PtG

The relationship between football and illegal sports gambling

With the help from a group of investigative journalists, this project aims to open up the impenetrable world of illegal sports gambling to non-experts trough an exposé of football's lucrative pact with Asian-facing betting operators.

The illegal sports gambling market has a global value of 1.7 trillion USD per year according to the UN, and a lot of that money is generated through partnerships with football clubs. This project will expose the relationship between football and illegal betting operators through a series of investigative articles that will open up the secretive world of gambling and make the topic accessible for readers without expert knowledge.

The investigation will be undertaken by an international consortium of journalists consisting of Philippe Auclair (France/UK), Andy Brown (UK), Samindra Kunti (Belgium), Jack Kerr (Australia) and Steve Menary (UK).

The goal of the project is to

provide a general introduction to the landscape of sports gambling
show how illegal gambling platforms are ubiquitous in football
show how marketing agencies, data collection agencies and others enable illegal gambling to function
explain how regulators of football and the betting industry are ill-equipped to meet the challenges and often fail to deliver any oversight of the industries concerned
show how illegal sports gambling is not a victimless crime and can be linked to crimes from fraud to extortion, people-trafficking, slavery, and even murder

The articles will be published over a period of four months from November 2023 to February 2024.