Bangalore Turf Club has announced illegal offshore betting website Betway as their title sponsor for the summer and winter races of 2023-24. The betting platform is banned in India and has had no physical presence in the country either.
The prominent horse racing club joins many other sporting events and teams in onboarding an illegal betting website, or its surrogate brand, as a sponsor. The chairman of the Bangalore Turf Club, Shivkumar Kheny has welcomed Betway in an official release, completely disregarding the fact that the company is declared illegal and was banned by MeitY earlier this year along with more than 100 illegal betting operators.
Meanwhile, SpiceJet featured a full-page promotion with another illegal betting website, 1XBet recently on the back cover of its in-flight magazine. Not only that, the company has also made its way into the esports sector by sponsoring the Skyesports Masters.
Despite several warnings by the government, many entities are still partnering with illegal betting operators or their surrogate brands. Many of these surrogate brands are news websites, containing advertisements and hyperlinks to redirect users to their illegal betting website. All these platforms have attractive promotional offers to lure people.
Print media is also one of the avenues for these banned betting websites to promote themselves. Recently, a report by TAM Media Research’s Tam AdEx found that another illegal offshore betting website Lotus365 was the top advertiser in print media during the January-March quarter of this year.
Not only companies and media outlets, celebrities are also endorsing these platforms on social media. Many of the celebrities and influencers claim these illegal betting websites as legal and safe while the reality is exactly the opposite.
People unsure of which platforms are illegal can check the list here.
