Report finds 89% of UK illegal sports streams deliver black market gambling ads
Behind 89% of illegal stream views on sports in Great Britain during 2024 and the first half of 2025 were malware, spyware, keystroke loggers, and other ID and data theft mechanics aimed at producing content for crime from the audience, according to a new report.
The insight comes from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling (CFG) which has released its CFG GB National 2024 and 2025 First Half Illegal Streaming of Sports Events and Illegal Gambling research.
Within it, they say: “Where this connects to online gaming is clear: 89% of illegal streaming of sports events content in Great Britain across 2024 and 2025 first half carried advertising for illegal and unlicensed gambling. It is by far the largest and most prevalent “media partner” to the criminal business of illegal streaming of sports events.”
They suggest that for the criminals behind illegal streaming, media platforms are the prey and the audience are the product.
The people behind the campaign warn that the online gaming marketplace in Great Britain could face an explosive “fire-meets-gasoline potential” as changes to the legal online gaming sector will take effect in 2026.
The founder and funder of CFG, Derek Webb, said: “Great Britain is becoming a soft touch. We have allowed the global soft power of GB sports to be infected by organized criminality.
“Online gambling operators were irrationally permitted to stay offshore under the flawed 2005 Gambling Act. This acceptance of offshoring enabled the theoretical excuse to justify black market operations.”
“We have allowed the global soft power of sport to be infected by organised criminality," says CFG's Derek Webb.https://t.co/tqRpiN1FR8 pic.twitter.com/WlCmMtM2Mn
— Campaign for Fairer Gambling (@fairergambling) January 15, 2026
The founder continued to suggest the Gambling Commission and the Betting and Gaming Council have ignored advice concerning the black market from Yield Sec for several years.
Also commenting in the research, the president of CGI and founder and former CEO of Yield Sec, Ismail Vali, said: “Illegal online gambling in Great Britain is now knocking on the door of 10% market share and it has achieved this through the cynical exploitation of two vulnerable audiences: children and self–excluded gamblers on the GAMSTOP scheme. What does crime do with all of the money it takes by stealing from local commerce, community and consumers? It makes more crime.”
The quote continues to suggest that without monitoring, policing, enforcement, and optimization of online gaming and streaming marketplaces, the gateways are left open which could allow for chaos to reign without control.
Featured Image: Via CFG on X
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