How Western firms and intermediaries sustain illegal sports betting networks

It is no longer possible to deny that the growth of illegal gambling has become a global phenomenon. Parts of the world in which, until recently, unlicensed operators only accounted for a small share of the industry's revenue have seen a huge surge in their takings. 

In Great Britain, for example, the share of the "black market" has more than quadrupled between 2022 and 2025.  The situation is even worse in the European Union, where, according to a report published by consultancy Yield Sec in August 2025, illegal gambling operators captured an astonishing 71% of the online betting and casino market in 2024, for a gross gaming revenue (GGR) of 80.7 billion euros. 

The USA, where sports betting and online gambling are gradually being given legal status at the state level, fare no better. There, three out of every four bets are currently placed on illegal betting platforms, according to Yield Sec.

These numbers chime with the findings of studies conducted in the early 2020s by the United Office on Drugs and Crime and the Asian Racing Federation, which estimate that illegal operators account for two-thirds of the global gambling industry as a whole, with a GGR of 1.7 trillion US dollars (1.5 trillion euro) - the equivalent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Australia.

Asia is the biggest market for illegal betting

Yet, the perception that illegal sports betting primarily remains an "Asian problem" is not entirely without merit. South Asia, the Far East, Southeast Asia and mainland China, with their combined 4.2 billion inhabitants, are home to half the world's population. They are also home to what remains the largest and most lucrative market for the illegal gambling industry worldwide. 

This is despite online sports betting and gambling being outlawed in almost all Asian jurisdictions, and even criminalised in countries like Japan, where "ordinary" gamblers face fines and imprisonment if they place bets on illegal platforms. 

As regulated entities such as national lotteries do not offer anything which can compare to the bewildering array of bets and games available on illegal websites, the "unregulated" operators, which also give much more attractive odds, pretty much have the field to themselves in Asia. 

The revenue of the biggest operators, most of which do business under a variety of brand names, dwarfs that of their European, regulated counterparts. 

Play the Game has learnt from an inside source that one such illegal operator, which specialises in cryptocurrency betting, generated a GGR of 9 billion US dollars (7.9 billion euros) through one single brand in 2024, when Europe's leading legal bookmaker Entain had a revenue of 5.2 billion euros in 2024.

The illegal betting market is also a Western problem

The mistake is not to speak of an "Asian problem", as the "Asian" dimension is real. It is to ignore that a crucial component of the problem is the role played by Western individuals, agencies and companies in enabling illegal operators to do business, which has gone almost completely unreported until now. 

These Western enablers profit directly and indirectly from the proceeds of illegal and criminal activity and, as such, run the risk of being used as channels for money-laundering. Without them, illegal platforms would find it much more challenging, if not impossible, to operate. 

It is those enablers that this Play the Game investigation focuses on. 

What exactly do those enablers do?

• Provide illegal operators with the live data they need to set and constantly modify odds on the games and matches they offer for betting online. 
  
  Sports betting relies on live data, which is transmitted by scouts in real time from the venues where the sports events are taking place. 
  
  In the age of in-play betting, no data means no product. These data are collected by almost exclusively European agencies, which often double up as providers of integrity services to regulators and national and international sport governing bodies.
  
  Play the Game has already reported extensively on the methods of data collection agencies and their mutually beneficial relationship with illegal sports betting operators.
  
  
• Provide illegal operators with precious yet worthless offshore gambling licences. 
  
  There has been an explosion in the number of "new" jurisdictions offering offshore gambling licences over the past five years. These licences are of no value outside of the country where they are granted with little or no meaningful due diligence process. In some cases, they do not even allow the licensee to operate in the jurisdiction where the licenses have been granted.
  
  However, they give illegal operators a veneer of legitimacy and "legality". They fool customers into believing that these operators are "regulated", which they are not. They can also be useful to gain access to the international banking system and satisfy commercial partners such as gaming content providers and sponsored sports clubs that they are legal when they are not. 
  
  The large majority of individuals who run these new offshore licensing bodies are not nationals of the jurisdictions which issue them, but white Westerners.
  
  
• Serve as intermediaries between illegal sports betting brands and entities such as federations, confederations and, especially, football clubs. 
  
  These enablers, individual agents as well as household names in the world of sports marketing,  provide a vital screen for operators who take every precaution to disguise the identity of their ultimate beneficial owners. 
  
  They also offer a degree of protection to entities and clubs entering into commercial relationships with illegal operators, who discharge their own duties of due diligence onto the intermediaries. These companies are all owned and managed by Europeans.
  
  
• Provide the technology which enables illegal operators to advertise their brands on LED perimeter boards in sports grounds. 
  
  It is now possible to tailor the advertisements to the predominantly Asian markets, regardless of whether advertising for gambling companies is allowed or not in the country where the match is taking place. 
  
  This way, for example, football games played in Spain, where all such advertising is prohibited, will feature prominent advertising banners promoting illegal brands, which will only be visible in the countries where those brands operate.
  
  Moreover, the leading company in this business, TGI Sport, a multinational entity with offices in Europe, Australia and the USA, also controls one of the world's leading sports marketing agencies, ISG.