Mystery Man

Keir Starmer watched a game at Wolverhampton alongside an ‘executive’ from an Asian gambling platform – a man that all parties have refused to identify. The silence of all involved illustrates how clubs, agencies and government bodies collude to ensure that money from illegal gambling continues to roll in.

By Andy Brown, Jack Kerr, Philippe Auclair, and Steve Menary.

On 20 April last year, a bald man with glasses took a seat in the directors’ box at Molineux behind Keir Starmer, now UK Prime Minister and his son, to watch Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers. 

Wolves vs. Arsenal. From left to right: Our mystery man, Starmer’s son, Keir Starmer, Jeff Shi, Wolves’ chairman and John Gough, director at Wolves.

The mystery man was back at Molineux in July, where he posed as a DeBet company executive together with Alan Alger, former Betway PR manager and Russell Jones, Wolves’ general manager. The trio were there to launch a club record sponsorship with DeBet, understood to be worth just under £10 million per year. This is over four times the value of any previous sponsorship deal agreed by Wolves. The deal came a year after Wolves secured a

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