As the UK government considers introducing a blanket ban on advertising for unlicensed bookmakers in football, Newcastle United has become the latest Premier League club to become the partner of mysterious Asian-facing sports betting platform 8Xbet, previously linked with a cyber slavery compound in Cambodia.
By Philippe Auclair
It is unusual, but not unknown, for football clubs to enter into new commercial partnerships mid-season. Yet Newcastle United FC surprised many with the – discreet – unveiling of their latest sponsor, “leading sports bookmaker in Asia” 8Xbet, which they said would “help the club unlock new opportunities with its growing supporter base in the region”. The statement, which was posted on the club’s website on 31 January, attracted very little attention. It is only when the name and logo of the gambling brand started to appear on the LED perimeter boards at St James Park that a handful of fans took notice.
Newcastle’s move was unexpected. Josimar understands that, some seven or eight months ago, they had decided to terminate their longstanding relationship with another unlicensed online casino, FUN88, because of concerns about the legality of their business model. FUN88 was one of dozens of Asian-facing unlicensed operators who had registered a UK domain name with the Great Britain Gambling Commission (GBGC) through the services of infamous White Label provider TGP Europe. But the Isle of Man-based TGP, originally the brainchild of jailed Macau casino tycoon Alvin Chau, chose to cease all operations after being found guilty of multiple breaches of anti-money laundering regulations by the GBGC. FUN88 no longer even had a veneer of legality in the United Kingdom.
Yet, among TGP’s other former clients was Newcastle United’s new partner, 8XBet. Why jump out of the frying pan into the fire?
8Xbet and its nine English partners
Quite incredibly, 8XBet, who no longer hold any licence anywhere, not even in offshore jurisdictions, have actually increased their presence in English elite football since TGP Europe stopped operating. Their relationship with Manchester City ended at the end of the 2023-24 season, but other Premier League clubs joined the fray: as documented in the Premier League’s Register of Club Gambling Related Agreements, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Leeds United all have active partnerships in place with them, as well as Championship sides Ipswich Town and Leicester City (both relegated from the PL last season) plus, now,Newcastle United. This makes 8Xbet the most active of all unlicensed gambling brands in English football history, with nine current partners, a record, as well as the most visible by far in their grounds.
Moreover, 8Xbet, who started life under a different name, 978bet, also claim to have recruited five former England internationals as their ambassadors. Teddy Sheringham was the first to join 8Xbet’s stable of “legends”, back in 2022. Robbie Fowler, David James, Emile Heskey and Joe Cole apparently followed suit. Josimar contacted their agents to verify 8Xbet’s claim, but no response had been forthcoming at the time of publication.
Tough talk…but what action?
The timing of Newcastle’s decision to team up with 8Xbet soon felt awkward. On 23 February, just over three weeks after the partnership was made public, UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced that the British government would “crack down” on gambling operator sport sponsorship. “The move will prevent unlicensed operators from sponsoring sports clubs, as part of wider measures to tackle [the] illegal gambling market”, according to Her Majesty’s Governement’s website. “It’s not right that unlicensed gambling operators can sponsor some of our biggest football clubs”, Nandy was quoted as saying, “raising their profile and potentially drawing fans towards sites that don’t meet our regulatory standards”.
British media took these statements at face value, and announced that unlicensed – and therefore illegal – operators would soon decamp from the British shores. Some gambling charities welcomed the move as a watershed moment in the sorry story of English football’s addiction to gambling. Others, including fully licensed and regulated operators such as Entain, were not so sure, and with good reason.
What had been announced was not the hoped-for blanket ban. A consultation would take place, starting some time in the spring of 2026, which would lead to a report which, in turn, would inform the British government’s eventual decisions. Who would take part in the consultation and how long it would last was not made clear. Whichever conclusions it would reach would come too late to impact the league’s commercial relationships for next season. Some are already in place and will run beyond 2027 anyway. The Premier League, surely one of the parties invited to take part in the consultation, would fight tooth and nail to defend the interests of its clubs, of which over half are current partners of illegal betting platforms.
Then, as revealed by Josimar, the government’s attitude towards football’s dalliance with unlicensed gambling operators is far more ambiguous than Lisa Nandy’s choice of words would suggest. British Minister for Gambling and Heritage Baroness Twycross indicated in a letter sent to the Premier League last July that clubs should commit “to only entering into sponsorship agreements with gambling companies that are directly licensed by the Gambling Commission or in a ‘white label’ partnership” (our italics), a phrasing which immediately set off alarm bells among campaigners, regulators and law enforcement agencies – as the White Label system was for nearly two decades a key component of the unlicensed betting business model, which was used and abused by illegal and even criminal organisations such as former Manchester United and Leicester City partner Yabo. Was Baroness Twyford advocating a return to the bad old habits once tolerated by the Gambling Commission, the FA, the Premier League and the British government?
Regulated gambling operators active in Britain share these concerns. In a letter sent on 23 February to Premier League chief executive Richard Masters, shared with Josimar, the CEO of the Entain Group Stella David wrote:
“In the last few months, the Premier League’s continued commitment to illegal gambling sponsorships has […] been deeply concerning. While [the Premier League’s] voluntary ban on front-of-shirt sponsorships next season is coming into effect, the League is reported to have lobbied the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to retain unregulated gambling brands on shirt sleeves and stadium hoardings“.
Referring to Lisa Nandy’s statements, David added: “given the position outlined by the Government […], I hope you will recognise that this position is now untenable”. She concluded: “I urge the Premier League to lead by example […], committing to a full ban on all sponsorship and advertising partnerships with illegal gambling operators in the UK, beginning with LED perimeter boards immediately, followed by all clothing from the 2026/2027 season”.
Josimar understands that Richard Masters and the Premier League have yet to respond to this letter and to Stella David’s invitation to discuss the matter in person.
Behind the Great Wall
The growing presence of 8Xbet on Premier League and, thanks to Ipswich and Leicester City, Championship grounds is also a cause for concern in view of the company’s links with a recruitment agency called the Great Wall Corporation, which Josimar revealed in March 2023. The Great Wall Corporation was enticing Vietnamese nationals to cross the border with Cambodia, to Bavet, where they were offered work for the betting operator.
Great Wall’s website and YouTube channel went dead shortly after Josimar reported on these connections. Further reporting showed evidence of abuse and mistreatment of “employees” who had been lured into the Bavet compound, though it couldn’t be ascertained whether Great Wall Corporation was involved in it or not. This included CCTV footage of a young man trying to escape and being caught by security guards as he attempted to flee. His subsequent fate is unknown.
A ghostly presence
Questions about 8Xbet, which basic due diligence by Newcastle United should have raised, are not limited to the nature of their connection with the Great Wall Corporation, historic or otherwise.
Why the brand is spending millions – well into seven figures in USD – on promoting its name by associating with English clubs and former English football stars is something of a mystery. Many of the websites it has been associated with in the past have vanished, whilst few of those which are active are operational. Some iterations (impersonations, perhaps?) lead to the homepages of other, unrelated operators. The UK side of the operation, 8Xbet[.]co[.]uk, once “powered” by the TGP Europe, is now listed as “inactive” by the Great Britain Gambling Commission. 8Xbet[.]com, the URL which is displayed on perimeter boards in Premier League stadiums, takes visitors to a website which was recently re-launched but where it is not possible to open a new account or to place bets.
Why would a bookmaker spend a fortune promoting a website on which it is impossible to bet?
Yet 8Xbet keeps ploughing large amounts of money into English football, to guarantee that TV spectators worldwide are bombarded with advertisements for its brand. Josimar asked several gambling industry insiders, who asked to remain anonymous, what kind of rationale was at work here. All of them said that they were baffled by 8Xbet’s hyperactivity and could not explain how an unlicensed operator which barely seems to function as such could afford spending that much, or why. One of them ventured that 8Xbet was either “preparing the ground” for future expansion (but thought it improbable) or was involved in “other business activities” not directly related to gambling, but for which strong branding was essential. When asked what those “other business activities” might be, this expert declined to be more specific.
Unless there is an unexpected twist in the tail, or, in this case, a cuckoo, or cuckoos, looking for a nest.
1 The GBGC no longer lists any regulatory action against TGP Europe on its website, as the company voluntarily surrendered its licence. The £3.3 million fine TGP was given would only have been paid if it hadn’t
2 Josimar uses “illegal sports betting” as defined by article 3 of the Macolin Convention: “any sports betting activity whose type or operator is not permitted under the applicable law of the jurisdiction where the consumer is located”.
Part II of this investigation will be published tomorrow.
