European Soccer Sponsorship Linked to Tech Crime Network Involved in Human Trafficking

Posted on: July 25, 2024, 01:53h. 

Last updated on: July 25, 2024, 06:45h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

Investigators have uncovered the existence of a shadowy criminal tech group that acts as a “full cybercrime supply chain” for dozens of online gambling brands targeting the Chinese market.

Yabo Sports, Vigorish Viper, Kaiyun Sports, KM Gaming, BOB Sports, KOK Sports, Ponymuah, SKG, Manchester United
Leicester City FC officials pose with purported Yabo Sports “CEO” Dean Hawkes, bottom right, to sign their sponsorship deal back in 2019. Hawkes was a British national working in Shanghai as a male model at the time. (Image: Leicester City FC)

The group, dubbed “Vigorish Viper” by cybersecurity investigator Infoblox, appears to be the missing link between China-facing sports betting brands — many of which have sponsored major European soccer teams — and Chinese organized crime tied to human trafficking and money laundering.

Vigorish Viper provides these brands with a full technology suite, including software, DNS configurations, website hosting, payment mechanisms, and mobile apps, according to Infoblox. It also appears to own many seemingly unconnected brands, such as Yabo Sports, Kaiyun Sports, KM Gaming, BOB Sports, KOK Sports, Ponymuah, and SKG.

Yabo Human Trafficking Links

Infoblox claims to be “highly confident” that Vigorish Viper’s technology suite was developed by the Yabo Group. A 2023 study by the Asian Racing Foundation (ARF) concluded that Yabo controls “possibly the biggest illegal gambling operation targeting Greater China.”

In 2019, a year after its official incorporation, Yabo Sports signed a sponsorship deal worth $3 million a year with Manchester United, arguably the most famous soccer club in the world. It also struck deals with Leicester City, the Argentina National Football Team, Hertha BSC, AS Monaco, Serie A, Copa América, FC Bayern Munich, and AC Milan.

Yet the ARF study cites reports that have directly tied Yabo to forced labor camps on the Cambodia-Laos border, where trafficked victims must help run gambling operations and scam call centers.

Yabo Regroups

Yabo was dissolved in 2022 after a crackdown by Chinese authorities coincided with regulatory sanctions in the UK.

But Infoblox has discovered that the remnants of Yabo were essentially laundered into a group of new brands, including Kaiyun Sports, KM Gaming, Ponymuah, and SKG.

We found that the brands at the center of these labor camps are connected in multiple ways, including through their use of Vigorish Viper’s technology suite,” Infoblox investigators wrote. “While these brands appear distinct, they operate more like the branches of a franchise.

“Although our research indicates that Vigorish Viper is likely synonymous with Yabo, the real identities behind Yabo remain unknown. As such, Yabo itself is merely one face for an unknown organized crime syndicate,” Infoblox added.

For deals with high-profile soccer teams, sites like Yabo have hired male models to pose as their CEOs during publicity shoots. Their real owners are hidden behind a opaque tangle of shell companies and false identities,

White-Label Loophole

China-facing sportsbooks have legally been able to strike deals with European sports teams typically because they are nominally licensed in European jurisdictions through partnerships with so-called “white label” operators.

These partnerships involve the creation of a website bearing the sportsbook’s brand, but the content and services within are operated and managed by the white-label provider under the provider’s operating license.

The reality is that the China-facing sportsbook has no interest in engaging with the European market, but wants to use European soccer as a springboard to the Chinese market, where promoting gambling is illegal.

Still Going Strong

In 2023, following media reports criticizing these partnerships, the UK Gambling Commission sanctioned white-label provider TGP Europe for “anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.”

It also suspended 14 China-facing sportsbooks, 11 of which were associated with Vigorish Viper, including Yabo, and seized their UK domains.

However, TGP Europe remains a white-label provider for five Vigorish Viper brands, while at least eight top English soccer clubs currently have sponsorship deals with brands linked to the network, according to the Infoblox investigation.