Popular Norwegian football app FotMob is being used as a platform to advertise illegal betting across the globe, an investigation by Josimar has uncovered.
By Steve Menary
This year - the year that Norway returns to the World Cup finals for the first time in 28 years - FotMob might well explode. What once started as an SMS service to deliver live results to users has become a football app with a global audience. At its core, FotMob, which was founded by brothers Christer and Tommy Nordvik from Bergen in 2004, is a live-score and football data aggregator. In 2010, they experienced a first boost when the New York Times recommended the app. During the coronavirus pandemic, monthly active users jumped to fifteen million. Today, the app, which boasts of supplying “football scores, stats and news for the Premier league and 500+ leagues,” has more than 20 million users. In 2024, FotMob reported a total revenue of 129,052,000 NOK (13,91 million dollars), primarily earned from in-app display ads, affiliation and fixed advertising placements.
The problem, here, is that a part of this revenue comes from Southeast Asia, which has become a battleground for offshore betting operators. Governments from the region have attempted to crack down on unlicensed operators and imposed strict state monopolies, but digital platforms, including FotMob, serve as conduits for illegal operators, exploiting the ‘borderless’ nature of the internet. Consequently. users accessing FotMob via ...
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