‘Bonnie Blue’ Porn Ad Sees Everton Sponsor Stake.com Kicked Out of UK

• Stake.com quits UK market after controversial ‘Bonnie Blue’ social media campaign
• UKGC warns Everton, Leicester City, and Nottingham Forest to watch their sponsors
  

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Everton jersey sponsor Stake.com has agreed to give up its UK license because a social media ad featuring a porn actress that targeted younger players was too much to swallow for the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).

The video featured British adult star Bonnie Blue on a visit to Nottingham Trent University as she declared her intention to have sex with numerous “barely legal 18-year-olds” in their freshman year. Eighteen is the legal gambling age in the UK. The Stake.com logo is emblazoned across the screen.

It was then circulated by X accounts that are known to be paid to boost viral content. It is not clear whether Billinger was aware of the branding.

Stake’s branding has also appeared on other social media videos, including some featuring violence.

Warning to Everton, Leicester, Forest

To its rest-of-the-world customers, Stake.com is primarily an unregulated crypto-gambling site. It offered fiat currency gambling in the UK via the Isle of Man-based white-label operator TGP Europe.

TGP allows international gambling operators to operate under its UK license by proxy. White-label providers like TGP create a website bearing an operator’s brand, but the content and services within are operated and managed under the provider’s license.

In 2023, following media reports criticizing these partnerships, the UKGC sanctioned TGP for “anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.”

However, the UK market doesn’t appear to be high on the agenda for many of the league’s gambling sponsors.

White-Label Agenda

The white-label system has fueled an influx of Asia-facing sportsbooks that have little interest in the UK market. Instead, they want to use sponsorship of the English Premier League as a springboard to hard-to-reach markets, such as China, where promoting gambling is illegal.

Forest is sponsored by Kaiyun Sports, which has been linked to a vast illegal gambling network associated with Chinese organized crime, human trafficking, and money laundering.

Meanwhile, Leicester City’s sponsor, BC.GAME, agreed to pull out of the UK late last year after it was declared bankrupt in Curacao where its license was revoked.

Leicester has said it will continue to monitor its relationship with BC.GAME, whose logo is expected to remain on the team’s jerseys for the rest of the season.