Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace have been warned about their business relationship with shirt supplier Kaiyun Sports, after it emerged the betting website was not licensed to sell in the UK.
In addition, Kaiyun Sports does not follow the guidelines of the new football code of conduct regarding the sponsorship of gambling, 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 regulating gambling in the UK, has confirmed that The Athletic that Kaiyun Sports has not been directly authorized by them.
Instead, Kaiyun Sports was part of a “white label” deal under the umbrella of a company called TGP Europe when their deal with Forest was announced in 2023. But that is no longer the case. it is, and therefore goes against the advice given by the new code of conduct, issued on Wednesday.
The code of conduct states: “Where a gambling-related agreement provides UK consumers with betting tools, competitions and clubs must only enter into agreements where the gambling company is licensed by the Commission of the Game of money or won as part of a ‘white label partnership. ‘”
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In addition, Forest – and any group entering into a commercial partnership with or promoting the same gambling site – have been warned that they are at risk of breaking the law, if the site is located in Britain.
A spokesman for the Gambling Commission said The Athletic: “We have made it clear to Nottingham Forest that a sports club dealing in financial aid with an unlicensed bookmaker can be guilty of illegal gambling advertising (under section 330 of the Act Gambling Act 2005) if remote gambling is not prohibited for customers in Great Britain.
“We feel that the best way for sports organizations to protect themselves against this risk is to ensure that they promote licensed gamblers.”
Kaiyun Sports are the front shirt sponsors of Forest, while they are also the arm supporters of Crystal Palace. They also had a commercial partnership with Chelsea, which ended at the end of June, and were joint sponsors of Aston Villa in the 2022-23 season.
Palace also has an agreement with Kaiyun Sports (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
None of the parties involved chose to comment on the record when approached The Athleticbut their position is because Kaiyun Sports is not available in the UK and therefore they do not recommend unregistered gambling to UK customers, they are comfortable with their arrangements and believe that their position is secure.
Forest have been in contact with the Football Association and the Premier League, and are satisfied that the club’s understanding of the current rules agree with them.
Neither the FA nor the Premier League chose to comment on a specific case, an FA spokesman said The Athletic: “We made a clear decision about the FA’s relationship with gambling companies in 2017 when we ended our partnership with Ladbrokes. Leagues and clubs manage their relationships with gambling companies.”
Kaiyun Sports was described as “Asia’s biggest digital sports platform” by Palace when they announced their deal in 2022, but for all intents and purposes they are not based in the UK. They are registered under a company called TGP Europe, at an address on the Isle of Man, like other similar websites under what is known as a “white label” company: basically, this means that it is a shell company that owns houses. various other betting sites.
However, Kaiyun Sports no longer appears on the TGP Europe website and the Gaming Commission lists them as “inactive”. A number of their other sites are listed as “white label” on their website.
The Kaiyun Sports gambling site is not available 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 host page of their UK website.
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Several other similar companies listed under TGP Europe have sponsorship deals with Premier League clubs, such as SBOTOP (Fulham), Stake.com (Everton), BJ88 (Bournemouth) and DEBET (Wolverhampton Wanderers) ). However, they all fall under the “white label” banner, so they technically comply with the Premier League’s code of conduct.
Both TGP Europe and Kaiyun Sports were contacted for comment but, at the time of publication, have yet to respond.
All this will soon change: gambling sponsorship of any kind will be banned from the shirts of Premier League teams from the 2026-27 season.
Gambling sponsors will be required to target their marketing efforts carefully to avoid reaching children and people at risk of gambling-related injury. In addition, any gambling-related support must include educational efforts and awareness campaigns designed to promote healthy gambling practices.
It has also been noted that Forest have played their last two pre-season games without the Kaiyun Sports logo on their shirts. This is because they were warned that they could not display the logo due to regulations regarding gambling advertising in Spain, where the games were held. The Kaiyun Sports logo was on their shirts for a friendly against Chesterfield earlier this month.
However, in the first friendly match in Spain, their opponents Sunderland displayed the logo of their sponsor Spreadex, a published betting firm, on their shirts and did not receive the same warning .
(Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
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