Illegal betting platform, Fun88, has recently onboarded former South Africa cricketer and pace bowling sensation Dale Steyn as its ambassador. This partnership comes amid three years of illegitimate and unlicensed operations of the site in India. While Steyn must have got a hefty amount for being onboarded, Fun88 will look to ride on his popularity to lure in more users.

The company justifies the partnership, claiming that Steyn’s passion for cricket matches the spirit of Fun88. The brand came forward to announce the same through a promotional video. The promo is also made in a way that will easily fool fans into thinking that the company is operating legitimately and is safe to play.

This can easily dupe several innocent people who can potentially lose their hard-earned money and fall in a debt trap. In worst case scenario, the platform can even misuse personal details of its users. It is, thus, advisable not to register and play on such platforms.

Illegal betting brands and celebrity endorsements – A never-ending saga

Numerous other illegal betting websites are also signing celebrities as brand ambassador who are promoting the gambling platform to their fans. Some examples include fairplay, lotus365, 1xBet, etc. who hire celebrities with huge fan base for promotion.

Fairplay has signed popular rapper Badshah, lotus365 signs any celebrities it can get onboard for promotion, while 1xbet also follows similar tricks. These platforms also use surrogate brands for promotion in digital and print media.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have already issued advisories to celebrities not to promote these betting platforms. Last year, the Ministry of Information and Technology (MeitY) also banned several of these illegal websites. Despite that, many of them still use mirror domain to operate. The upcoming online gaming rule framework is expected to address this issue.