Are you an illegal betting operator trying to secure attractive marketing? Don’t worry, the Premier League will welcome you with open arms.
By Philippe Auclair
Leaked photographs of Wolverhampton Wanderers 2024-25 kit suggest that the Premier League club's sponsor for next season will be the illegal Vietnamese betting operator DEBET, which bizarrely poses as a bookmaker originating from Germany and routinely breaches image rights of football superstars to promote its brand in the Far East.
We’ve been there before, so many times: a Premier League club associates itself with a previously unknown so-called ‘Asian-facing’ online gambling operator, exploiting Great Britain’s remarkably relaxed attitude towards illegal (*) online bookmakers. That operator, as everyone knows, or should know, has no intention of attracting punters in Britain, as its sole market is Asia. Yet a legitimate British licence is acquired through the service of a ‘White Label’ provider, which enables the illegal operator in question to promote its brand on the fronts or sleeves of Premier League club jerseys as well as on the perimeter boards of English stadiums, where non-stop gambling ads are beamed to a worldwide audience – including, of course, those TV viewers who are watching the games in countries where betting on sports is illegal or may constitute a criminal offence.
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