The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has warned the public about four online gambling websites operating without a licence, including two run by a company sponsoring a UK Premier League football team.
The regulator said it had “no connection” with the four websites, stressing that any reference to the MGA or licences supposedly granted by it was “false and misleading”.
Two of the websites, vavadahades.com and fortwinbam.com, claim to hold an MGA licence granted to Genesis Global Limited, an operator that had its licence suspended by the gaming watchdog in 2023.
The company was declared bankrupt months after laying off its 140 remaining workers in Malta, days before Christmas, and ordered to remove any reference to the MGA from its 23 gaming websites upon the cancellation of its licence.
Vietnamese sites debet.moi and debet.bot, meanwhile, display the logo of the MGA at the bottom of their respective websites.
Debet announced in June it had become the main sponsor for UK football club Wolverhampton Wanderers
The sites’ operating company, Debet, announced in June it had become the main sponsor for UK football club Wolverhampton Wanderers in a two-season deal the BBC said had been described as the biggest in the club’s history.
Warning against use of the four sites, the MGA reminded the public not to use operators without first checking that they are licensed.
“The activities of unlicensed entities are unregulated and do not provide the necessary safeguards... making transactions with such entities risky for consumers,” it said, adding that a list of all licensed operators was available at the MGA website.
In a report published in November, the regulator said it had issued warnings to 28 companies in 2023 and revoked 11 licences. That year, the gaming sector’s contribution to the economy grew to more than €1.3 billion.