Russian betting companies sponsor football after invasion

37 countries called for action to limit sponsorship and financial support from entities with links to the Russian or Belarusian state. UEFA, Everton, and German club Schalke 04 had all ended sponsorships with Russian companies before the call for actions. Some action has been taken by the betting industry to isolate Putin's regime. Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet stopped taking bets on games with Russia and Belarus.

37 countries called for action to limit financial support from companies with links to the Russian or Belarusian state. UEFA, Everton, and German club Schalke 04 had all ended sponsorships with Russian companies before the call for actions. The betting industry has taken some action against Putin's regime.

Online betting was banned in Russia until 2015. Since then licenced and unlicenced operators have grown swiftly. By 2018 the 10 biggest operators with Russian licences had a combined income of 135 billion roubles.

By 2020, there will be 29 licensed betting operators in Russia, with 11 taking bets online. The websites of the top five operators had more than 26 million visitors a month.

Russian betting companies are sponsoring football clubs and competitions outside the country. Liga Stavok sponsors the Russian Premier League. Fonbet agreed a $2.5 million deal with Real Madrid in January 2021. AC Milan and PSG cut their ties with FONbet on March 18. 1XBet sponsors Barcelona and Serie A. 1xBet has sponsored the Nigerian Football Federation since 2018. It also sponsored Africa Cup of Nations, Champions League, and Super Cup. The company was recently suspended by the UK Gambling Commission.

1XBet is banned from operating legally in Russia for taking bets without a domestic licence. However, it is registered as a company in Cyprus. The owners of 1Xbet live in the Cypriot resort town of Limassol. Marikit Holdings, the owner of Betwinner, another betting company popular in Russian, is also based in Limasol and registered in UK.

Betting companies are pulling out of Russia. Data companies that collect live data and sell it to betting companies would need to join a boycott. Genius Sports has stopped all commercial activities in Russia and Belarus due to the war. It has suspended contracts with all Russian and Belorussian sports betting entities. Carsten Coerl is the only board member of Casako, which has a 23 percent stake in Liga Stavok. He has no day-to-day involvement at the club. It is expensive and difficult to sever the links with the industry.

Sportradar is complying with all sanctions affecting Russia, Belarus and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine. Sportradars is focusing on helping employees in these regions. The company has created an emergency employee fund and donated $1 million to the Red Cross and UNICEF. BetConstruct and Stats Perform were asked if they would stop selling data to betting companies from Russia or with Russian owners. Neither replied.

In 2018 the top 10 licenced betting operators paid 1.6 billion roubles in Russian tax and 6.7 billion towards the development of sport in the country. Liga Stavok alone was estimated to have invested 1 billion in sport.

The investigation was supported by a grant from the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund.