English football clubs’ sponsorship deals with secretive betting platforms that often target shadowy markets in Asia are facing a crackdown in the review of gambling due to be published in the new year.
Clubs including Manchester United, Everton, Arsenal, Southampton and Watford are sponsored by four overseas betting platforms that all use a “white label” arrangement — where a service is produced by one company with a view to another company branding it as their own — via the same Isle of Man-based company, TGP Europe Ltd, to operate in the UK.
Under existing rules it is TGP Europe, rather than the Gambling Commission, that has the responsibility for conducting due diligence into the firms. It is now, however, looking increasingly likely that the Gambling Review — which is already likely to recommend a phased end to shirt sponsorship by betting firms — will bring an end to the white label deals.
The latest such white label deal was announced by Everton last week, unveiling a company called i8.bet as the club’s sole betting partner in Asia. As with Manchester United’s betting partner Hua Ti Hui (HTH), i8.bet’s UK website is still under construction and it is almost impossible to find out for certain who the ultimate owner is.
The attraction of a Premier League partnership is that it can offer a way in to markets in such as China, where gambling and related advertising are banned.
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The platforms are still targeting gamblers in those countries and use mirror sites where people can access online accounts if the authorities close a website down, and there is also concerns that some betting companies are used for money laundering.
A government spokesman confirmed that the gambling review is “looking at white label arrangements” and added: “We are determined to tackle problem gambling and protect those at risk.”
Clubs are increasingly looking at cryptocurrency platforms to replace betting partners — despite concerns that they are just another way of getting more cash out of fans. Crystal Palace have become the latest club to sign a deal with the crypto tokens platform Socios.
Hospitality helps RFU get back on its feet
The RFU’s chiefs will be crossing their fingers that the Covid restrictions announced this week do not play havoc with their plans for the Six Nations.
The return of full crowds to Twickenham for the autumn internationals has been a huge financial boost — especially when combined with the fact that 13,802 of the 82,000 supporters paid for hospitality meals at the England v South Africa match.
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Big six turn to legal brains for help
One of the lasting effects of the European Super League is that the “big six” clubs who took part in the debacle now often ensure that one of the two representatives that each is permitted at Premier League meetings is a lawyer.
The backlash from the other 14 clubs has put the “big six” on the back foot over measures taken as a result of the ESL’s collapse, such as the proposed owners’ charter, hence the concern that they need a legal brain to help them try to recover their former positions of power.
Re-shuffling at Bournemouth
Some strange boardroom shuffling has been taking place at AFC Bournemouth, with the club’s long-serving chief executive, Neill Blake, being re-appointed as a director this week eight months after he resigned from the board.
Blake has continued to work as chief executive of the club, and he rejoins a board made up of the chairman Jeff Mostyn and the Switzerland-based Nicholas Rothwell and Rio Seitz, both understood to be representatives of the Russian owner Maxim Demin.
Sources insist that Blake’s resignation came after he was a target of abuse from disgruntled fans and a spokesman said he “has reconsidered the decision after consulting with the club’s owner”.
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Pound steps down
Dick Pound will step down as an IOC member next year 44 years after he was first elected. The Canadian, the first president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, reaches the age limit of 80 in 2022 and will instead become an honorary member.
His tenure will be four years short of the record set by the late João Havelange, the former Fifa president, who was an IOC member for 48 years before he resigned in disgrace in 2012 after it was revealed that he had taken bribes.
