If the mind was momentarily distracted from Manchester City's ruthless dissection of their neighbours last Sunday afternoon perhaps it would have been drawn to the LED boards advertising the champions' Asian betting partner.
A deal with 8Xbet was announced in mid-July, with City’s marketing department saying that it would enable the club’s fanbase to grow in South-east Asia.
Nothing unusual there, you might think, seeing as football is married so closely to the gambling industry and every top-flight club has a betting partner.
Except there are a number of curiosities around the company’s background - with information freely available online pointing to links to social media accounts being run in the UAE, by coincidence the state of City’s owners, and questions around the very existence of key figures including the firm’s founder and chief executive.
"8Xbet shares our commitment to entertaining and providing great experiences to customers and fans alike," Tom Boyle, City's marketing chief, said when the deal was announced. No financial details were disclosed but City described the firm as being “founded in 2018 and the international sports bookmaker aims to provide customers in the region with high quality, unique and engaging experiences.”
But, as initially reported by Josimar, Facebook and Twitter data indicates that the administrator for 8Xbet’s social media accounts is in the United Arab Emirates, the state of City’s owners, rather than in the South-east Asia market that it targets. The social media accounts appear to be run by a Dubai marketing firm and there is no suggestion of the club being involved in any way.
In response to a list of questions about the deal, a Manchester City spokesperson said that they should be directed to Qoo Global, a marketing company based in Dubai whose website boasts pictures of City players and former England striker Teddy Sheringham, 8Xbet’s sole ambassador since March, and little else. The company does not appear to have any other clients, though there are several job adverts.
But the club did say in a statement: “Since the official regional partnership with 8Xbet was announced in July 2022, Manchester City has worked collaboratively with relevant parties to activate various marketing assets in respective territories and meet 8Xbet’s business objectives. We will continue to work with 8Xbet on a range of activations in the future.”
Details of such activations are vague and taking social media presence as a key performance indicator the betting firm’s reach is miniscule compared to all competitors.
Although City said the company was founded in 2018, the 8Xbet.com domain was still for sale at the end of 2021 and a gambling licence, registered in Curacao, was not issued until the first half of 2021. A website named 978bet was launched at the end of 2021 and rebranded to its current name in January 2022.
According to Josimar, a number of addresses purportedly affiliated with the company are instead a mobile phone shop in Da Nang, a shack in Da Can, near Hanoi, and a Marriott hotel in Ho Chi Minh Ville.
There are questions, too, around the footprint of senior executives at the firm.
Its founder Ryan Li does not have any online presence.
A source, speaking over email, claimed that he is a private individual who wants to remain out of the spotlight but has spoken directly to City Football Group and provided documentation to verify his identity. Mr Li was not available to speak to Mirror Football.
Then there is the curious case of chief executive Trinh Thu Trang, who appears to have had a LinkedIn profile with a picture that is available to purchase from a Colorado-based company called lazerdesigns for $44.99. This, the same source said, is a fake profile and not linked to the chief executive – but no firm evidence of that being the case was provided. The profile is no longer live on LinkedIn. Ms Trang was not available to speak to Mirror Football.
Sheringham, the former England striker, certainly exists but neither he nor a representative responded to a request for comment. His ambassadorial role entails providing regular videos published on a YouTube channel. Several clips have failed to reach 100 views.
By comparison similar promotional material from other gambling companies has an audience of six-figures with the most popular clips shared on Twitter reaching a million views.
8Xbet says that it is a new company and therefore yet to build a big audience.
In response to a list of questions a spokesperson said: “It is a huge honour for us to partner with Manchester City. Whilst 8Xbet is a relatively new brand, we have ambition to grow and this is a key element of our decision to partner with Man City. We are working with the club to create exclusive content to help us achieve this.”
Yet that still poses questions around why City, who earlier this year were named by Deloitte as the world’s most valuable club on the back of huge commercial growth, have committed to a deal with a firm so little is known about.
In January the club scrapped a partnership with a cryptocurrency firm, 3key, after two months - because there was no digital footprint of those purported to be behind the start-up company.
Manchester City insist that due diligence is carried out on all commercial partnership deals before they are agreed.
The Gambling Commission, the UK’s regulator, said that it does not comment on individual cases but they are aware of the claims around 8Xbet.
