, newly appointed chair of VNLOK; and Henry Meijdam, who heads the VAN Kansspelen trade association. Also confirmed are speeches from Arjan Blok, CEO of Nederlandse Loterij; Renske Fikkers, head of market supervision at the Netherlands Gambling Authority; and Henk Willem Smits, investigative reporter at Follow the Money. To register, click here.
Jun 5: Gaming in Holland, Amsterdam
Jun 9-12: IAGA, Berlin
Jun 26: Gaming in Spain, Madrid
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