Forest, Palace warned over unlicensed betting sponsor Kaiyun Sports

Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace have been warned about their commercial relationship with shirt sponsors Kaiyun Sports, after it emerged that the betting website is not licensed to trade in the UK.

Additionally, Kaiyun Sports does not comply with guidelines in football’s new code of conduct regarding gambling sponsorship, which was announced by the Premier League, the Football Association (FA), the EFL and the Women’s Super League on Wednesday.

The Gambling Commission, the government body responsible for the regulation of gambling in the UK, has confirmed to The Athletic that Kaiyun Sports has never been directly licensed by them.

Instead, Kaiyun Sports was part of a “white label” agreement under the umbrella of a company called TGP Europe when their deal with Forest was announced in 2023. But that no longer appears to be the case, and as such goes against advice issued by new code of conduct, issued on Wednesday.

The code of conduct states: “Where a gambling related agreement provides consumers in the UK with facilities for gambling, competitions and clubs should only enter into agreements where the gambling company is licensed by the Gambling Commission or captured as part of a ‘white label partnership’.”

Furthermore, Forest — and any club that enters into a commercial partnership with or promotes a similar gambling site — have been warned they are in danger of breaking the law, if that site is made available in Britain.

A spokesperson for the Gambling Commission told The Athletic: “We have made it clear to Nottingham Forest that a sports body engaging in sponsorship arrangements with an unlicensed remote operator may be liable for the offence of advertising unlawful gambling (under section 330 of the Gambling Act 2005) if the remote gambling activity isn’t blocked to consumers in Great Britain.

“We’re of the view that the best way for sports bodies to protect themselves against this risk is to ensure that they only promote gambling operators licensed by us.”

Kaiyun Sports are Forest’s front-of-shirt sponsor, while they are also Crystal Palace’s sleeve sponsor. They also had a commercial partnership with Chelsea, which expired at the end of June, and they were Aston Villa’s sleeve sponsors in the 2022-23 season.

Palace also have a deal with Kaiyun Sports (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

None of the clubs involved chose to comment on the record when approached by The Athletic, but their position is that because Kaiyun Sports is not available in the UK and as such they are not promoting unlicensed gambling to UK consumers, they are comfortable with their arrangements and believe their position is secure.

Forest have been in contact with the Gambling Commission and the Premier League, and are satisfied that the club’s understanding of the current regulations is aligned with them.

While neither the FA nor the Premier League opted to comment on the specific case, a spokesperson for the FA told The Athletic: “We made a clear decision on The FA’s relationship with gambling companies in 2017 when we ended our partnership with Ladbrokes. The leagues and clubs govern their own relationships with gambling companies.”

Kaiyun Sports was described as “Asia’s largest digital sports platform” by Palace when they announced their agreement in 2022, but to all intents and purposes they don’t exist in the UK. They were registered under a company called TGP Europe, to an address on the Isle of Man, as are a number of other similar websites under what is known as a “white label” company: essentially, this means they are a shell company that houses various other betting sites.

However, Kaiyun Sports is no longer featured on TGP Europe’s website and the Gambling Commission lists them as “inactive”. A series of their other sites are classed as “white label” on their website.

Kaiyun Sports’ gambling site is not accessible from the UK, and The Athletic reported when the sponsorship agreement was signed, they were based in the Philippines, although this is not confirmed on the holding page of their website that is accessible in the UK.

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Several other similar companies listed under TGP Europe have sponsorship agreements with Premier League clubs, such as SBOTOP (Fulham), Stake.com (Everton), BJ88 (Bournemouth) and DEBET (Wolverhampton Wanderers). However, all of those fall under the “white label” banner, so are technically in line with the Premier League’s code of conduct.

Both TGP Europe and Kaiyun Sports were contacted for comment but, at the time of publication, are yet to respond.

This will all change relatively soon: gambling sponsorship of any kind will be banned on the shirts of Premier League clubs from the 2026-27 season.

Gambling sponsorships will be required to target their marketing efforts more carefully to avoid reaching children and individuals at risk of gambling-related harm. Additionally, any gambling-related sponsorship must include educational initiatives and awareness campaigns designed to promote responsible gambling practices.

It has also been noted that Forest played two recent pre-season friendlies without Kaiyun Sports’ logo on their shirts. This is because they were warned they couldn’t display the logo due to regulations surrounding gambling advertising in Spain, where the games were held. The Kaiyun Sports logo was on their shirts for the friendly they played in Chesterfield earlier this month.

In the first of those friendlies in Spain, however, their opponents Sunderland displayed the logo of their sponsor Spreadex, a spread betting firm, on their shirts and did not receive a similar warning.

(Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)