February 13 – Everton sponsor and gambling company Stake is set to lose its UK licence following an investigation over a social media post featuring an adult actress.
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has said that the current shirt sponsor of the Merseyside club will, from next month, no longer be a licensed website after Isle of Man-based owner TGP Europe said it would shut down the site.
It follows a review of the online casino’s practices, including promotion fronted by a porn actress. TGP runs Stake’s website through a white-label agreement.
The UKGC will “be writing to Everton – along with two other football clubs with unlicensed sponsors – warning of the risks of promoting unlawful gambling websites”.
“The Commission will seek assurance from the clubs that they have carried out due diligence on their white label partners and that consumers in Great Britain cannot transact with the unlicensed sites.”
Those clubs are English Premier League rivals Nottingham Forest and Leicester City who boast sponsorship deals with gambling operators that are also not licensed in the UK.
Earlier this week, Nottingham Forest had Kaiyun as their shirt sponsor at the FA Cup tie away to Exeter.
Leicester, meanwhile, have BC.Game, a casino and lotto operator, as a sponsor. Last year, a court in Curaçao declared that company bankrupt.
The UKGC added: “Club officers may be liable to prosecution and, if convicted, face a fine, imprisonment or both if they promoted unlicensed gambling businesses that transact with consumers in Great Britain”.